Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

So nearly by Huge Machines

Sweet. I’ll PM you.

Volvo 850R

If I were to do this in the future, I know some guys who make some very sexy manifolds so I don’t think that would be an issue. Some reading suggests that the standard manifold is good for 500bhp which is probably sufficient, so probably more economic to machine the standard manifold to accept different turbos but probably more exciting to get a tubular manifold built for a GTX

I wouldn’t want to lose driveability. At the moment it’s an astonishingly capable car on twisty roads. Sure it’s more suited and comfortable on the “open highway” but once you get used to the turn in and body roll, you can just demolish roads with lots of corners. In the mountains it couldn’t really cope with tight hairpins and going uphill it needed 1st gear to accelerate out of the hairpins which was quite hilarious.

I love the idea of crazy large turbos with massive massive boost, but unless you live in Florida or Texas and only intend on doing 3rd gear pulls in the middle of the night it’s a bit pointless. Already have enough power to out-drag most things on the road.

Could you do a cheapo 100 shot of laughing gas? For the moments you absolutely must discipline that pesky AMG battling for the 3rd lane of the M1?

Sounds ideal if you're just after the occasional squirt of temporary insanity.

Besides, a turbo + Nitrous Volvo would definitely suit you.

I'd like to see this, where's the thumbs up emoji?

Ha! Never considered nitrous, I will investigate further. Wet system would be pretty complicated and require standalone management I think?

Remember when nitrous was a the answer to every car question? Well, that's what it felt like when I was reading Revs and Max Power in the late 90s

Yes and bottle from Wizards of NOS should be custom mounted between front seat, perhaps in some MDF and perspex box, ideally lit by neons.

Given it's Volvo, you could just lie a full size tank down the middle of the boot

Lots of overweight racists from the Midlands I know if run methanol/water injection on our engine, which is very cheap bang for buck as long as you've got suitable pipework and intercooler, which you/i do. The thing that put me off was that you needed to have a tank of terrifying flame water somewhere in the car. I've seen donut tanks in the spare wheel bay, which is what tim has, but it's still very close to any children in the back. Did also think of putting one in the bulkhead, which is a long way from anyone, plus not inside cab, but then the volume is so low it would be a total pain. You could run without meth, but then map would be fucked, so would need switch to kill pump, which would burn out if empty, and spare ecu to switch between.

I didn't think 50 / 50 water and methanol was that flammable? Mines in the boot in an Sti water cooler tank originally for the intercooler.

All these discussions on how to make the Volvo faster are interesting, but eventually you know that you're just going to do what its previous owner did, which is to buy an rwd estate with a dirty great V8.
Might as well start saving for that now rather than waste the money souping up the T5 any further.

If you ran 50 50 no, but it doesn't come that way, so you end up with a massive vat of death liquid somewhere. It's not a terrible idea, just not practical for a daily imo.

I wouldn't want any more power than sadaat has in its current set up tbh, its already a bit too binary as it is. I can see the logic in trying to bring the power in more gradually though.

a massive vat of death liquid

If I remember correctly, one of the chemcial plants that @Cycliste used to work at had a last-resort safety system where if one of the reactions got a bit carried away they'd calm things down by dumping a whole load of methanol on top of it to quench the reaction. To that end, they had a large supply of methanol locked, loaded and good to go at a moment's notice. I can't remember how much they had in stored a vessel ready for a methanol quench, should it be required, but I'm fairly sure that the quantity was measured in tons, plural.

Was smoking at ones desk permitted?

On a chemical plant? I suspect not. I think they generally try to avoid naked flames and ignition sources.

Behold my parking sensors!

No more reversing into bollards please, valet parking drivers.

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Weak, fragile forrins and their fear of fiery death.

I know. Pathetic, yah?

We’re going to stay with 3.7, 300M rods, solid lifters, and much revs.

TBF, the gas plant I worked on in Bacton forbade naked flames and unapproved electronic/electrical equipment. But then this was rural Norfolk, mind, where even rubbing two sticks together is considered advanced witchery...