'96 855R First car, first Volvo minibuild

[papariccardo]

I'm doing it for my 16yo son, and I have natural paternal concerns. He is a sensible kid, a skilled pilot - & my GT6 nemesis. I do want him to enjoy the journey. Besides, I'm riding shotgun! Before we do ANY power mods, I want to know she is sorted physically. So, a cupla questions for y'all.

* Coilovers or IPD progressives? Brands? It needs to ride as well as possible on the BBS 215/40/18s. I do have Volans if needed.

* Cross drilled discs. Good bang for buck when combined with ceramic pads in OEM brakes? Or should I really drop some $$ down & fit Wilwood? He IS my only son!

* Breathing. Any way of increasing flow to the existing box, and let a hi-flo panel filter do it's thing? I'm not afraid to cut the hood, for either intake or heat exhaust, & fit decent venting. Also, what's the ideal exhaust size (& setup) for a deeper rumble without any drone?

In a cupla months, once he has some miles in the seat, we will look to Lucky to design a torque punch setup. Low to midrange balls.

Thoughts, ideas, comments, leave 'em here please!

[RussB]

...............

[Ozark Lee]

So we stipulate that he will "own" the parking lot at school. I bought my daughter a Porsche for her first car so I get it.

As far as the brakes go I have used cross drilled rotors on almost all of my Volvos and it really seems to help keeping them true. They do have an irritating side effect though and that is a "whirring" sound and feel when you get on them hard. They also wear unevenly and if you have them turned it takes away the chamfering at the end of the holes and they become pad eaters. They look great until they get about halfway through the life cycle on pads and then they form ridges at the hole diameters. Even then they don't look horrible.

On ceramic pads, I don't really like them. They are very clean but they need to get some heat in them to work and on a hard stop when they are cold there is a split second where they feel like they aren't working. They always stopped in time for me but I couldn't take that uncertain feeling when they were cold.

...Lee

[papariccardo]

So we stipulate that he will "own" the parking lot at school. I bought my daughter a Porsche for her first car so I get it.
...Lee

Ha, it is a bit like that. I couldn't afford a safe Porsche, so not on the table, I'm afraid. Anyway, no one at his College drives a Volvo, only the budding petrolheads know what it is, and they give him 'mad props for rollin' that'. The girls reckon it's 'pretty swag'. He likes it because he never sees another - & it aint the stereotypical 'rwd drift, yolo' the sheeple kids run. Dope. He's been raised on considered speed and a plethora of interesting rides.

Thanks for the view on brakes, I may just drill the 302s & fit Ferodos initially then, see how they go. I have taught him to hypermile, so he shouldn't be on them as often anyhoo.

He's fortunate this aging cat landed on the driveway and drew my attention away. The last of the Ian Callum XJs, but the first to benefit from all the new toys of today. Looks older than they are, & a whole lot more fun than you would expect. Thanks Uncle Ford. Your money is greatly noted, both by Volvo and Jaguar!



(Just to not leave her out, here be MissTeens toy, bought today. '96 NA, the last of 'em. Much plans. Moar dori. Another forum.)

[j-dawg]

If you want reliably good braking performance, just stick with the stock brakes or the 302s, and upgrade your tires. Bigger and fancier brakes' main alleged benefit is the resistance to fade; if you have anything resembling modern disc brakes in anything resembling good condition, stopping distance is defined pretty much entirely by your tires.

I swapped a K&N panel filter, from the previous owner, back to the stock Mann filter and noticed exactly zero difference in performance, sound, etc.

I bought a 97 Miata a few months to use as my daily driver. You can push it into tiny, wonderfully controllable drifts while going well under the speed limit. Sure, it constantly smells like mildew, you need earplugs at highway speeds, and it only had like 130hp when it was built, but I have never had so much fun driving a car. Completely different animal from the Volvo.