Is this a real 850 R?

[jblackburn]

It's a matter of personal preference OF COURSE (sorry to shout just don't want to get flamed ), but for my taste I agree with Brad that the wing and the lip are both a little silly. Especially the decorative little plastic wing! At least the R bumper has foglight cutouts (I know, not the only way to get them) ...

Totally agree. I think the spoiler looks nice on candy apple red S70s/850s, but that's really about it. I love the clean look of my S70 T5 without the spoiler. And it can still surprise most other cars on the road

I had a friend of a friend that put a turbo on one of the old 6-cylinder 240s (260?). Rode in it once when i went down to Florida - that thing was incredible.

[sandy44]

For the record, I think the colors on this Volvo really work well: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... AUS%3A1123 The little satellite receiver on the roof on the the driver's side is a little over the top for me. Plus the interior could use a little updating. My wife could do some curtains for the back window. The instrument panel should stay original. Anyone know where you can find tires to fit?

Bet it would eat Montreal winters for breakfast.

Seriously, my T-5 is red and does have the rear spoiler. Not really over the top, but could be border line "rice rod." Eventually, it's going to need a paint job. If I change colors, I'm going with Hemi-Orange with light pearl dust and losing the fin, maybe....

[brad850]

Funny, I did not think anyone would agree with me on the R wing and lip style question. Thanks guys.

That is a good point on the platinum. I have an almost platinum, all the same options except that paint. To me these cars have a kind of dignity about them that comes from the quality and body lines. If you dress the body too much they get awfully close to Euro-Trash, or a rice burner street racer that a kid drives, whereas if you really dressed a Camaro body no one would find it unusual or really ugly.

On a larger style issue, what I love about Volvo of the 90's and before is that they were not streamlined like an egg shell, all the new cars are designed by the dictates of lowest drag, so the fronts of all the new cars look pretty much the same, with minor variations in headlights and cut of the hood. I find these cars really boring these days. I will gladly allow some drag for something that looks interesting.

[rspi]

Very nice score on the 240. I still love those cars, even better with the sleeper effect of the turbo. I nice set of iPd sway bars would be a good upgrade for that one. There are a lot of people in Pittsburgh that park their cars from mid Oct through mid April. I grew up there so I know it's hard to keep them clean. Heck, a lot of people don't let their cars come out to play till mid May, it takes that long to patch some of the winter crators.

As for the R's, my '95 sedan was missing the lip which I never got around to installing. The rear fin on that one did not have that black tip like the '96 & '97 models. It looked nice and I think the lip would have made it look a little more sporty. Mine was yellow. I have the black wagon now and you really don't notice the lip and I don't have the wagon fin, maybe one day. I've always liked the classy look of most of the '70 - '90 bricks. As long as they are clean, they are respected.

[ChiNorm]

IIRC, they didn't make the 850R in '96 at all. Good thing the OP didn't buy it.

[jblackburn]

IIRC, they didn't make the 850R in '96 at all. Good thing the OP didn't buy it.

Yeah they did.

95 was called the T5-R. Those were the yellow/black ones. 96-97 dropped the "T5" part and just called it the "850R". Yellow was gone, and red and white models were added to the lineup. I think there was a dark green one too.

[erikv11]

Between all the forums and Craigslist, I have seen easily 100 of the model year 96 850R's. Wagons and sedans both.