We drove down to Northern VA this weekend to visit my parents and had a chance to check out some museums in DC. Pulling onto the mall at 10:15 on a Sunday allowed us to park right in front of the Capitol, the National Gallery and the museum of the American Indian. It also gave […]
The ipd Sport Springs are installed now and they ride great. At left are the driver-side springs, new and old. I can’t believe how much shorter the new spring is when they’re unsprung. It made installation easier than removal because we didn’t need to compress the coil. The new spring was so much shorter that […]
I found an interesting anti-sway bar FAQ, posted on swedishbricks.com in 1992. A writer asks about upgrading the sway bars on her husband’s new 245: So, we bought the ’92 240 5 spd wagon. My husband, to whom I regularly deliver hardcopy of Volvo-net wisdom, wants to know about the best width swaybars for improving […]
iPD has a nice profile on their in-house graphic designer and his Volvo collection. He’s got the following: 1970 140 (above, left) 1969 140 1967 122 1990 240 1971 140 1970 140 (above, right, recently sold) He’s another brick lover who has swedish autos following him home.
The Brick now has new brakes. I ordered rotors and pads from FCP Groton and was pleasantly surprised to find the vented ATE discs I purchased for the front were upgraded to ATE Premium slotted. I’m still breaking the pads in, but from the brief ride back home I can tell I’ve got a safer […]
I brought the Brick in for an oil change last week and got the inevitable list of problems that always happens when the car gets put on a lift at a garage. I knew I needed new wheel bearings and tires, but didn’t count on needing new brakes. I changed the pads about 20k miles […]
IPD released its February Rear Wheel Drive newsletter and they feature a sweet 242 “drift car” from Rob Prince. I upped the boost to 25psi at SE 6.0 in the fall of 2007, and dynoed 280whp and 305 wtq, in a dyno room that was 114 degrees F!!! It felt much faster, of course, but […]
I installed anti-sway bars with my buddy Andy last summer and they ride nice, but aren’t as dramatic a change as I expected. More details and pics after the jump.
The rear springs of the brick sag so bad that it bounces like a Slinky when I hit a speed bump. At 145k it’s not a surprise, especially since I have no idea what the previous owner used to put in the back. Getting new KYB shocks didn’t help much, so I figure they need […]
Jay Boucher is an interactive designer and visual artist in Hoboken, NJ. Visit jayboucher.com for more info. Jay’s Volvo Story In ’94 I bought my first car, a silver ’87 740 turbo wagon, from a family of four in suburban DC. It had a power sunroof and a chunky, black, early 90’s cell phone handset […]