1996 Volvo 850 R – Auction Car of the Week

Following on from the woefully sad news that Volvo are no longer going to be selling estate cars here in the UK our eyes inevitably turned wagon-ward as we had a gander through the Car & Classic classifieds and auction listings for some stretched Swedish metal and low and behold this 1996 Volvo 850 R popped up in our search results. We’ve mentioned the 850 T5-R estate before as a Classified of the Week back at the beginning of 2022 but the 850 R is a little different, as we’ll find out.

Back in ’94, with echoes of the Group A 240 Turbo Flying Brick still ringing in Volvo’s ears (we really need to do a feature on this beast), it made the quite frankly brilliant decision to team up with racing and engineering specialists Tom Walkinshaw Racing to produce an 850 estate Super Touring Car to compete in the BTCC. As incongruous as an estate car may have seemed lining up alongside the race-prepped saloons of rivals like Ford and BMW the Volvos, driven by Rickard Rydell and Jan Lammers, managed to rack up some serious points, finishing eighth overall in their inaugural season and indelibly searing the image of a blue and white 850 clipping the apex on two wheels into the collective automotive consciousness in the process. This was back when racing was racing kids.

Off the back of that success Volvo then made another superb decision in ’95. It took the already established 850 Turbo with its five-cylinder forced induction engine and cranked the boost pressure, increasing the already impressive performance of the stock model to over 240bhp. In a family wagon. They called it the T5-R and a legend was born. Available in both saloon and estate forms it was initially created as a limited edition but such was the demand for the thing Volvo offered a second batch a year later.

Half way through that same year Volvo introduced the T5-R’s replacement – the 850 R. Developed using the previous car as a template the 850 R went even further in terms of performance and thanks to some tweaks to the turbocharged five-pot, performance was now up to 250bhp. It also gained some spoilers and a sportier interior to match. Again, it was available as both a saloon and an estate, like the one we have for sale here.

This 1996 Volvo 850 R automatic is a Japanese import, and that’s important to note for one simple reason: in Japan they don’t salt their roads in the winter meaning that this particular example is rust free. Huzza! It also means that despite being an import it remains right-hand drive. Registered in the UK last year the car will come complete with a fresh MOT, too.

It’s an original 850 R resplendent in its factory Bright Red paintwork with only some slight fading to the plastic trim (a common problem). The only modifications are a full stainless exhaust system that will help that wonderful turbocharged 2.3-litre five-cylinder engine breathe, a double DIN stereo head unit and new instrument cluster that reads in MPH as oppose to its Japanese KMH unit that is included in the sale. This means there may be some maths involved to determine the car’s true mileage but currently the odometer reads 87.5K.

There are some slight age related issues with the interior such as a cracked dash and sagging headlining but overall this is a very tidy example that has clearly been cared for. It drives exactly as it should and with a recent cam belt, water pump and fluids it’s ready to rock and roll. With the demise of the Volvo estate here in the UK our money is on the popularity of these old turbo bricks rising. With performance, practicality and motorsport kudos to boot they really are the perfect car so grab one now before prices of these Swedish sleepers get as spicy as their performance.