Mods and Consequences
Volvo 300
Are there any cars less cool than the Volvo 300? You’d be forgiven for thinking not, but the 300’s popularity has grown steadily in recent years thanks to its status as one of the cheapest rear-wheel-drive vehicles money can buy. That pensionable image means that there are plenty of low-owner, low-mileage 300s in good condition knocking about at around £1000 – and this has seen them getting snapped up by an entirely different crowd.
Rather surprisingly, the car has been adopted as a go-to entry route into amateur drifting thanks to the ease with which it can be agitated into a predictable slide, even in humble 1.4-litre guise, meaning that the Volvo 300 hasn’t struggled to find a youth audience, unlike some other classics. Unsurprisingly, this means that lowering the car and swapping in more powerful modern engines is a welltrodden and well-supported route.
The 1.7-litre Renault F-seriespowered 340 is a favourite among modifiers because Renault is still making the engine today in much more powerful forms, so doubling the power output is a case of a few conversion parts and an engine crane. Meanwhile, Volvo-powered 360s can be turned into real beasts, with the 940’s turbocharged unit a straight swap, providing 162bhp in standard form – and much more with tuning.
That said, there’s more to the 300 than its rear-wheel-drive; its transaxle gearbox makes the handling very balanced and progressive, something that has endeared them to rally drivers as well as drifters. Most do agree, however, that these cars were very much sprung for comfort – excessively so. There’s an awful lot of not-fantastically-clever advice online on this particular point, however, including filling the shock absorbers with gearbox oil, which is a definite no-no, so be careful.
Basically, if it sounds too good (or easy/cheap) to be true, then it almost certainly is. Lowering springs and blocks combined with a full polybush conversion will help to firm the ride up no-end, but this is still not an ideal solution. It’s far better to fit coilovers all around, which although pricey, will allow you to make the car handle far better without breaking your spine every time you drive over a speed bump.