Re: Genuine R-sport kit
Posted: 29 May 2013 10:38 pm
Though Volvo did have it's own competition department in Gothenburg (and still does, with a different name and less visibility for "normal" customers though as it did in the Golden ERA of the Volvo motorsport). Found in 1959 and named as Volvo Motorsport division, at 1962 name was changed to Volvo Competition service and in 1978 it was renamed to Volvo R-Sport division. They built cars for quite many customers here in Finland also (rally cross and Group-A mainly) and of course all of the Volvo's own factory team competition vehicles. R-Sport division at Gothenburg also built all of the homologation models of the cars which Volvo Factory Team used in different motorsport classes. With deep enough pockets you basically could order a race car with those specs you wanted in the limits of the homologation rules of the class in question, but I don't suppose anyone would've ordered a stock 300-series R-Sport street car from them. Though you'll never know if they might have prepped some of the street cars also, like they did with the homologation models. They also built many concept and prototype models, for example the 363 CS (CS=Competition Service).
This department was completely separate from the stock production line. In 1983 it was renamed again, R-Sport Division became the Volvo Motorsport.
There was even a R-Sport shop at Gothenburg from where you could have bought race spec crate engines off the shelf.
Picture links are from here, lot's of Volvo related motorsport pics. https://www.facebook.com/Volvo.in.motorsport
-Marko
This department was completely separate from the stock production line. In 1983 it was renamed again, R-Sport Division became the Volvo Motorsport.
There was even a R-Sport shop at Gothenburg from where you could have bought race spec crate engines off the shelf.
Picture links are from here, lot's of Volvo related motorsport pics. https://www.facebook.com/Volvo.in.motorsport
-Marko