So here is my 744 Turbo. I purchased the car on a whim one day in 1999 when visiting the local Milton Keynes Car Auctions. As i wondered around the lot of cars, i discover her, sitting there all neglected, no one was paying much attention to her. Who would a Volvo 740 Turbo with 146,000 Miles. I waited in aticipation for her turn to through the auction. The driver came out to start it, It wouldnt start so he rolled it down to the recovery vehicle. Whilst he jumped started i listened to how she started and wether there was any blue smoke, the sign of a turbo on the way out. There was none, things were looking up. He then drove it up the site towards the bidding area. I heard the turbo spool and i was in love. I quickly followed into the auction and watched the action. Bidding started out at £250, it quickly went up in £25's to £575 where it stopped. The hammer didnt fall, so i enquired about the reserve price. It was £600. So i got the cheque book out and left the deposit.

The following morning i returned with the rest of the cash, a can of petrol, and a set of jump leads. A check of the fluid levels showed all was well, so a quick jump with the leads and she fired up first time. Now to take it on the maiden voyage.

I pulled out of the auction and floored it, fucccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccck me i thought, this thing is quick. On the drive home a few niggles were found, when indicating the wipers would come on, and it wouldnt go into the electronic overdrive (5th Gear). But boy did i love this car, on a dual carriage way i was doing 70mph in the fast lane, when a VW Golf GTI started flashing me to pull over and get out of his way. So i moved over into the slow lane but floored it. Bye bye GTI. Once back at home, i treated her to a full engine service, fixed the little electrical problems and then got on with the business of driving it.

So for the next 2-3 years and 40,000 miles we were pretty much inseperable. Well she was my main car. On our many adventures together we found out how fast she was. 135mph down the M4 to Bath one night was a memorable incident, especially as the wing mirror blew off at the speed. Other episodes included getting caught by the police doing 104mph on a deserted dual carriage way one afternoon. A friend of mine Darren allways commented that i drove to quickly, so one weekend when we were on the way back from a party i let him drive it, well Darren drove a 1.1 Fiesta at the time and well he thought you needed to push the accelerator to the floor like you did in the Fiesta. So after doing 0-60 in one of the quickest times ever Darren glanced down and said "Fuck i'm doing 110mph allready!!!"I ran her at the local drag strip to friends that decided that there car's could beat her. Well she never got beat by any, and well one friend the excuses just poured out when i beat his VW at the strip in front of an all VW crowd at a VW show. Oh how i got the mileage out of that one. The best time at the Strip was a 15.6 Second at 88mph.

Breakdown wise the car never ever once let me down once except for the time it got a puncture and i discovered i didnt have a wheel brace.

Now the car was quick and could beat many a so called quick car, but i had this quest to make it faster. So when the exhaust went, it was replaced with a Jetex FreeFlow Exhaust system. Then a Jetex Free Flow Air Filter was added. One Christmas my parents bought me a Bayley's Motorsports Dump Valve.

This is how much moddified the car stayed until i decided to renew the shock absorbers. Whilst doing that i thought why not lower it 40mm to improve the handling.

Now she handled really well and didnt look like an offroader. Anybody who travelled in her soon learnt the drill, that when speed bumps loomed they all had to jump out to give the car that extra clearance. Oh the fun they had one night on a trip to Brighton where i turned on to a road that had 20 speedbumps in the space of half a mile.

But now the search was on for more speed. After trawling the Internet I found a site entitled " How to Make your 700 series faster. There were various stages off mod's. So after memorising the list of stuff needed to get to 400BHP i started out on my quest for the bits required. Bits were slowly tricklin in.

Now in the begining of 2002 i was given a Volvo 480 for free. I repaired the 480 and took the 740 off the road. After 6 months of 480 ownership. I was again trawling the Internet and saw an advert for a 740 estate with the wheels that i was after for the salloon. So I rushed down and bought the said car. That is the 740 Turbo Estate that can also be found. The 480 was sold off to help fund the purchase of the estate.

For a year and half the 740 Saloon sat rather neglected on the drive, mainly flattening her battery and not going anywhere. In 2 Years she had covered less than a 100miles, yet allways passed the MOT with flying Colours.

In November 2003, my brothers Volvo 460 packed up, so it was time for her to come back into service. A quick Oil & filter change and she was ready to hit the roads. She ran well, showing her thirst for unleaded, well she is a big girl you know. Anyway i found myself driving the saloon more than my brother did because i'd forgotten how good a car she was. She is much tighter and far faster than the estate (which is Moddified).

So bringing us bang upto date, its the 27th January 2004. I'm working in Milton Keynes for BP. At 4pm England is hit with Snow showers, the country grinds to a hault. The roads are gridlocked by panikey and incompentant drivers. Me and some guys from the office decide to grab a Curry and wait until the traffic dies down. So around 10.30pm we finish our meal and bade each other fairwell. The roads are deserted and slippery as hell. Me and the 740 are having a whale of time, we're sliding sideways opposite lock round the roundabouts, steering it on the throttle. We stop and fuel up in case of getting stuck in any traffic jams. We approach Chichley hill just outside MK and are greeted with a huge queue of traffic. We join the queue and are sitting there stationery for about 30mins. All off a sudden there is this boom, and steam and hot antifreeze comes blasting into the cabin. I shut the engine down and jump out. Steam is billowing out. Once the steam has cleared i manage to drive the car into a nearby layby and call the recovery services. 6 hours later after sitting there in the freezing temperatures we are recovered back to home.

So today January the 31st, Project TURBOR starts in earnest. First job on the list is to strip the interior out so that the carpets can be dried out and the Heater Valve that exploded repaired. Whilst all the interior is out, its ideal for laying all the extra wires for the future modifications.

The rest of the development of this Volvo 740 Turbo can be found in TurboR Progress

Project TurboR Progress