Nice pics, Fuse
Maybe I should do a sum-up of those tests. They praise the increase in power, but critisise that the suspension, steering, gearing and instrumentation remained unchanged. "A fast family car yes, a sports car no" seemed to be the overall opinion. Apparently, the standard gear & diff ratios made it overrev at maximum speed on the motorway making the water temperature gauge creep into the red. According to Volvo, max rpm had been increased to 6500 and the increase in engine temperature was of no concern, but I guess I'd still prefer to fit a 5-speed box
There's an interesting post in one of the German forums - someone who worked at Volvo in 1981 describes his experiences with the performance 343s. He loved the R-Sport on country roads, but on the motorway, he says you couldn't drive full throttle without over-revving it. He also says the Oettinger models didn't go down too well with those that bought them, the power output wasn't as good as was claimed and the oil consumption was high. Apparently "nearly all of them were converted back to a standard B14". Whether that's true or not, I don't know.
trabitom99 wrote:You might like to contact this chap, Nils:
He's the only person I've found who has (or had) an R-Sport. Maybe he has some useful infos for you?
I sent Nils an Email, he doesn't have the R-Sport anymore. It now belongs to someone who does regular laps of Hockenheim in it
Tom
