Volvo and TWR's involvement in British Touring Car Championship

[IC]

This abridged account of Volvo and TWR's involvement in British Touring Car Championship is at:http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/motorsport1.htm

Volvo and TWR
"In late 1993, a partnership was established between Volvo and Tom Walkinshaw's TWR Racing for an initial three-year programme to race the Volvo 850, and the media interest was heightened at the Press Launch by the appearance of the estate car as the racing body in the first year. The team drivers were the young Rickard Rydell and the experienced Jan Lammers and they brought media comment at every circuit.

To increase the attention of the cameras and copy-writers, lifesized dogs appeared with the drivers on the roof of the car on the crowd pleasing pre-race parade laps, which provided a further publicity coup and more column inches for the programme. Despite little pre-season testing, Rickard soon proved the potential of the Volvo 850 by qualifying third in only the third round at Snetterton. Although electrical failure spoiled the race that day, further good qualifying positions were to follow and several top 5 race finishes for the team. The high speed cornering and braking ability of the car were it's strongest points against the competition. Over the winter of 1994/5, the rules were set by the sport's governing body to allow manufacturers to fit front and rear aerodynamic spoilers - regulations which effectively ruled out the re-appearance of the estate in favour of the saloon body. Jan Lammers had also decided that the style required to drive a touring car quickly was not his natural style and left the team for other formula. After a full winter testing programme, the Volvo 850 Racing team were back at Donington for the first race of 1995 with a new partner for Rickard in the familiar guise of Tim Harvey - a former BTCC champion from 1992. Rickard quickly established the cars supremacy with two pole positions for that first meeting, and although losing out on the first race, took the first race victory for the team in race 2. Rickard's incredible consistency in qualifying continued throughout the season in thrid place in the driver's championship. Tim also had two excellent victories in a drenched Brands Hatch meeting and went on to a fifth position overall in the championship. For 1996, the team was if anything even better prepared at the beginning of the seven, with Rydell again lined up on pole position for the first race. It was the first of five poles in a season that also brought four race victories for Rickard.


The second driver for Volvo in 1996 was former British Formula 3 champion, Kelvin Burt, who was the closest partner that Rickard had encountered for sheer speed. Kelvin took the first victory for Volvo this year after an enthralling race at Silverstone, but was to have a massive accident at the next meeting at Oulton Park that was to upset his performance over the following months. Even in adversity, however, the Volvo was praised as standing up to the crash remarkably well. Kelvin's impact was estimated at a force of 9G, which left him with severe concussion, the special 850 Racing seat construction reducing the severity of his injuries. But 1996 was the year of the four-wheel drive Audi. Frank Biela simply dominated the year to win the championship convincingly, despite having additional weight penalties imposed on the Audi in the middle of the year by the governing body. BMW also experienced a revival, as the minimum weight limits for rear-wheel drive cars had been reduced in reflection of their poor results in the previous year. They were to finish second in the manufacturer's championship. The climax of the three-year Volvo 850 Racing programme ended with the achievement of the target, by becoming the fastest front-wheeled drive Super Touring car in the world's best Super Touring Championship. The road car development has been made in parallel with the race programme. The 225bhp T-5 850 started the evolution, which was to be surpassed by the T-5R special edition which had alloy wheels styled along the same lines as a rim used in the BTCC programme by Volvo. The lurid yellow of this car with 240bhp output put most cars to shame in performance and equipment.