The 1986 Group A team reunites. We catch up with Mark Petch owner of the original Volvo Dealer Team Group A Volvo as well as Touring Car Legend John Bowe during racing at Hampton Downs in 2018.
As a Swede born 1972 and been growing up with Volvos all my life and now at 52 drive a Volvo this is epic to see, remember it like it was yesterday not the Aussie races but the Swedish and German races, i think they are so fkn cool as racecars. And i know Per Sturesson that won the DTM series in 1985 driving for Volvo so the 240 Turbo Group A car means a lot to me.
I was part of the vMS factory team in Europe in 1985 and 1986 VMS pioneered turbocharging, engine management CAD cages telemetry water injection EFI Lockheed rotors and aluminium bonnets and carbon fibre panels mark and Robbie fought a courageous and committed paradigm changing campaign in Australia and NZ .. The 2430 RXT was the premier touring car of its time, and its fighting style technical innovation and conservative look made it a real under dog This is why it became a real legend … Thanks to Peter Kroeber Thpr Rusted, Pelle Nilsson, Thomas Lindstrom Mark Petch and Wayne Eckersley for bringing the 3 former AVDT cars back to public [prominence and huge thank to Mark and Robbie for their committed and demined campaign in 85 and 86. Mark and Robbie you changed the Australian motorsport paradigm for the future .. THANK YOU Robbie, John Bowe and the three VMS MPM later AVDT 240Ts ended the v8 myth and pushed Australian motorsport in a new and necessary technical paradigm .. well done! John Amundsen
Thanks John. We're big fans of the 240T here at The Fast Files. In fact our staff/camera car on special occasions is a 245GLE. This video was just a quick dip into the subject, maybe there's a bigger story to be told and we could do something more in depth. It does seem that there's a lot of interest in this.
Mark has ALWAYS been a true gentlemen ...and an innovator .. Thank you Mark for changing Australian touring car racing by your commitment and by bringing the first of the three 240Ts, the former GTM 240T, to Australia ...
I remember watching these as a kid. I couldn't get my head around how a brick could be so bloody fast! Great stuff and awesome to see these still running.
Interesting. In '86 had a '67 Amazon, 2dr, with a B18 bored to 2.0L, 287 duration/420 lift cam, polished and matched c-rods, special springs, lifters and rods, Bilstein suspension, etc, etc. One of the 2 grills in the nose was pretty much occupied by a huge ram-air intake funnel, that fed air through the air box, and two 2" throat SU carbs (with r.air pressurized float chambers), which were taken from a Rover TC 2000. We had to create custom needles for the carbs, of course, so the car had an O2 sensor in the race header, to help us understand the effects of our changes to the needle profiles, during the numerous road tests spent perfecting the needle geometry. It also had very high compression and required us to add a modified Edelbrock water injection system to prevent pre-ignition. It was lots of fun, I embarrassed lots of V8 opponents using that beautiful machine. I really like 240's and had a 2dr turbo some years later...but no water injection! Thanks for the video. Rgds, Jan
One question to anybody who knows: What kind of transmission did they run back then? Was it a bespoke unit or a some modified production model maybe? Also, was it H-pattern or sequential and did it support clutchless upshifts either under neutral or partial load? Any Info is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance! I absolutely adore all the 240s, especially the WTC racing cars, and dream of building a road legal replica / homage (as close as the law allows) of the Group A one, maybe even an estate "version".
Group A was the pinnacle. No mention of the water injection scandal and the reason why Volvo pulled out of motorsport!!! It would have been great to have had the 240T competing against the E30 M3 and Sierra in the '87 WTC.
Interesting, John mentioned the fuel issue (but not the water injection) and that Volvo were really embarrassed but we didn't end up getting the full story on that, but yeah 30+ years later and there's still some mystery around the old 240T. Very cool car none the less.
Great car, in a series which saw such diversity of brands. The other big issue for Volvo was that they never really made the 500 examples of their homologated 'evolution' model which apparently got FISA hot and bothered.
@@nnoddy8161 no they made them, only problem is that the rule book did not said they had to be sold, only build and inspected, so volvo demounted the go fast bits and sold them like ordinary 240 turbos :)
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The Swedish Valiant.
Gotta luv em!
Good car even by todays standards.
The person drives the car
not the computer assisted drive we all do today
As a Swede born 1972 and been growing up with Volvos all my life and now at 52 drive a Volvo this is epic to see, remember it like it was yesterday not the Aussie races but the Swedish and German races, i think they are so fkn cool as racecars. And i know Per Sturesson that won the DTM series in 1985 driving for Volvo so the 240 Turbo Group A car means a lot to me.
I was part of the vMS factory team in Europe in 1985 and 1986 VMS pioneered turbocharging, engine management CAD cages telemetry water injection EFI Lockheed rotors and aluminium bonnets and carbon fibre panels mark and Robbie fought a courageous and committed paradigm changing campaign in Australia and NZ .. The 2430 RXT was the premier touring car of its time, and its fighting style technical innovation and conservative look made it a real under dog This is why it became a real legend … Thanks to Peter Kroeber Thpr Rusted, Pelle Nilsson, Thomas Lindstrom Mark Petch and Wayne Eckersley for bringing the 3 former AVDT cars back to public [prominence and huge thank to Mark and Robbie for their committed and demined campaign in 85 and 86. Mark and Robbie you changed the Australian motorsport paradigm for the future .. THANK YOU Robbie, John Bowe and the three VMS MPM later AVDT 240Ts ended the v8 myth and pushed Australian motorsport in a new and necessary technical paradigm .. well done! John Amundsen
Thanks John. We're big fans of the 240T here at The Fast Files. In fact our staff/camera car on special occasions is a 245GLE. This video was just a quick dip into the subject, maybe there's a bigger story to be told and we could do something more in depth. It does seem that there's a lot of interest in this.
Mark has ALWAYS been a true gentlemen ...and an innovator .. Thank you Mark for changing Australian touring car racing by your commitment and by bringing the first of the three 240Ts, the former GTM 240T, to Australia ...
Lovely car, Lovely people. Thanks for sharing this amazing piece of history.
Great Video and a wonderful little nostalgic homage to the great turbo bricks! Thanks for sharing.
thanks. It was fun to make.
What a piece of history. I love all Volvo race cars, beautiful machines.
I remember watching these as a kid. I couldn't get my head around how a brick could be so bloody fast! Great stuff and awesome to see these still running.
Interesting. In '86 had a '67 Amazon, 2dr, with a B18 bored to 2.0L, 287 duration/420 lift cam, polished and matched c-rods, special springs, lifters and rods, Bilstein suspension, etc, etc. One of the 2 grills in the nose was pretty much occupied by a huge ram-air intake funnel, that fed air through the air box, and two 2" throat SU carbs (with r.air pressurized float chambers), which were taken from a Rover TC 2000. We had to create custom needles for the carbs, of course, so the car had an O2 sensor in the race header, to help us understand the effects of our changes to the needle profiles, during the numerous road tests spent perfecting the needle geometry. It also had very high compression and required us to add a modified Edelbrock water injection system to prevent pre-ignition. It was lots of fun, I embarrassed lots of V8 opponents using that beautiful machine. I really like 240's and had a 2dr turbo some years later...but no water injection! Thanks for the video.
Rgds,
Jan
Great video!
Luv my 240 😎
I wonder how that Toyota Corolla FX-16 GT-S did back then.
I owned a 1980 242GT Volvo!
Great car! Robbie Francevic’s mechanic Dave Eaves was the man who would work on mine!
Miss the old girl!
One question to anybody who knows: What kind of transmission did they run back then? Was it a bespoke unit or a some modified production model maybe? Also, was it H-pattern or sequential and did it support clutchless upshifts either under neutral or partial load? Any Info is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!
I absolutely adore all the 240s, especially the WTC racing cars, and dream of building a road legal replica / homage (as close as the law allows) of the Group A one, maybe even an estate "version".
Getrag (M51 sport) 5 speed sync gearbox. Dogleg shift pattern. So no you have to use the clutch.
@@Thefastfiles Oh the M51, huh? Thanks very much for the informative reply! I'm due for some research then. =)
So the video game IS wrong, I knew it..
The last Volvo 240 ever built was a 1993 243, a 2 door white wagon.
Is there a chapter 2?
No but there should be. Maybe I could interview Robbie Francievic
@@Thefastfiles please do. I’ve watched this many times and gave me so much inspiration for my own 240. A chapter 2 would be excellent.
Group A was the pinnacle.
No mention of the water injection scandal and the reason why Volvo pulled out of motorsport!!!
It would have been great to have had the 240T competing against the E30 M3 and Sierra in the '87 WTC.
Interesting, John mentioned the fuel issue (but not the water injection) and that Volvo were really embarrassed but we didn't end up getting the full story on that, but yeah 30+ years later and there's still some mystery around the old 240T. Very cool car none the less.
Great car, in a series which saw such diversity of brands.
The other big issue for Volvo was that they never really made the 500 examples of their homologated 'evolution' model which apparently got FISA hot and bothered.
@@nnoddy8161 no they made them, only problem is that the rule book did not said they had to be sold, only build and inspected, so volvo demounted the go fast bits and sold them like ordinary 240 turbos :)
@@Stale_Mahoney like james may from donut media said "dont hate the player hate yourself for not being as smart as the player"
2:19 that turning radius tho
The 240 has a great turning radius for its size!
ДОЗАПРАВКА ! СУПЕР !
4:25
that's a 242 not a 240