End of the Road for Volvo’s R Cars

Volvo’s stint with high-performance automobiles started in 1995 with the850 T-5R. It was boxy, it was yellow, and above all it was very, very fast. For Volvo the T-5R marked something special, the beginning of more than a decade of sports sedans and wagons that snuck up behind the usual sports sedan suspects and took them by surprise. Volvo even had some success racing this version of the 850 in the BTCC, showing the world that Sweden could make performance machines for road and track.

The 850 T-5R was followed by the 850 R, which honed down the rough edges and added more power. After a brief hiatus, the R name returned, gracing the S60 and V70, which became the ultimate performance Volvo. Today’s S60 R and V70 R are highly advanced technological machines, sporting the Four-C adaptive chassis, and an all-wheel drive system developed by Haldex. At 2.5-liters in displacement, the inline-five was eclipsed by most of its competitors in size, but assisted by ahigh-pressure turbocharger its 300 horsepower five-cylinder was more than enough to keep it in the rearview mirrors of M3s and S4s. But the performance wasn’t the end-all for the R, as Volvo took comfort in stride with wonderful seats and a bump-absorbing “Comfort” setting on the adaptive damping suspension system. These cars were some of the best to travel in for long distances.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. For the “R” designation, it’s a permanently over. The demise of performance models is usually the result of slow sales, which was the case for Volvo’s Rs. Volvo was hoping to sell a combined total of 3,800 S60 and V70 Rs, but was only able to shift 1,600 cars. What’s more is that we were the biggest market for Volvo; if the largest volume area failed to pick up on the car, imagine what the sales numbers looked like for other countries.

Looking beyond the present to 2008, there are many cars in the Volvo range that could benefit from having an “R” model. Though denied by insiders, it would have been a logical choice to create an R model for the S40 and V50, not to mention the new C30. 300 horsepower, all-wheel drive … they would’ve made for some serious fun and would’ve made excellent competitors to the Mazdaspeed6 or Audi S4. It won’t be happening now, and neither will the next-generation V70 R. But it’s not the end of the road for fast Volvos.

According to Automotive News, Volvo’s CEO Fredrik Arp said that the brand would continue to work on new performance models, but not to expect anything soon. In the meantime, he points to the C30 T5, S80 V8 and the forthcoming V70 T5 with its 295-hp turbocharged version of the new straight-six engine as showing the direction for the future of performance Volvos.