Volvo's pseudo-SUV 850 celebrates its quarter-century
Tuesday, 14 June 2016
These days, Volvo is best known as a maker of very cool all-wheel drive (AWD) wagons.
It wasn't always so. While the Swedish brand had its moments of awesomes through the decades, through the 1970s and '80s Volvo was synonymous with boxy, safe and decidedly unsexy family cars like the 240.
If you had to point to one car that sowed the seeds of a major image-change, it's this one: the 850, which is celebrating its 25th birthday this month.
The 850 had an interesting powertrain, with a five-cylinder transversely mounted engine. The flagship model combined Volvo's supreme practicality with crazy-fast performance. It achieved great success in motorsport. It was also the first Volvo to be available with AWD.
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The Volvo 850 GLT had its world premiere in the Stockholm Globe Arena in June 1991. The model was the result of one of Sweden's largest industrial investments and differed fundamentally from previous Volvo designs.
The new car was launched under the banner 'A dynamic car with four world firsts'. These new features were the transverse five-cylinder engine, the Delta-link rear axle designed in-house, the integrated side-impact protection system, SIPS, and the self-adjusting front seat belt.
The 850 was a completely new car. Development began back in 1978. At a meeting held that year, executive decided the company had to think freely and aim for the stars. That's why the project was christened Galaxy.
Project Galaxy resulted in two model series – one Swedish and one Dutch. The underlying technology was developed jointly; after that, the teams split up. The Dutch company Volvo Car BV went on to develop what would become the 400-series, while Volvo Cars in Sweden developed the 850-series.
The first model to be presented was the 850 GLT, with its 20-valve naturally aspirated engine producing 127kW. During the development phase, Volvo paid special attention to achieving a pleasing intake and exhaust noise.
The next important 850 version was presented in February 1993 – the estate. It took the traditionally boxy Volvo shape and introduced some avant garde styling detail. It maintained the abruptly ending rear section for maximum load capacity, but also featured extended vertical tail lights that covered the entire D-pillar.
During the development work, chief designer Jan Wilsgaard had a model on which the large tail lights could be removed and replaced for comparison. The estate version was subsequently awarded the Japanese Good Design Grand Prize as well as the Italian Most Beautiful Estate awards in 1994.
The 850 series was expanded with various engine options. The model that would achieve most attention was presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 1994.
With its distinctive yellow colour, the T-5R really stood out and is now regarded as an icon for the marque.
This special model was intended to be manufactured in a run of only 2500 cars. The turbocharged engine with intercooler produced 179kW/330Nm (it was a lot back then, honest).
Equipment on the car included special spoilers, a square exhaust pipe and 17-inch Titan alloy wheels.
The yellow cars sold out in a couple of weeks, and so the same number of black cars were produced, finally followed by a run of 2500 dark green T-5Rs.
In 1994, Volvo also took the 850 to the racetrack – in an extremely eye-catching way. When two 850s drove up to the starting line for the season premiere of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) at Thruxton track in southern England, they were the estate version.
Volvo argued that the wagon had better aerodynamics than the sedan, but the real reason was marketing-based. An estate racing in BTCC was certain to be a star attraction.
So it proved: the BTCC wagons attracted an enormous amount of attention. Volvo invested heavily alongside Tom Walkinshaw Racing, with the two cars being driven by the Swede Rickard Rydell and Dutch driver Jan Lammers. The team only finished 14th overall for the season, but counted the exercise as a great success in terms of brand promotion.
In 1995, rule changes dictated a change to the sedan model and with further development, Rydell finished
Volvo's style and attitude changed with the 850, but its focus on safety did not. In 1995, the Volvo 850 became the first mass-produced car to come with side-impact airbags.
The 850 AWD – the company's first four-wheel-drive car – was a pioneer for Volvo when it was launched in 1996.
The 850 AWD had four-wheel drive engaged at all times – a viscous coupling automatically distributed the power between the front and rear wheels. If one of the rear wheels started to spin, the electronic TRACS anti-spin system automatically distributed the power between the front wheels to the one with the best grip.
The 850 AWD was powered by a newly developed engine, with light pressure turbo boost producing 144kW, and was a predecessor to Volvo's XC/Cross Country SUV and crossover models.
The 850 name disappeared in 1997, when the models underwent a major upgrade to become the S70 (sedan) and V70 (estate).
A total of 1,360,522 cars were built in model versions originating from the 850 series.