This Turbocharged V8 Volvo Sleeper Wagon Is A 190mph Superbike Killer

Volvo wagons are some of the most unassuming, subtle cars around. So, when an owner starts talking about his 1989 Volvo 745 like this, you’ve got to sit up and smell the burnt rubber:

‘This car is unlike any other car ever built and will continue to break records as a daily driven, street trim and full interior, Super Wagon show car’

Dug Strickler’s ‘super wagon’ is, he claims, the ‘world’s first superwagon’. Quite some claim, given there’s already a Volvo estate that can outrun Ferrari a 458...

What stakes this particular car’s claim to high-performance greatness is of course its engine. Under the bonnet is a 5.7-litre 1999-model GM LS1 V8 – the tuner’s best friend. It’s boosted by twin Garret turbochargers, 38mm wastegates, and fed by heavy-duty fuel injectors. There’s a new fuel pump, radiator, and stainless steel exhaust to match the stainless steel headers. The turbos themselves are cooled by a bespoke oil system, and the whole powerhouse drives the rear wheels via a six-speed manual transmission and Textralia performance clutch.

Corvette heart, Volvo body. Naturally, it’s been christened the Volvette.

The well-proven engine develops a claimed 544bhp and 567lb ft at the rear wheels – boots are 18in BBS rims all round, while the entire car runs a stiffer anti-roll bar set-up and lowered Bilstein shocks. Even the subframe has been upgraded to racing spec, with the rear cabin partially stripped for less weight. Every aspect of the Volvette has been strengthened, honed or stripped to meet a performance brief that is beyond many modern sports cars, yet alone an quarter-century old Volvo wagon.

We don’t condone going flat out on public roads (especially misty Pennsylvanian interstates while racing superbikes), but this 190mph video of the Volvette outrunning a Yamaha R1 is a pretty compelling depiction of just how fast this brick shed on wheels really is.

Video 1

What’s great about the Volvette is its versatility. It’s a daily driver – which gets a claimed highway economy average of 28mpg. In UK combined cycle terms, that’s probably an even 18-20mpg – the same as you’d get from daily driving a BMW M5. Except a similarly V8-powered, similarly twin-turbocharged M5 wouldn’t see which way the Volvette went in a race.

Speaking of which, want more versatility? Just bolt on some fat rears and go drag racing, why don’t you?

Video 2

In development since 2008, the Volvette has reached the limits of its current spec – and is set for a big change. According to its owner, the Volvette is currently in the stages of a major rebuild, which’ll see the top speed boosted from 190mph to a McLaren F1-worrying 230mph. How? By taking the power output up to a predicted 1000hp, naturally.

If the Volvette can pull off the four-figure power struggle, it’ll surely be the world’s most super road-legal wagon. Probably no longer good for 28mpg, granted, but Veyron-baiting performance should take the sting out of the fuel bills.