Photo: Blocket.se user Turbotomas
The Volvo 740 sedan is a car so mundane, so unrelentingly sensibly Swedish, that it has about as much curb appeal as the masonry brick we can only assume inspired its design. That is unless you're a lover of quirky less-than-exotic cars like we are. But what this particular one lacks in style, it sure makes up for in its engine.
Meet turbotomas, a user on Blocket.se, Sweden's largest native buying and selling website, with a custom build we only wish was listed on a North American one. It's a very typical Volvo 740 with factory dark red paint on the outside and anything but ordinary under the hood. The engine in question? Well, it's not Swedish, but a BMW M62B44 V8 from the likes of the E39 5 Series and the E38 7 Series.
It's made all the better by a single PSR 6862G Dual Ball Bearing Turbocharger with a Turbosmart 45 mm wastegate. On the other hand, the throttle body is derived from a GM LS7 engine of all things. This Frankenstein monster of an engine with parts from so many great cars chugs its fuel through 1200 mm Bosch injectors and is cooled by an all-aluminum radiator. All this pent-up brute force is fed through to a Lexus IS 220d manual transmission with a Tenaci twin-plate clutch.
The whole system is made to fit snuggly using a custom adapter plate made from bits and pieces of a Lexus rear axle, in some properly interesting DIY wizardry. Such a random selection of admittedly quality parts might not make sense to some. But knowing this engine jets 750 horsepower to the wheels with an engine tune set at 1.8 bar (26.1 psi) of boost makes it more understandable. The suspension consists of brand new K-Sport coilovers all around with drilled and slotted disk brakes at all four corners.
It's all running on the same wheels the car left the factory with 35 years ago. This 740 looks so plain-jane on the outside that the average Swede wouldn't even think twice about it if it was parked outside a cozy coffee shop in Malmö or Stockholm. This extends to the interior too. At least, what we can see of it in limited photographs. Volvo interiors in those days were praised more for their durability than they were for the prestige of the materials. So we're happy to say the cloth seats and the dashboard are in phenomenal shape for their age.
The price for this little slice of German-Swedish magnificence: that'd be 159,900 Swedish Krona, or just a shy of over $15,000. If it were up to us, that car would be on the next boat to Los Angeles.
Check back soon for more from V8 month here on autoevolution.
It's made all the better by a single PSR 6862G Dual Ball Bearing Turbocharger with a Turbosmart 45 mm wastegate. On the other hand, the throttle body is derived from a GM LS7 engine of all things. This Frankenstein monster of an engine with parts from so many great cars chugs its fuel through 1200 mm Bosch injectors and is cooled by an all-aluminum radiator. All this pent-up brute force is fed through to a Lexus IS 220d manual transmission with a Tenaci twin-plate clutch.
The whole system is made to fit snuggly using a custom adapter plate made from bits and pieces of a Lexus rear axle, in some properly interesting DIY wizardry. Such a random selection of admittedly quality parts might not make sense to some. But knowing this engine jets 750 horsepower to the wheels with an engine tune set at 1.8 bar (26.1 psi) of boost makes it more understandable. The suspension consists of brand new K-Sport coilovers all around with drilled and slotted disk brakes at all four corners.
It's all running on the same wheels the car left the factory with 35 years ago. This 740 looks so plain-jane on the outside that the average Swede wouldn't even think twice about it if it was parked outside a cozy coffee shop in Malmö or Stockholm. This extends to the interior too. At least, what we can see of it in limited photographs. Volvo interiors in those days were praised more for their durability than they were for the prestige of the materials. So we're happy to say the cloth seats and the dashboard are in phenomenal shape for their age.
The price for this little slice of German-Swedish magnificence: that'd be 159,900 Swedish Krona, or just a shy of over $15,000. If it were up to us, that car would be on the next boat to Los Angeles.
Check back soon for more from V8 month here on autoevolution.
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