1997 Volvo S60

Specifications

Year

1997

Mileage

97,500 km

Body

sedan

Make

Volvo

Model

S60

Listing ID

88320

Description

The ONE AND ONLY Volvo 850R "Manual" for sale in Malaysia!!! Only five units were ever brought into Malaysia and this unicorn is ONE of two surviving manual transmission units in Malaysia! A true hen's teeth.There were only 221 ORIGINAL Red Volvo 850R sedans ever produced in the world. Less than 100 units were ever produced in Right Hand Drive. I repeat...this is an ORIGINAL 850R chassis and not a converted unit! Hence, what we have here is a needle in a hay stack.This was the car which shook the world in BTCC Racing in the 90s. It was a statement made by Volvo to show the world what they were capable of besides just focusing on providing the safest family car. This car put Volvo on the map! People laughed when Volvo said they were entering BTCC Racing with a family sedan and station wagon. Their laughs vanished on the very first lap of the race. Everyone was at the edge of their seats and the rest was history!The 850R ate BMW M3s for breakfast and used AUDI's & ALFA's as toothpicks after dessert. It was serious business. The secret was in its new Five Cylinder Turbocharged engine which was developed with the help of Porsche. It was the world's first ever fwd transversed 5 cylinder turbocharged engine. Porsche wanted to prove that they could make an underdog into the fastest car in racing! Yes, they did it! The 850R entered racing with the station wagon variant and yet took home 2nd and 3rd places despite its heavy body. Volvo knew they could perform better if the weight was further well distributed. Hence, later on they went in with the sedan variant which had a nearly 50-50 evenly weighted distributed car. The outcome? It was carnage!!!! It performed even better than the station wagons and took home the trophies!Till date, there is a reason people fear of tailgating Volvos on the highway for they know it has immense power when the turbo kicks in. The 850R was the foundation and the initial spark of that very performance. As we know, the regular 850 T5s were already powerful enough with a limited top speed of 250km/h. It was so powerful that it was used as highway patrol chase cars in many countries including Malaysia. They chased Mitsubishi Evos and Subaru Imprezas just to warm up their engines. It was the ultimate sleeper car and highway king of the 90s!!!! It was a pure legend!!!!Now...if you thought the 850 T5s were fast enough and tearing the highways? Imagine what the 850R will do????!!!! It was the 850 T5 on steroids! The 850R had an immense torque of 350Nm which was insane!!!! To put it into comparison, a rear wheel drive Nissan Skyline R32 GTR powered by a 6 cylinder twin turbocharged engine produces 353Nm of torque. Now imagine all that equal power on a front wheel drive family car. Let your imagination wonder! 😉The 850R accelerates from 0-100km/h in just above 6 seconds. To put it into perspective and reference, supercars like the Ferrari F355 and the Porsche 911 of that era were doing 0-100km/h in the 5 second region. The 850R was a supercar chaser on the highway. The car was too powerful when the turbo kicked in. With the right driver, it would outrun supercars in corners and even on a straight line in many scenarios. Volvo had to provide exclusive driving classes for all their customers. It was too much power to handle by normal daily drivers back in the days.Being such an iconic and rare car, Volvo only built less than 2500 units of 850R in a single year production run. The 850R was the more powerful and refined version of the T5R. Hence, it was the last run of the R line which was the most powerful variant of them all. The last models were equipped with bigger turbo, bigger intakes, bigger extractors for extra power and reinforced chassis / suspensions for better handling. The manual units had further upgrades in power and performance.ONLY 20 units 850R were the quota allocated and supplied to Malaysia. Out of the 20..only 5 units were manual. They were all sold by Federal Auto in 1996-1997 at the price of RM285k. In the 90s, that was biiigggg money!!!! All the 20 units were in red exterior body colour matched with beige alcantara leather interior which was the iconic 850R colour combination. All the 20 customers in Malaysia who booked for the 850Rs were flown to Sweden at an all expense paid trip for two weeks under the "Volvo 850R programme". Upon arrival, each of them were given an 850R to drive in Sweden for two weeks. They had to adapt and get used to the car before receiving their own units in Malaysia. They were also given exclusive one to one racing driving lessons on the race track. These customers were also given an exclusive tour on how their cars would be built in the factory. Volvo had to prepare its customers in every possible manner before they received their car because the 850R was just too overwhelming and easy to lose control if not prepared for.What we have here is one of less than 10 surviving 850Rs in Malaysia!!!! The 850R l was so powerful and uncontrollable that it has claimed the lives of many although it was the safest car in the world! I have documented the history of nearly every unit in Malaysia for I am the owner of 3 units 850Rs myself currently. It is a hen's teeth indeed and it took me years to locate nearly all of them. I do not have to further justify the rarity of this car. It has become a highly sought after car worldwide by avid enthusiasts for they know the scarcity of it. Since I have 3 units of the 850Rs, I am willing to part with one heavy heartedly. Bear in mind that you can't import one into Malaysia even if you wanted to because the car is not qualified for Classic AP which requires it to be 35 years and above. This means that it needs another 5 years waiting period to mature. By then, the prices would have sky rocketed for this is a Blue Chip stock worldwide! Plus, right hand drive units are hyper rare worldwide and command a higher price!Now, who said Money can't buy Time? You can buy 5 years in advance and live the dream while your health permits. Above all, you get to see, touch, hold and feel the car in real life before purchasing it unlike the cars you buy from overseas which have to be purchased at your own risk. Here is your chance to save all the hassle and own an iconic piece of pure racing pedigree with strong motoring history in a heartbeat locally! Serious and hardcore enthusiast who are avid petrol heads that appreciate the scarcity of this pure breed stallion may contact me directly. Cheers and Thank You. 😊PRICE : RM99,999 (Or Best Offer Secures)CONTACT : 016-9580649 / 016-4444404LOCATION : MELAKA, MALAYSIA