Volvo 340 mk2 F7r 2.0l 16v Williams Drift Car

What I’m about to show you now is the ultimate expression of a Volvo 343 Drift Car with a Renault F7R engine fitted

This one here has the proper Clio Williams powered 2.0l 16v engine in it. Mine was a F7p engine which is the 1.8 16v powered equivalent. Both Engines are fundamentally the same, they share alot of components with each other, but the Williams one has the stronger, bored out bottom end and a longer piston stroke. So the most noticeable characteristic straightaway is extra torque. This comes at the price of a lower rev limit though.

From a bit of research and reading around, it is possible to raise the rev limit of the F7r lumps with an ECU remap, but personally I wouldn’t bother with that. It could mess up other characteristics of these engines. Both seem to have a very linear, stable torque curve which makes putting your foot down incredibly predictable which once again makes it perfect for a RWD setup.

One of the best parts about this particular car is it’s looks. I mean look at it! Who would think that there’s a Clio Williams lump under the bonnet? The amount of people it surprises are endless. I’m a huge fan of the Rat/Drift/Abused/Original look and this Volvo 340  pulls it off perfectly. It’s not just that, look at how it’s sat on the road aswell. It has a very purposeful presence about it, but it’s also very original at the same time.

This Volvo 340 is actually a 1984 Mk2 version, so you get the little things like the chrome trim around the windows and all the original badging on it. The thing that always gets me and will shock people as it passes though is the cheeky “340GL Automatic” badge on the back..Yea right!

The front and rear headlights are slightly different to how mine was as well. (my one was a 1989 mk3 Volvo 340DL) the front headlights, while the same, have a small metal piece running below them which mine didn’t, same with the grill too. Also the rear brake and reverse lights are all arranged vertically,my one had a random white block in the middle for a reverse light instead. The most notable visual cue though is the doorstrip running along the side of the car. I removed mine when I had it. The main reason being how ugly it looked on the later Mk3 variants. It’s a nice little chrome adorned thing on these mk2’s. The front bumper is also on a quick release making it very easy to get to and work on the front of the car or preserve it for road use.

All these little touches, are finished off with a neat little boot spoiler and a detachable louvre on the rear window. The Louvre on the back and the general shape of the car remind me of the DMC Delorean..or the Back To The Future Car! I love the original AA badge on the front grill aswell. Thats another motoring bit of nostalgia to times long gone and driving before I was born, maybe because I wasn’t around then, I find a charming curiosity attached to the early days of driving!

Another secret to this cars' looks is related to what’s going on with the chassis. It has been lowered by about 3 inches all round, Gaz Shocks and lowering blocks on back and coilovers on front. Yes I did just say coilovers on front! The weird thing is it’s surprisingly easy to convert the front to coilovers! This means some ridiculous levels of camber can be achieved on the front to add to its performance on track and presence in the street. The Coilovers were made using rebuilt by GAZ Volvo 340 struts, and Nissan 200sx S13 top mounts which are mounted in re-drilled 340 turrets.

The strut brace you can see is Also an S13 part, albeit slightly modified to fit the Volvo Turrets. It’s been shortened ever so slightly due to them being closer together than a S13.

So we’ve established that the car looks great, not only that, it has a very capable chassis, and now to the centrepiece - the engine. This is the Renault Clio Williams 2.0l 16v F7r block chilling in the engine bay of a once humble Volvo 340GL Automatic.

The engine itself is more or less standard but it has had a lot done to it to make it much more efficient. This has proven to be very effective especially on visits to the old Drift What Ya Brung events. The owner was telling me how he’s spent all day sliding around with the occasional tyre change to keep going.

The priority is to keep everything at sensible temperatures, especially when it comes to drifting since most of the time the car is sideways not getting good airflow through the radiator and it’s usually sat on the limiter aswell. So first things first, Theres some electronic cooling fans on switches in the car, so these can be on permanently.

The Next thing keeping things chilled is an oil cooler hidden just under the front bumper. Oil coolers work by keeping the oil at it’s optimum temperature. The hotter Oil gets the thinner it gets, it can also quite litteraly just burn away and vapourise, all of this is what causes engine wear and bottom end failure..( I’ve become a bit of an expert in this field since the bottom end failure I had of my F7p!). It doesn’t help that these Clio F7 engines seem to have an oil burning reputation aswell! Little things like this prolong an engines life by quite a large margin.

A similar approach has been adopted when it comes to the water cooling system aswell, this consists of silicone hoses and Aluminium tubing. This negates the concern of pipe corrosion or possible pressure leaks occurring, This all comes together in the cabin where theres digital oil pressure and temperature gauges along with your traditional temperature guage to keep an eye on things.

The final few pieces to compliment this efficiency is the engine breathing. It starts at the top with a ported and polished cylinder head thats accompanied by a tubular Williams exhaust manifold. This then goes to a custom straight through system making a load of noise out the back! It’s a similar on the intake front aswell. The only thing between the throttle body and intake manifold is a honeycomb air filter. So you’re getting maximum airflow in and out of the engine at all times.

The end result is a stealthy fun unique and original drift weapon! Keep an eye on my blog as I will be publishing more features and pieces in the coming weeks.