An Estate/wagon renaissance?

[kmchow]

PLEASSE DON'T MOOOVEEEE MEEEE!!!

In recent years, at least in NA, the Estate/wagon seems to have undergone a renaissance. How about in Europe?

I may be a little biased, but could it have anything to do with Volvo's debut of the 850 Estate in the BTCC? Did people's opinions of Estates/wagons change after Volvo's involvement. Also, there are mentions that Volvo teased the motorsport press with hints of a wagon touring car, so what promotions did they exactly do?

I recall watching the faces and impressions of the BTCC drivers when the 850 Estate was finally revealed. I recall Tim Harvey was half shocked and half trying to keep himself from bursting out laughing and rolling on the floor!! How did you fans react to the Estate? Sadly, the car raced for just one year in the BTCC and one in the ASTC. So how did it do in the ASTC?

I recall after Volvo's estate touring car debut, a privateer team built a Subaru Impreza wagon for the JTCC. Then in '00, didn't some dutch team build a Suzuki Esteem/Baleno wagon to race in the Dutch Touring Car Championship? I haven't heard about the Subaru and Suzuki teams for a while? Anyone know what happened to them?

[Hobson]

I remember the guy who used to wrestle the Suzuki Escudo up the Pikes Peak hillclimb, also rallied an estate version of the Baleno in a US rally championship. It was on Sky Sports last year.

[Stephen Green]

The 850 estates did pretty well in their year in the BTCC despite the grief Volvo got for racing them. As in most formula, Tom Walkinshaw did a great job in preparing the cars and they were brilliant to watch!

In those days the drivers used to do a parade lap during the lunch break, usually sitting through the sun roof of a road going version of the car they raced. Tim Harvey's car had a huge Labrador toy dog sat in the back, to everyones great amusement. I believe the cars went on to race in Australia after they left England?

[100%VauxhallFan]

I loved the look of those 850 estates. I think that was quite simply a stroke of genius by the Volvo people to race them. Certainly achieved good press for the Volvo people. If only they'd have stuck with that car, and got a win with it.

[kmchow]

The estate didn't win a race outright, but did it ever get a podium finish in the UK or Australia?

Cause over here in Canada, there was a Volvo ad that had the side view of a BTCC Estate with a phrase that went something like, "A quart of milk, a loaf of bread, a race trophy".

It was amusing. I know in Canada, we have had contests to send the winner to check out the BTCC team and the seasonal owner's pamphlet has an occasional article on the touring cars. We also brought over a BTCC 850/Kelvin Burt over as a promo for some journalists some day.

[Hobson]

The reason why Volvo didn't race the estate in 1995 was the BTCC rule changes i.e wings.
The rule was the wing wasn't allowed to be higher than the roofline or overhang the rear bumper which eliminated all estates from racing BTCC.

I remember an interview that Jeremy Clarkson did in the official Volvo magazine about his own 850 T5-R and the racing ones, and he said:

"The best thing about Volvo estates in the BTCC is that the Blue and White tidal wave [which is 2 850's side-by-side]beating Tiff in the Primera every week."

Also Volvo ran an advet mentioning the extra boot space is for the trophies which they would win!

[Spaced Invader]

i heard that Volvo made a mistake in entering the 850 estate they thought they where entering it in to 'Towing cars' not 'touring cars'...

[racer69]

The factory 850 estate i don't believe ever got a podium in the 1995 ASTC. It did race with an aerodynamic kit, it had the 850 saloon front air dam, and a modified rear boot with a small aerofoil on the back. In 1996 though Volvo Australia went for an 850 Saloon

[kmchow]

Yeah, it's too bad Volvo never continued to race the estate due to all the rule changes. It would have been real neat if Volvo raced it for the last time in ST in '02 in the STCC!! But I guess it would have been a real dog?

[RickP:Clio51]

The estate was always too heavy, the drivers suffered with fading brakes throughout the season and more than once Lammers was hauled up for using other cars to stop his...
TWR realised it would be a development year for the team and hence it was a publicity stunt whilst they developed the mechanicals to be competitive the following year, it was never intended to run them a second year I believe, although the long flat roof actually was aerodynamically very good apparently.
I was at Donington for the press launch of the BTCC when it was unveiled to lots of cheers and flashbulbs. You're right, Harvey didn't look like he knew whether to laugh or die of embarrassment but no prizes for guessing who's car was all over the press the next day/week/month...

RickP

[kmchow]

But then, it would have been extremely interesting to see how the car COULD have developed. Surely, the overweight problem, brake fade,etc could have been overcome over the off season, in time of Year 2? OTOH, I wonder if the wagon overcame those problems by the time it raced in the ASTC?