The seller of the engine has just emailed me the following
"I acquired the engine from a former Volvo executive. I think the block is a standard B23 but I'm not sure as the markings are different.
The head is definately bespoke and yes these few engines were designed nad built by Volvo especially for the European rally cross cars.
Thanks!"
The early 343 rallycross cars ran the B14 (but in 1.7 litre form) with turbos? Later cars used this engine then?
Ws the 242 ACX 16 valve a homologation special? Low production volume to count as "production car" so the engine could be used in the rallycross cars?
Customer could also buy these engines from their dealers it seems
How does this fit in with the "flatnose" 240s which I've heard were a homologation special of some sort and sold in the US?
Shimon, that 240 GTX was conversion kit, cost was something quite expensive, from the Fuse's article (Note you needed to have Volvo 240 already):
Engine alone 45 240 FIM
Conversion kit (exhaust, fuel pump, car specific conversion parts) 4 100 FIM
Front grille and lamps 5 305 FIM
LSD 2 160 FIM
Wheels 6 060 FIM
Kit did include loads of other stuff too, price of full GTX kit was 77 730 FIM and that does not include labour, can't really remember what 240 did cost at those days, (if I have to guess, then maybe near same as kit) but this kit was so expensive that there were not many sold.
shimon340 wrote:
The early 343 rallycross cars ran the B14 (but in 1.7 litre form) with turbos? Later cars used this engine then?
regards
Shimon
Yeah early 343 rally cross cars ran the B14 turbos bored to 1.7 with Alpine 16V HEMI-top. Volvo won the European rally cross standard class championship with those early models in 1980, third place was also 343 Turbo and in top10 there were several other 343 turbos in that year too so it was quite competitive car.
EC RC 1980 Final results
Standard
1. PI Walfridsson-S-Volvo 343 Turbo 142pts
2. Martin Schanche-N- Ford Escort RS1800 138pts
3. Per Engseth-N-Volvo 343 Turbo 117pts
4. Anders Hultqvist-S-Volvo 343 Turbo 100pts
5. Börje Carlsson-S-Volvo 343 Turbo 86pts
6. Piet Dam-NL-BMW 320 50pts
7. John Welch-GB-Ford Escort RS1800 38pts
8. Folke Andersson-S-Ford Escort RS1800 28pts
9. Rolf Nilsson-S-Ford Escort RS1800 26pts
10. Hubart Katzian-A-VW Golf GTI 20pts
11. Kjetil Bolneset-N-Ford Escort RS1800 20pts
12. Herbert Grünsteidl-A-VW Golf GTI 17pts
13. Bertil Molander-S-Ford Escort RS1800 15pts
14. Lars-Erik Walfridsson-S-Volvo 343 Turbo 12pts
15. Trevor Hopkins-GB-Ford Fiesta 12pts
16. Mikael Nordström-S-VW T1 Turbo 11pts
17. Gunnar Kittelsen-N-Ford Escort RS1800 10pts
18. Tony Drummond-GB-Ford Escort RS1800 8pts
19. Herbert Breiteneder-A-VW T1 6pts
20. Tore Finnbrathen-N-Ford Escort RS1800 5pts
21. Ed van Schie-NL-Ford Escort RS1800 4pts
22. Walter Mayer-A-VW T1 3pts
Pierre Brunetti-F-Talbot Rallye 3 3pts
24. Carl-Johan Lindblad-FIN-VW T1 Turbo 2pts
Göran Johansson-S-Saab 99 Turbo 2pts
Graham Hethaway-GB-Ford Escort RS1800 2pts
Stig Emilsson-S-VW T1 Turbo 2pts
28. Georg Wassgot-A-Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV 1pt
Anders Nordstedt-S-Saab 99 Turbo 1pt
Ake "Bryggarn" Andersson-VW T1 Turbo 1pt
Jacques Aita-F-VW T1
Francois Monten-B-VW T1
Escort RS1800 isn't the worst rally cross car either so not too bad competition to beat.
I think the Volvo 16V wasn't around long enough to be made competitive enough before they stopped competing in the rally cross. There were problems with the durability of the head/heat issues with turbo tests, many private race teams from that time reported same. Also the cost in rallying became too high. At one point Volvo even considered participating in Group-B, that's why the 363 prototypes were made. The plan was to homologate the V6 in 300-series so they could race 300-series in Group-B with V6 engines, but during the time racing costs in Group-B were rising sky high when the evolution supercars came and Volvo abandoned the plan.
Btw. this site has some great pics of the 343 Turbos in action back in the day.
