Hi guys, new to the forum so be gentle. Apologies in advance if I have posted this in the wrong section.

I have a high powered (450bhp) Volvo V70 T5 that only gets used as a weekend car and for track days, so basically it gets used and treated as a kit car but can carry a wardrobe

In the summer I was at Snetterton for a msv track day and had pax laps in a Caterham R500 Superlight. To say I was gob smacked with the cornering and braking speeds is an understatement of the century, top speed was only a few mph off what the T5 is capable of. Since then I've been wondering what to do with the T5 and as quick as it is for a road car its on the hefty side, roughly 1600kg. I could put the car on a diet, but for the costs involved in carbon panels etc, its never going to be a lightweight.

So! Loving the sound of the 5pot at full chat, it got me thinking, what about fitting my T5 lump in a 7esque car?!?

What would be the best 7esque car to start with that would allow the fitment of a T5 engine?

Which gearbox/prop/diff would be suitable for this conversion bearing in mind the power levels?

I could keep on asking questions, but I'll leave it at that for now.

Cheers

Steve

It's an interesting idea however when your using a car that weighs around 500Kg you might find that 450 horses rather overwelms the handling
The R500 is called that because it has 500bhp per tonne
Yours would have 900bhp per tonne
I don't want to put you off just get you to think more about what makes a 7 do what it does so well and it's not just raw power
Most on this forum run under 200bhp engines some a little more
There comes a point of diminishing returns with power in a light car.
Power is no use if you can't put it down and you won't have any clever traction controls, abs, stability etc, just your talent exposed for all to see.

[Edited on 16/12/12 by snapper]

T5 would fit into a Viento engine bay with loads of room to spare . IIRC there was a Viento kit in the for sale section recently

I have a standard s70r and I have often thought about the engine in a kit car

Bit big and bloody heavy

Like the sound of ur 450bhp monster


Striker-4age

Its been done


T5 Engine @ Nurburgring

And what a beast it looks.

Like most fwd engines the stumbling block is a rwd gearbox. The white block m90 is rare and chunky and no doubt not upto 500bhp. There is a firm called Kl racing or somthing that make adapters for bmw gearboxes.

There is a Volvo Estate over on another forum that I use, Retro Rides. It is super quick and still in its original shape.

T5 Volvo

Its an interesting build and evolution of a car.

I'd agree with wasa about the M90 box, too chunky and eats into pedal space. I've sold mine now and it paid for a new engine and gearbox and a load of other bits for my new engine swap.

On the volvo owners forum, in the 1800/Amazon sub section someone is putting a straight six volvo engine in an amazon and they are using an R380 gearbox which is very slim compared to the M90. It looks like they've used a 960 autobox bellhousing and made an adapter plate behind that. The manual M90 bellhousing is integral to the box so I assume it's from the auto, auto 960s are very common - type 'volvo 960 breaking' in ebay.

If I ever get bored of the Saab engine that's what I would replace it with but front engine rear drive would be just too much hassle trying to get the power down especially being turbo power as well .

M90 is stronger than the R380 , it is actually a getrag design .

the best box to use is the cossie t5 box , it has the best ratios and can handle the torque upto a certain point .

best idea is to use a screaming NA 2.5 5 cylinder that doesnt have any parphanalia hanging off it .

KL racing do getrag adapters , t5 and type 9 adapters are available altho youll have to look very hard .......

therye all based around the auto bellhousing .

the best chassis to use is the one thast made for the engine and box combo , since you need to figure for weight distribution aswell.

its the reason i ended up using a +442 chassis to get the weight further backwards , the chassis was higher to allow for the bigger bellhousing , and also because the engine leans over a bit , you need the wider chassis .... mine was redblock engined car which might be a better starting point anyway , but all the relevant points are the same ....

Thanks for all the replies so far. Here's a link to my T5 http://forums.t5d5.org/topic/11117-the-blackbeast-project/

I will have to do some research on the torque levels that these boxes can reliably take and go from there. Will also start the search for a 960 sump.