Volvo 300 Series

Thanks to a massive geriatric fan-base, there are plenty of 300 series Volvos floating about. Often with full service history for little more than pocket money. Dispite being a Volvo they are not as well made as bigger Volvos, and they do rot much worse. The 300 series is split into the 340 which had Renault engines and the 360 which had a Volvo engine.

The Renault engined 340 came with either a 1.4 OHV 8v engine from the Renault 5 with a whopping 70 bhp or a 1.7 OHC 8v engine with slightly better 80 bhp. To be honest it’s probably best to avoid them unless you’re planning to increase the power or it’s so cheap you can’t say no.

The Volvo engined 360 came with the 2.0 OHC with a carb or injection, the carb cars made 100bhp and the injection models made 115bhp. But neither is quick.

The fix for the fact they are all basically fucking slow, is an engine swap. Thankfully due to other more powerful Renaults and Volvos there are plenty of engine swap possibilities:

• 1.4 engine: can be replaced with a R5 turbo engine or swapped for the bigger Renault engines.
• 1.7 engine: can be replaced with a 1.7 turbo engine from the 400 series Turbo for 120bhp or the more popular 1.8 16v Clio engine for 130bhp.
• 2.0 engine: can be replaced by any 700/900 series 4 cylinder engine giving the choice of 2.3 bottom end, turbocharged engine, 16v head or any combination of these.

However the transmission is weak, so don’t expect it to handle major power.

The saving grace of the 300 series is the steering, which has a fair amount of lock and self centres nicely. The other strength is they are very cheap to modify:

• RWD Escort/Capri lowering block can be used to lower the rear suspension for around £15.
• Rear leaf springs can be doubled up.
• Land Rover 90 front dampers, are a direct replacement for the standard rear damper. These can be picked up for £30 for the pair.
• Front dampers are wet inserts which can be drained and refilled with thicker gear oil.
• Because the front dampers are inserts they can easily be converted to coilovers for around £40.


For:

• Cheap to buy.
• Cheap to work on.
• Cheap to modify.
• Cheap to fix.
• Cheap to insure.
• Good steering.


Against:

• Slow, really slow.
• Weak transmission.
• Rot.
• Total image failure.

Written by RobinXR4i.