Scandinavian tuning culture is very interesting and original and machines built by local enthusiasts continue to amaze with their solutions. Another interesting car appeared in Sweden — all-wheel drive Volvo Amazon.
Filip Malm from Sweden is the constructor and the pilot of this machine and he already had built fast Amazon, but the experience was not entirely successful, and it revealed the problems that could be solved with the construction of a new car. This time Filip set specific goals: the car should be well balanced and have a four-wheel drive to use maximum capacity of the motor.
The whole project took almost 10 months — Filip wanted to finish the construction by the birth of a daughter and he practically managed to do it in time. It took some time to find a source car untouched by rust and to think through the concept of the car and the project started...
Almost the whole chassis was taken from Skyline R32: front and rear suspension, gearbox and differentials, and, of course, Nissan AWD control system ATTESA. Definitely suspension, engine and drivetrain mounting points were changed, so the space frame was implemented to the body and then was the choice of the motor. To achieve a good output keeping in mind the reliability of nodes it was decided to take almost stock V8 and turbocharge it. Whoa, what V8 are you talking about? Isn’t there everything from Skyline?
Filip selected BMW 4 liters V8 (M60) — not the sports version, on the one hand, but this engine was enough for him to get good traction without compromising the reliability of the engine and transmission. And to have enough power for sure, Filip added the turbo — Garrett 42 blows 0.75 bar in the road mode and 1.2 bar in sport mode directly into the engine without an intercooler. The engine remains with stock pistons so MaxxECU computer with integrated boost controller is programmed to increase power step by step through the gears, without excessive load on the engine. As a result, the output is been very good: 450hp/540Nm and 620hp/750Nm for road and sport settings, respectively.
The exterior was modified with minimum updates- fender extensions added 14 cm to the width of the front and 16 cm to the rear. Doors, hood and trunk are made of fiberglass, the hood has grown by 25 centimeters in height to cover a Bavarian motor, and trunk lid has the hole to ventilate the radiator, escaped from the close engine compartment.
In the interior — there is traditional sports minimalism — the already mentioned frame, Sparco Sprint seats, the floor made of aluminum, huge transmission tunnel with an interesting solution for gearshift lever — it appears in uncomfortable place for the driver, so Filip had to make a kind of adapter; steering wheel, sports pedal box and... a Samsung Galaxy Note II smartphone as an instrument panel. MaxxECU has its software for Android devices that can act not only as a dashboard, but to control the boost or traction distribution together with ATTESA between the axles.
By the birth of the daughter the car was almost ready, and it a small thing remained — to get a road permission for it and go to the track. It is strange and unusual for Russian drivers but despite the countless modifications, the phone instead of instruments and clear sports focus Filip managed to make his car road legal, so he can drive it directly to the track. We don’t have such liberalism in Russia... The miracle vehicle has already been tested on track, without any records yet, but Filip is quite happy — the goals of balance and control are achieved.
1967 Volvo ‘Super’ Amazon
Numbers 620hp at rear wheels
Engine BMW M60 4.0L V8, Garrett GT42RR turbocharger, 2x Bosch Motorsport 044 fuel pumps, 8x Bosch 1200cc/min injectors, rear-mounted radiator setup, 2x grille-mounted oil coolers, MaxxECU engine management system
Driveline Nissan BNR32 5-speed gearbox, BNR32 Skyline GT-R driveline, Nissan ATTESA AWD controller
Suspension BNR32 Skyline GT-R front and rear subframes, BNR32 Skyline GT-R complete front/rear suspension, HSD Monopro adjustable dampers, BNR34 Skyline GT-R spec Brembo brakes front/rear
Wheels / Tyres XXR 530 18×8.75-inch (front), 18×9.75-inch (rear), Hankook Ventus slicks 260/660–18 (front), 280/660–18 (rear)
Exterior Fiberglass front fenders, fiberglass bonnet with +25 mm lift to clear engine, fiberglass doors, fiberglass trunk, +14 cm front over-fenders, +16 cm rear over-fenders
Interior Custom fabricated floor, custom fabricated tube frame with multi-point roll cage, Samsung GALAXY Note II running a MaxxECU digital display, custom switchgear, OBP pedal box, OMP steering wheel, Sparco Sprint seats, Sparco seat belts.
Photo: speedhunters.com
