>>10831638I didn't plan on going into this much detail but we haven't had a bump in days so fuck it.
Car companies typically don't run their own race efforts. They provide money, tech and support but hire professional teams to do the actual racing.
Tom Walkinshaw Racing was the team that ran those Jaguar XJR's that dethroned Porsche at Le Mans and won the World Endurance Championship. In 1994 that program was ending with the end of the Group C category.
At the same time Volvo wanted to race in the British Touring Car Championship. Volvo wanted a good team and TWR needed a new job so it was a good fit.
Problem was the engine. BTCC rules at the time were 2-liter engines, no turbos. The 5-cylinder engines Volvo wanted to run were way short on power and it was going to take at least a year of development work to get them up to be competitive with the best cars.
They were doomed to a year of puttering around at the back of the pack for a year anyway so Volvo and TWR decided to do something silly to get attention while they worked on building up the horsepower. If you can't build a winning car, build one people will love.
They only raced the station wagon 850's for one year, switching to a conventional sedan for next year. By now the engines were ready to get the job done and Rickard Rydell got 3rd in the BTCC. By 1998 they won the title.
But nobody remembers that but obsessed superfans like me. It's the crazy station wagon race cars that people remember...and gets made into a main line Hot Wheels.
