85 Volvo 240 Turbo - Motorsports Almanac

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left hand wheels are in the air so there's no shock through the suspension. A stab on the throttle and then through the next right-left wiggle, Granberg sawing at the wheel as the car drifts from kerb to kerb. Full bore, full boost and 340 bhp hurls us down the short straight towards the Parabolica. It's tight, deceptively tight - at first we seem to be travelling way too quickly - but Granberg clips the inside kerb clearly and lets the Volvo run wide for the run onto the main straight. Get the Parabolica right and you'll be quick all the way down the main straight. Get it wrong... The brilliant Austrian Jochen Rindt died here in his Lotus in 1970. He was posthumously awarded the World Championship. Granberg brings the Volvo into the pit lane at a brisk clip. The stop watches confirm we've lapped within a second or two of race pace. Full face helmets, the brap-brap of the exhaust and the howl of the drive train make conversation impossible, but Granberg, the Swedish train driver who led yesterday's first round of the European Touring Car Championship until a head gasket blew on the Volvo, turns and lifts his eyebrow quizzically. My thumbs up sign is returned with a nod. THE GROUP A VOLVO 240 TURBO IN AUSTRALIA by Anthony Hyde 1984 - The Belgium Volvo Dealer Team ran the LH drive semi-works built GpA in the1984 European championship season. The car was shipped to New Zealand after the season finished, purchased by Mark Petch a NZ engineer/businessman/race car driver. Petch formed a race team partnership with driver Robbie Francevic, and were the only privateers in the world running a GpA 240 without works support. 1985 - In January, Mark Petch Racing won the famous Wellington 500 street race in NZ, starting from rear of grid, with drivers R.Francevic, and Belgian, Michel Delcourt. Soon after in 1985 the car was shipped to Australia, being a late entry into the Australian Touring Car Championship where it performed very well. Later in the year it competed at Bathurst in the James Hardie 1000. 1986 - The car was sold to 'Volvo Australia', and ran under the 'Volvo Dealer Team' banner. The consortium comprised of Valvoline Australia, Australian & New Zealand Volvo Dealers (who contributed 40% to the race budget), Mark Petch Motorsport, and other sponsors. Technical support was provided by the Volvo Motorsport Dept. in Sweden. The first debut of the Volvo Dealer Teams' 2nd GpA 240T (RH drive) was at Adelaide International Raceway in April 1986 where it came in 4th - driver John Bowe. This 2nd car was originally the Factory Euro test car, being fully rebuilt by the Factory before shipment to Oz. In May 1986, Robbie Francevic took over the RH drive car and John Bowe campaigned the older LH drive car. Volvo ultimately won the '1986 ATCC', the jewel of Australian motorsport, a brilliant result. 1987 - Volvo pulls out of racing worldwide due in part to GpA rule changes. Eventually the LH drive car (plus another 2 RH drives) were sold by 'Volvo Australia' to 'Volvo Finland', where later Leif Wiik won the 1987 Finnish Touring Car Championship. Reportably the car still exists. VOLVO 240 TURBO IN THE EUROPEAN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP Take a Volvo 240 Turbo in two doors guise and let this car compete in the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) following the Group A rule book and you let a BMW 635 CSI, a Jaguar XJ-S and a Rover 3500 bite the dust. Sounds simple, but it is a fact though. Already during its first race of the 1984 season the 240 was heading the field 100 of 150 laps. In 1984 the Volvo 240 made its début in the ETCC which had started in 1963. A year later the 240 won the championship. 1986 would have ended with another championship had not primarily Tom Walkinshaw with his Rover protested against the 240. This car was not competing according to the rules in Tom Walkinshaws opinion. The Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) disqualified Volvo, because the 240 on Anderstorp was driving on unleaded standard petrol with an octane rate of 99, while on Zeltweg the car was competing with a prohibited size of the fuel tank and an illegal dashboard. Two victories were therefore deleted. On the other hand, the FISA was already keeping an eye on Volvo in 1985. The 240 Turbo was homologated for the American market in 1983. Five hundred evolution models were delivered there and then, but the American authorities had not registered the 240s. The rules of the FISA were the reason why Volvo retreated from the championship two weeks after the last race on Estoril in 1986. The car A car from the Group A class of the ETCC has got to be a four-seater, which has to be build in a series of at least 500 identical vehicles within a year. Average customers must be able to buy these cars and to drive them on the public road. By the way, prior to the 500 evolution cars, 5000 standard cars has to be made as well, that is 5000 240Turbos. The Group A 240 Turbo is a car with 270-330 (1984), 340 (1985) or 340-350 (1986) brake horsepower, delivered by a B21 engine with a Garret exhaust turbo, Volvo’s own intercooler, a patented Volvo water injection and an inhouse electronic ignition system. The cylinder head of the B21 was almost standard with two valves per cylinder. Some more figures (1985): the top speed of the Group A 240 Turbo amounts approximately 260 kilometres per hour. The acceleration from standstill to 100 kilometres per hour takes about six seconds. The 200 kilometres per hour can be reached from a standstill in about 20 seconds. The weight of the car varied from 1100 kilograms to 1065 kilograms in respectively 1984 and 1986. During the final race of the 240 on Estoril, the Electronic Traction Control (ETC) was used. The ETC has to increase the traction of the car, when the external circumstances demands such an increase. Within four milliseconds the turbo pressure and the fuel supply are corrected automatically to keep the 240 on the right track. In 1985 the Turbo was standing on Pirelli P7 tyres with the dimensions 25/62 VR 17 (front) and 26/64 VR 17 (back). In 1986 Pirelli D3 tyres were used. The five speed gearbox of the Group A 240 comes from Getrag. Furthermore has the car a Borg & Beck clutch, a rear axle with a limited-slip differential from Volvo, gas-filled shock absorbers from Bilstein and a power steering from Volvo, but without the power.
The teams Volvo never competed as a factory in the ETCC. The only thing Volvo did, was supplying the construction and the classification of the 240. The race department of Volvo, Volvo Motorsport, sold parts to private teams, which prepared the actual racing cars. 1984 saw the participation of a Swedish and a Belgian team. The second year a Swiss and a Swedish and the final year a Belgian team were competing to win the championship. The victories The first real victory was not achieved in the ETCC, but in the German DTCC. Per Sturesson won before an army of BMWs the race in 1984. In the same year Ulf Granberg and Robert Kvist won on Zolder the first race of the 240 counting for the ETCC. By the way, the other three competing 240s came in on a fifth, sixth and tenth place. The drivers Except for the champions of 1985, Gianfranco Brancatelli, and Thomas Lindström, several drivers were competing in a Group A 240 Turbo, like Eje Elgh, Ulf Granberg, Johnny Cecotto, Mauro Baldi, Pierre Dieudonné, Sigi Müller and Didier Theys. In 1985 Gianfranco Brancatelli and Thomas Lindström were driving for the team Volvo Dealer Team Europe of Rudi Eggenberger. The year before Eggenberger was still preparing BMWs. In 1986 Ford Sierra was next on the list, but the success of 1985 was not repeated by the Swiss. COMPETITION SUMMARY Car Year Championship Volvo 240 Turbo 1985 European Touring Car Championship (Gianfranco Brancatelli, Thomas Lindström) Volvo 240 Turbo 1985 Deutsche Produktionwagen Meisterschaft (Per Stureson) Volvo 240 Turbo 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship (Robbie Francevic) Volvo 240 Turbo 1986 Nordic Touring Car Championship (Per-Gunnar Andersson) Volvo 240 Turbo 1987 Swedish Touring Car Championship (Per-Gunnar Andersson) Volvo 240 Turbo 1987 Finnish Touring Car Championship (Leif Wiik) Volvo 240 Turbo 1987 Southeast Asian Touring Car Championship - Zepspeed Volvo team Volvo 240 Turbo 1987 Malaysian Touring Car Championship Volvo 240 Turbo 1987 Thai Touring Car Championship Volvo 240 Turbo 1988 Thai Touring Car Championship (Per-Gunnar Andersson) Volvo 240 Turbo 1988 Southeast Asian Touring Car Championship - Zepspeed Volvo team Volvo 240 Turbo 1988 Malaysian Touring Car Championship VOLVO 240 TURBO TEAMS AND DRIVERS 1982 ETCC Sportpromotion Greger Petersson, Anders Olofsson 1983 ETCC TL Racing Thomas Lindström, Stanley Dickens, Anders Olofsson ETCC IPS Motorsport Per Stureson, Ingmar Persson Sportpromotion Greger Petersson, Anders Olofsson 1984 ETCC TL Racing Thomas Lindström, Valentin Simons, Anders Olofsson ETCC Sportpromotion Greger Petersson, Ulf Granberg, Robert Kvist, Eje Elgh, Frank Jelinski. (Börje Thor) ETCC IPS Motorsport Per Stureson, Ingmar Persson, Rune Tobiasson, Kurt Simonsen, Giorgio Cipolli. ETCC Volvo Team Delcourt Pierre Dieudonné, Michel Delcourt, Jean-Marie Baert ETCC GTM Engineering Pierre Dieudonné, Michel Delcourt,Eje Elgh, Jean-Marie Pirnay, Jean-Marie Baert, Patrick Nève, "Davit", Bernard De Dryver. 1985 ETCC Eggenberger Motorsport Thomas Lindström, Gianfranco Brancatelli, Pierre Dieudonné, Sigi Müller jr, Carlo Rossi, Didier Theys. ETCC Magnum Racing Ulf Granberg, Anders Olofsson, Ingvar Carlsson, Jean-Pierre Malcher, Christian Danner, Leopold von Bayern. ETCC Sportpromotion Greger Petersson, Bertil Engström ETCC - Slim Borgudd, Sune Ohlsson, Michael Strauch ETCC Calçado Fundador Rodrigues, da Silva, Ferreira ETCC - Per-Gunnar "Peggen" Andersson, Mats Lindén. ATCC Mark Petch Racing Robbie Francevic, Michel Delcourt 1986 ETCC RAS Sport Thomas Lindström, Ulf Granberg, Anders Olofsson, Per-Gunnar ’Peggen’ Andersson, Johnny Cecotto, Mauro Baldi, Didier Theys. ETCC IPS Motorsport Per Stureson, Kurt Simonsen, Anders Berggren, Lars Lindberg, Anders Lindberg ETCC Sportpromotion Greger Petersson, Ulf Svensson ETCC - Ulf Larsson ETCC Calçado Fundador Rodrigues, Mendes. ATCC Volvo Dealer Team Robbie Francevic (#10), John Bowe (#4) ATCC (in the James Hardie 1000) John Bowe, Alfredo Costanzo (#44), Neville Crichton, Graham McRae (#42). Wellingt. - Per-Gunnar "Peggen" Andersson, Dave McMillan. Wellingt. Mark Petch Racing Thomas Lindström, Robbie Francevic.
Page 1 and 2: Gianfranco Brancatelli at Zeltweg i
Page 3: pistons and other internal parts as

85 Volvo 240 Turbo - Motorsports Almanac

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