Lightning McQueen Volvo Rally Art Car

If you were 3 years old, what car do you want your parents to own? It's not an easy question to ask a 3 year old as there answers are limited. However, Lightning McQueen surely has to be one of the top. And, if you need a sporty looking vehicle to base your Lightning McQueen on - what would you choose? A Volvo 740 of course.

In this case, three grown adults made the car of their dreams, apparently. A Volvo 740 plucked from obscurity that had spent its life driving round the UK's home counties, was now made into an art car. And driven across Europe repeatedly on our events.

I've never actually worked out what the motivation to make this car was, apart from further capitalising on a Cars dvd they had obviously bought.

You may be wondering whether there are any similarities between this car and a real sports car. There aren't.

However, the side effect of being the proud owner of Lightning McQueen meant that the owner was constantly bugged by their kids to take them to school in Lightning, which included half the kids from the neighbourhood. As the owner lamented one day, we can do the school run in a brand new Mercedes, or Lightning. Lightning won every time.

So there we have it. How to impress your children. Make Lightning McQueen.

By Justin Clements Street Safari

Spaced out Moonraker Volvo Rally Art Car

From the deranged minds that brought you the Tank Volvo and Helicopter, we have a space shuttle theme.

Not sure what the background to the idea from these particular overachievers is, maybe Moonraker, but they decided to do a space shuttle theme, with a trailer tent (its like a tent, but on a trailer) with a world on it.

Obviously, making a space shuttle out of a Volvo just doesn't work (you need a BMW 1600 for that, which we shall show you in future weeks), so they made their own space shuttle, mounted two side boosters (SRBs) to the Volvo, and effectively made the Volvo into the external fuel tank.

Then, bolt a great big round piece of metal onto the trailer, paint the Earth on it, and hey presto, you have your very own horizontal Space Shuttle Program, with a diagram of the Earth on the trailer behind incase you forget what your home planet looks like.

The team (the overachievers) even put in some pyrotechnics so that the shuttle actually looks like it has an exhaust trail! We like. Partly because it's always fun to see a bit of thought behind these things, and partly because the chance of the whole thing catching fire is greatly increased.

The trailer tent deserves it's own 15 seconds of fame. It was possibly the mankiest tent you have ever seen in your life. They think the previous owners bought all the camping gear, went camping once, didn't like it, packed the tent wet (remember it's canvas), and let the whole thing fester and rot for several years.

When the team opened the tent for the first time in many years, there were literally bits missing from the canvas, large sections in fact.

But quick to their aid came some drinking aids. They installed a set of optics in the trailer for each evening, and as long as you got far too drunk, you didn't notice the howling gail in the car each night. Or at least, I think that's how that was meant to work.

By Justin Clements Street Safari

Volvo Art Car Splattered to Perfection

Volvo Art Car Splattered to Perfection. I don't know maybe they missed a spot:)

C-3PO's Car found Parked in LA called Dub Robot

C-3PO's Dub Robot art car was seen parked in Santa Monika some weeks ago, photographed by Ellen Bloom on her LA beat. Mystery solved, C-3PO drives an old golden Volvo.

Photos by Ellen Bloom

Volvo Tank and Helicopter Banger Rally Art Car

End2End is a Land's End to John O'Groats banger rally in the UK. The event is based around camping rather than hotels, although we don't mind teams doing guest houses if camping is too rough.

However, we do encourage caravans on this event. Its a Banger Rally meets Carry On Camping.

With that said, Team Atlantic Booze Cruisers took up the challenge of making a caravan theme for their art car and caravan. They took a perfectly good volvo with a camper and turned into a Tank with a gun turret of unknown fire power. The caravan was made to look a like a bloated RAF helicopter. Not sure if it will ever take to the sky's, but I am sure its very comfy on the inside. Bernard Montgomery would be proud of these troops.

Only the mind of a warped individual (Rob) could possibly come up with the Volvo Tank and Helicopter.

You decide:

a) we like how your mind works, Rob
b) we are actually quite disturbed how your mind works, Rob
or c) hey, I can do better than that!

Enjoy the build pictures!

The Sauna - Riding the Alps in Style

The Sauna was built from a Volvo 240 and taken on CzechWrecks 2009, a 1500 mile 4 day journey starting from Calais, France through Swiss and Italian Alps all the way to Prague, Czech Republic.

What we have here is about 1/3rd of a ton of wood paneling being applied to the Volvo.

If you are wondering whether this wood had any impact on performance, I am assured it did. What performance they had to start with, remember that Volvo 240 are agricultural at best, that performance was soon zeroed.

Chris and Tom and their team built this car to raise money for charity and an opportunity to travel in their bath towels riding the sauna over some of the highest passes in Europe.

2007 Volvo V70

From Ford Auto Shows, the Volvo V70 debut at the 2007 LA Auto Show.
autoshows.ford.com

Volvo C30 2.0D SE Sport Interior

Volvo C30 2.0D SE Sport Interior.
Interior design and function shot of a Volvo C30 in Passion Red, with many options boxed ticked, for feature/review on theswitchback.com

Volvo C30 2.0D SE Sport

Volvo C30 2.0D SE Sport
Volvo C30 in Passion Red, with many options boxed ticked, for feature/review on theswitchback.com, taken in a car park.

Volvo XC 90

Volvo XC 90























Volvo has recently launched its luxury cars in india. Around 6 years ago, Volvo had launched its buses and trucks which met with a lot of success. India's TATA and Ashok Leyland which were the market leaders in trucks and buses, lost considerable market share when Volvo entered the scene.
Now Volvo has launched its sedan and SUV in India. In my personal opinion, though Volvo is known worldover for its solidly built vehicles, Indians still fancy Mercs and BMWs as a status symbol. However, if these vehicles are priced competitively, then probably it could get a fair share of Indian owners.
At this Speed Car Auto Show at Bandra in Mumbai on 23rd Nov 2007, there were'nt many visitors on this stall as compared to the BMW stall which was never empty.
www.flickr.com/photos/jeevanbalwant

Volvo-S80

Volvo-S80
Volvo has recently launched its luxury cars in india. Around 6 years ago, Volvo had launched its buses and trucks which met with a lot of success. India's TATA and Ashok Leyland which were the market leaders in trucks and buses, lost considerable market share when Volvo entered the scene.
Now Volvo has launched its sedan and SUV in India. In my personal opinion, though Volvo is known worldover for its solidly built vehicles, Indians still fancy Mercs and BMWs as a status symbol. However, if these vehicles are priced competitively, then probably it could get a fair share of Indian owners.
At this Speed Car Auto Show at Bandra in Mumbai on 23rd Nov 2007, there were'nt many visitors on this stall as compared to the BMW stall which was never empty.
www.flickr.com/photos/jeevanbalwant