Volvo S40 T4 Review

Soon after graduating from university I was looking for my first post student car. I had in my possession a 1991 BMW 518, and looked forward to getting something with a little more firepower. Salvation came in the form of the 1998 BTCC Champion car, a Volvo S40 T4 - homoglation model.

Sadly I never actually took a time to take a photograph this particular part of my life. Somehow I only ever felt like driving or getting out...stopping to soak up the light was never part of the equation. What features below is an image of a car that looks pretty much like the one I used to have. I hope nobody minds that I "borrowed" their picture. They shouldn't, I'm doing this just for the kudos.

Anyway! On with the review...

General

Volvo had racing in mind when they put this one together. Touring car racing to be more specific. In the midst of a joint venture with Mitsubishi, Volvo provided some European engineering and Mitsubishi pitched in with some fairly unbreakable mechanicals. The end result...1st Prize 1998 British Touring Car Championships. No small thing let me tell you, we take racing very seriously on this little island. 

The S40 T4 homoglation model shared a few key features with its track counterpart. There was the low lying  body kit and flared wheel arches that gave the car that ever so slightly menacing look. As if to say yeah...I'm a Volvo...but I'm an ANGRY Volvo! There was the adjustable suspension, something of a rarity on a factory stock four-door saloon. There was a peculiar set of gear ratios, and then there was the magic. 

I've driven a fair few 4-cylinder turbo rice rockets before. They are super cool. You get to drive around town doing average mileage taking it easy, and then any time you want...POW...you can be gone...just like that *snaps fingers*. This car was not like any of them. 

Power

Power came from a 1.85litre (not quite the 1.9 advertised) engine. 4 cylinders, 2 overhead cams, turbo with intercooler, 16valves, aluminium block and aluminium heads. Oh, about that turbo; it runs 15psi factory stock. That's right, 1.1 bar right off the showroom floor! Converted into easy maths that is an effective displacement of 4litres when under the boost, providing 200bhp in this case and "adequate" torque. As one would imagine, this level of boost will either come in at high rpms with a big turbo or come in low with a small one and plenty of lag. It was the latter. At low engine speeds and while waiting the "lifetime" it took to get on the boost, this car rode around like my 1.3 Escort LX. Slow and unresponsive, it was an irritating car to drive around town and in traffic. That said, if you had the patience to wait for that turbo to spool you got to see what felt like a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde transformation.

When the boost finally did come in, it wasn't at all gradual. This car's character would turn in the blink of an eye. Instantly you would feel you are at the reigns of a snarling beast you had no hope of keeping under control. Tyres would start to screech and the engine would roar to life like an aging heavyweight suddenly finding himself young again. I'm not sure of the best way to convey the feeling you get when you've had your foot planted on the floor for so long and this car suddenly decided to respond. Quoted 0-60 time on this model is 7.0seconds. I would estimate that the 0-30 time is approx 6.9seconds. Well, it certainly felt that way anyway. Acceleration on this car on the boost could only be described as absolutely brutal. Not like the Japanese rice rockets at all. No even temper and no gentle driving. You either got nothing or you got far more than you ever bargained for.

Handling

Well, 200bhp in a front wheel drive car is never going to be good. As one would expect torque steer was massive, with the foot down you could pull away and do a very neat U-turn with your hands off the wheel. The suspension, although adjustable, had a range of settings varying from hard to extremely hard. The ride was not at all comfortable. The seats and the interior didn't help much here either. Somehow the highly reflective angle of the windscreen, the high doors and the very uncomfortable (but also highly adjustable) drivers seat meant you were never really comfortable trying to drive the car. 

Actual handling was very strong. Corning was good for a FWD, and considering the stresses on them, the tyres did very well keeping things under control. No doubt this was down to the fine work done by the Volvo techs when setting up the suspension. The trouble is there was just no easy way to take advantage of that in normal everyday driving. If you went around a corner fast, and managed to stay on the boost without going all out, then you were normally holding on to the steering wheel to stop yourself from ending up in the passenger seat. In retrospect a full five-point safety harness would have been a welcome addition. Even then I still don't think I would have found a way to like those seats. 

The turbo setup is a point worthy of discussion as well. The bi-polar setup of the car certainly had its appeal, and I can imagine on a racetrack it would be much easier to take advantage of the tremendous pulling power of the motor. However, in actual real world driving it was difficult to stay in the power band without having either too much power or dropping off the boost altogether. This is a car that made you think like a racing driver, and day by day you would find yourself edging towards driving like one. There was indeed a great deal of satisfaction with the first time I took at 90° bend right, stayed on the boost and pulled out of the corner full throttle and on the power. The trouble is the current UK driver's licence allows only 12 points before you have to serve a ban...and I had places I wanted to go.

Looks

Unassuming would be one way to describe them. Understated would be another word. This was a nice looking car to be sure. It looked like a Volvo with a little something extra. Subtle styling touches added an aggressive aura to the car. Somehow it just looked "bad". That's it though. They styling on this car doesn't warrant any further words on the matter.

Reliability

Another one word summary here; tank! I honestly think this car may have been made from some materials recovered from Roswel in the late 1940s. Thanks in no small measure to some of the issues discussed above, I did lose control of this car at high speed on numerous occasions. It was just so tempting to push it, and so easy to push it too far. I drove head on into a high kerb at 40mph once. The whole car jumped up about 3feet off the ground and then slammed down hard with a small bounce when it landed. I tried and tried for days after that but I just couldn't find any damage. The body was fine, the motor was fine, the wheels and suspension were fine. It didn't even sound different. 

During the time I had it, I kept an eye on things on an almost religious basis. I always do, I'm a car nut. I drove it hard and treated her rough, but despite that she never burnt any oil, or showed any signs of damage or wear or any need for significant maintenance. It wasn't hard to see why either. Any time you stripped any part of the car, whether it be mechanical or cosmetic or even trim, it felt solid. Every single piece of the car was made to last. Even the plastic felt tough and dependable. This is the kind of car you would go to war with.

Overall

This was a seriously fun car to drive when you got used to it. The acceleration once it got going was like nothing else. You could hear the turbo spooling and you knew when the moment was coming. The only thing missing was some guy sitting in the back saying "ENGAGE" before it took off. An awesome driving experience. That and the reliability were hard to fault. No, impossible to fault.

In spite of this my overall experience with the car was a generally negative one. Driving around town and in traffic with that schizophrenic engine was hard work, and needlessly so. It was not what you wanted after a hard days work. That and the seats were just so damned uncomfortable it could drive you mad. Fortunately they wouldn't because the view out of the rear glass would do that first. Unless you had a special relationship with the sky, there was just no way you could get any usable spatial information from the drivers seat. The car had a high back end and a spoiler sitting on it. Even when driving it was not possible to see a car directly behind you. This made parking and maneuvering just too much of a pain to live with. Also the bulging nature of the car made the side mirrors particularly useless at providing useful feedback.

Ultimately I sold this car, and a very nice Pioneer MiniDISC/CD stereo after a fairly short period. I was happy to see it go to be honest. I had got myself a Ford Cougar V6 and was enjoying a more civilised driving style. One noteworthy point though; later on I got myself a Mitsubishi 3000GT Twin Turbo and even though I know that was by far and away the faster car, I was never convinced that it actually *felt* as quick as my old T4. That alone might make it worth picking one up if you ever get the chance.