THE Tom Walkinshaw Racing-run Volvo wagons certainly got plenty of attention 30 years ago in 1994 when they were wheeled out in the two-litre British Touring Car Championship.
Driven by Swede Rickard Rydell and Dutchman Jan Lammers, the ‘Estates’ (as they were dubbed in England) were initially treated as something of a joke when the news was announced they’d be hitting the track instead of the more traditional sedan body shape.
Indeed, the wagons grabbed lots of publicity for Volvo’s arrival in the BTCC, if not results, making the decision to run them a masterstroke given it gave far more publicity than a sedan running in the mid pack would have.
The wagons were replaced by an 850 Sedan model for the 1995 championship and one of the superseded cars made its way to Australia to compete in the local Super Touring Championship run by George Shepheard’s team with Tony Scott at the wheel.
So just what did happen to the Volvo wagon Super Tourer that raced Down Under?
Reportedly driven by Lammers during the 1994 BTCC, the car that came to Australia started the season in the same aerodynamic trim as it had raced in England.
However, a more substantial front splitter was added to the car mid-season as the Super Touring category and its cars quickly grew wings, literally!
Scott’s best result in the 1995 season came in the last race of the championship at Eastern Creek, a third place.
He matched the position in the non-championship support races at Calder Park as part of the Peter Brock Classic, though the field was paltry with just eight cars competing.
Volvo Australia followed in the wheel tracks of its BTCC cousins for the following season and updated to an 850 Sedan, the red Swedish racer driven by a new pilot in Peter Brock.
The wagon’s last appearance in Australia was the Brock Classic and, according to our friends at the Super Touring Register website, the car was obtained by Johnny Haraldsson, who ran Volvo’s Swedish Touring Car Championship team in 1996-98, rebuilt and returned to 1994 BTCC livery.
Following a few shakedown laps by Rydell at Knutstorp in Sweden the car was put into storage where it remained until making its first public appearance for many years at the Halmstad Sports Car Show in July 2011.
The car appeared at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2018 and is, at last report, owned by another Swedish Volvo enthusiast.
It’s one of only two Volvo 850 Wagon Super Tourers that were raced in the 1994 BTCC. The other car was sent to Volvo’s museum in Göteborg.
