First Videos of Heico Sportiv's Volvo V40 T5 HPC with 345-Horses, Should They Build It?

The hot hatch segment has come a very, very long way since Volkswagen wrote the first page in the segment with the original Golf GTI powered by a 108hp (110PS) 1.6-liter engine in the summer of 1976. Nowadays, we're seeing hatches with close to 50 percent more power than a Ferrari 308 GT4 from the mid-1970s…

Volvo has tried to venture in the category with a number of proposals over the years, but it never really hit the mark, something that Heico Sportiv is aiming to achieve with its latest concept that may very well enter production.

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Meet David Letterman's Volvo 960 Estate with a Ford V8 Racing Engine

Did you know that Paul Newman once commissioned a Volvo 960 with a racing V8 engine? Well, as a matter of fact, he commissioned two units, one for him and one for his racing partner David Letterman. The talk-show host still owns the car and brought it along when Jerry Seinfeld asked him to be the guest of his show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Read more »

The Volvo of the Future Will Drop You Off and Park All by Itself [w/Video]

We’ve heard a lot about autonomous driving in recent years, but how about autonomous parking? Volvo has given this a thought and is developing the technology that will make autonomous parking a reality in the future.

A Volvo V40 prototype fitted with the technology is able to find and park in a vacant space by itself, without the driver inside. Volvo says the driverless car interacts safely and smoothly with other cars and pedestrians in the car park.

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Last of Its Kind – Watch a POV Test Drive of the Volvo C30 T5 R-Design

The C30 will definitely be missed, with its competent Ford Focus underpinnings, which made it quite a handler, solid Volvo interior and of course, the exterior design. Now, it has been pulled from the production line, without getting a direct replacement – yet.

However, it will not be forgotten by many, especially after seeing monstrous concept by Polestar, which gave the C30 all-wheel drive and 405 hp, as well as a body kit and unique shade of blue. That car was well received, and it spurred the Swedes to create the T5 M R-Design Polestar Edition, which is a toned down (but still exciting) version of the concept.

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It's a Dud: Volvo World Premiere was a Team-up With Swedish House Mafia, Not a New Model...

As it turns out, Volvo’s recently-uploaded teaser videos concerning a "world premiere" were not proclaiming the arrival of a new crossover. In fact, it is an announcement for their team-up with DJ trio Swedish House Mafia for the creation of a music video that uses the group’s hit song “Leave the World Behind” – it will be used in the global launch campaign for the XC60, which is apparently what we saw in the photo we posted. Read more »

Volvo Almost Doubles Production of the V60 Plug-in Hybrid to Keep Up with Demand

Volvo says it is increasing production of the V60 Plug-in Hybrid by 90 percent to keep up with the demand, originating mainly from Holland, Belgium and Italy. This means that production at Volvo Cars’ Torslanda plant in Sweden will be boosted from 150 to 282 units per week. For the entire 2013, Volvo Cars will produce 7,600 plug-in hybrids, with the 2014 target being 10,000 units. Read more »

Volvo Releases Video Teasers for Mystery World Premiere, but What is it?

Volvo’s current lineup of models is satisfactory, especially after they added the V40 to the range, but by dropping of the C30 three-door hatch and S40 sedan, they could never compete with their German rivals in terms of diversity.

They need new models, and the two teaser videos posted below may be preparing us for just that. However, they are so ambiguous that they may very well be announcing a new sponsorship for their yachting effort, and we’d be none the wiser…

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Volvo's All-New VEA Four-Cylinder Turbo Engines Enter Production

Marking an important milestone in the development of its brand new VEA (Volvo Engine Architecture) family of four-cylinder turbocharged gasoline and diesel powerplants, Volvo announced today that the first engine variants started production at the company's plant in Skövde, Sweden. Read more »

Woman Chased by Cops Calls 911 to Ask Trooper to "Get Off Her Back"

Well, here's one we haven't heard before. A 44-year old woman from Salt Lake County was engaged in a police chase after she refused to pull over for speeding and illegally using the emergency lane to bypass traffic. What makes this story colorful is that the woman, later on identified as Lisa Ann Bluth, called 911 and asked the dispatcher "that the trooper get off her back"!

According to KSL News, when the Utah Highway Patrol (UHP) called her back and told her that she should pull over, she told the dispatcher that she was not required to do so and that the cops had stolen her previous car and taken her blood.

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1998 Autotech-Tuned Volvo S40 T4 Shows Lamborghini Gallardo Who's The Speed Boss

Of all the models that have worn the Volvo badge over the years, the first generation of the S40, which was co-developed with Mitsubishi and shared a common platform and engines with another mind-numbing model, the Carisma, ranks very high on the uncool-meter.

However, this particular S40 has a little something that its regular siblings don't: 420-horses rumbling under its hood. We're told that it's a 1998 Volvo S40 T4, which in factory guise was powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged four delivering 197hp (200PS), but this one is tuned by Autotech. It's unclear whether the 420-horses are measured on the crankshaft or the wheels.

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Swedes Tell the Tale of the New Volvo S60 Polestar Sports Sedan

In a somewhat ironic twist, Polestar's first true performance production model, the new Volvo S60 Polestar, won't be offered in its home market. In fact, it won't even be available in Europe. Instead, the only country that will get the car is located several thousand miles on the other side of the world, in Australia – at least for the time being, as Volvo did say that further markets "are under investigation". Read more »

Volvo Develops New Flywheel Tech that Can Boost Economy by Up to 25 Percent

Whenever we hear bold claims like a 25 percent reduction in fuel consumption brought about by a very innovative idea, we’re always skeptical, as one needs to be in these situations, as discernment is important and it needs to stay balanced for us to make the best decisions.

However, when a big name like Volvo makes such a claim, and backs it up with reasonably detailed information, one has to pay closer attention, right?

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Volvo S60 Driver Tries to Overtake Motorcyclists on the Grass, Pays the Price…

Here's one incident where we think that both parties are to blame – the group of motorcyclists for spreading out on both lanes and blocking the road for the rest of the motorists, and the driver of the older generation Volvo S60 sedan for trying to overtake them by stepping on the grass and performing a very dangerous move, as it turned out. Read more »

Digital Gauge Clusters' Popularity Rising, Watch How the One on the Volvo V60 PHEV Works

One of the perks of writing many stories from the automotive world, and especially those about all-new cars, is that you get to see patterns which all manufacturers follow. In recent times, we had autonomous braking and lane departure warning (LDW) systems, which are slowly becoming standard, and now it's digital gauge clusters.

While covering the NY motor show, it struck me just how many manufacturers have started offering the technology that is no longer limited to high-end cars.

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Volvo Pushes Autonomous Braking Further with Cyclist Detection, Beijing Road Users Troubled

Volvo is a manufacturer on a mission to make their cars the safest in the world. They try to push the technology forward more than any other manufacturer, and at this year's edition of the Geneva Motor Show, they revealed a unique new safety system.

It is called cyclist detection, but aside from doing the obvious (detect cyclists), it can also bring the car to a halt all on its own, if the sensors pick up a in imminent threat.

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Volvo Engineer Going Berserk on Spy Photographer Ends Up on YouTube

Anyone who claims that being a spy photographer for the automotive industry is a walk in the park, clearly hasn’t a clue what this profession entails.

On the other hand, we also understand that being followed / stalked by people with cameras while you're trying to do your job as an engineer can be frustrating and time-consuming. Nevertheless, if you're not driving on a private track but on public roads, you just have to learn to live with it.

Now, it's one thing for an engineer to display his or her anger with sign language, as we've seen it happen many times in the past, and a completely different story when you get physically aggressive.

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Volvo Starts Production of V60 Diesel Plug-In Hybrid, 2013 Output Already Sold Out

Volvo announced on Monday that it has started production of the V60 Plug-in Hybrid estate at its Torslanda plant in Gothenburg. Deliveries of the first cars to customers will begin in early 2013, though; if you’re interested don’t expect to get one before 2014 because the initial batch consists of just 1,000 vehicles, all of which have already been spoken for. Read more »

Volvo Terror is a Turbocharged Tractor that will Knock Your Socks Off

It will burn rubber, do donuts, drift on the field and at the same time, plow your farm; meet the Volvo Terror, an old tractor from the middle of the last century that has been outfitted with a Volvo-sourced B21ET turbocharged petrol engine.

The B21ET belongs to Volvo's Redblock gasoline engine series and was used on cars like the 240. In factory form, the 2.1-liter turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine developed 155hp (157PS). Whether the engine found in the tractor is completely stock or has been upgraded, remains unknown.

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Volvo Sends 508hp S60 Polestar Performance Concept to Russia

For a car that has already been sold to an unidentified American buyer for the paltry sum of $300,000 or the equivalent of a BMW M5 ($89,000) sedan, a Porsche 991 Carrera Convertible ($93,700) and a Corvette ZR1 ($112,600), the one-off Volvo S60 Polestar Performance Concept is sure racking up a lot of miles.

On the other hand, the buyer had been informed by Volvo officials that he would receive the car only after Polestar finishes promoting it to the media and the public.

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Volvette V70 Police Car is Here to Serve Some Crazy Donuts

Volvo station wagons have always been some of the most understated and widely misunderstood cars in the market, which ultimately makes them the ideal candidates for insane sleeper (or Q) cars.

As clearly hinted by its name, the Volvette featured here is a V70 estate that does away with its factory Volvo engine to adopt an American heart and drivetrain from an early 2000s Corvette C5 Z06.

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