Volvo C30 T5 with go-faster bits
Discussion
Hi all,
I'm not sure if anyone will be interested in this, but you clicked the thread so you're here now! This is my 2008 Volvo C30 T5. I've had the car since July 2016, and I'm still loving it.
As purchased - July 2016 on 68k miles. It already had some modifications including the Volvo-provided Polestar remap that the original owner paid extra for. This takes the car from 230bhp to 250bhp and 272 ft/lb of torque, without any hardware modifications. It also had the originally diamond-cut Midir wheels powdercoated in gunmetal grey. This is now starting to bubble so I'll be looking at getting them redone next year most likely. Finally, the rear 3 windows were tinted.
The first photo once it was home, next to my old MX5 that it was meant to replace - I ended up keeping it, only got rid last year after a minor crash in it!
I also run a car club, mostly based in the Oxford area but we have members all over the UK and some international ones - Limitless (Facebook page here). This is the first show I took the Volvo to, Trax at Silverstone in October 2016:
Not too much happened over the winter, apart from 30mm Eibach lowering springs and a Milltek catback exhaust - which was so quiet I thought something was wrong with it! Please excuse the filthy car:
I also fitted 20mm rear wheel spacers to fill out the rear arches a bit more, as can be seen in that last photo.
Sometime after Trax, I think it was late October 2016, I took the car on track for the first time at Silverstone on the National circuit. It behaved... about as well as you'd expect a standard Volvo to - it was good in a straight line, not so much in the corners! I need to get around to sorting the handling, and I've got a few ideas to help.
I also had a few nice photos taken of it by local photographers:
In January 2017, a do88 intake pipe from the airbox to the turbo inlet was fitted. This is a 3" diameter pipe as opposed to the standard 2.25" pipe with resonator that the car came with, and it gave a decent increase in torque and turbo whooshy noises, so smiles all round!
I also fitted some LED sidelight bulbs around the same time - comparison below:
And of course another fancy photo:
Show season 2017 with Limitless began with Fast Show at Santa Pod - my entrance shot:
Waiting in line for the strip - never do this at a show! Wait until a RWYB day:
Various photos from the strip:
Best on that day was I think a 15.3 at around 95/96mph - my first time on a drag strip!
We did the Katsi Brighton run:
And the big one and my personal favourite show of the year, Modified Nationals. Entrance photo and camp set up:
Yes, my tenting skills have thankfully improved since then!
Mod Nats is always a great show, unfortunately I can't find many photos of my car from then. However I did put it on the dyno - which was a mistake in hindsight, as the fan was far too small and the expansion tank cracked from the heat. This has since been replaced.
Headline figures were 243.9bhp and 310 ft/lb - I told you that intake pipe made a difference!
Shortly after Mod Nats, a carbon grille was sourced and fitted. Yes, you really do need a butter knife to remove the standard grille:
And fitted - the horns didn't stay yellow for long, and the Volvo badging was taken off shortly after:
I did a silly thing with the rear badging too - I like it, but it is childish:
I took the car on track at Trax 2017 on the Silverstone National circuit again, with a bunch of other Volvos - a brilliant time, and really made me fall in love with wet track days!
A RWYB day at Pod - best time was a 14.4 at 99mph:
Followed shortly after by helping a friend out - his supercharged, 340bhp EP3 Civic Type R snapped a driveshaft on the line, so I towed him out of the Pod to wait for recovery:
Then some boxes started to arrive:
Another artsy fartsy photo because I can:
The Maxton Design box was a splitter - which looks mean, but I'm now on my third one after smashing the first two on bumps!
Found an old Volvo 244 in Tesco, so of course I took some photos:
I replaced my LED sidelights with some angel eyes - they're bright white in real life, the camera doesn't pick them up very well!
Photo from the ad when I bought the car to remind me of how far it's come since then:
This brings us up to... March 2018 I think. I did a track day at Thruxton with a friend of mine (his Megane):
On my last run, which I took a video of, an S2000 that I'd been having a nice play with decided to spin out in front of me (around 7 mins in on the video) and do this to the front of the car:
Luckily this all washed off and didn't seem to do any paint damage. Around the same time, I had the block mod done by Tim Williams to try and stop the liners cracking when the boost gets turned up, which is a relatively common issue for Focus ST225s and Volvos with this engine.
We then went to Silverstone yet again, and again in the wet:
This and the Thruxton day highlighted a weakness in the car - the brakes weren't up to the task of stopping a Volvo tank repeatedly from high speed. So, some research and some bidding later, these turned up:
They're BMW 7-series E39 4-pot Brembo calipers. I had these professionally painted and fitted with some 336mm MTEC grooved discs from a mk2 Focus RS - photos of this further below.
Engine bay shot, with panel filter and ECU spacer installed:
I gave the car a full machine polish, which has taken most of the swirl marks out but not all of them. It'll be going for a professional detail for show season next year.
And we got onto show season 2018, starting again with Fast Show at a soggy Santa Pod:
Nothing really to report - a wet day so the strip wasn't open for much of it. Some very nice cars around though!
Mod Nats 2018:
Turns out Volvos can make good lawnmowers:
Some photos from the stand:
Shortly before Mod Nats, I bought a daily driver to save some money on my commuting. the Volvo only does 23-25mpg, so a diesel Civic was purchased to try and save some money (and my splitters!)
We had a small stand at a local transport festival supporting a club sponsor:
And on the second Sunday of each month, our main meets that we run:
Video of the meet - ignore my dodgy camerawork!
The calipers came back from being painted, and were fitted:
Random shot of my Insta tag on the car, feel free to follow me there as I'll be updating that more often than this thread:
Show season 2018 continued, with Trax Donington:
The car went out on track again, my first time at Donington and it won't be my last! The new brakes really helped slow the car down with great initial bite and they just seemed to get better the more I used them. The DS2500 pads I'm using really helped.
That's just about up to date now - so well done for making it through my ramblings! Have some arty photos I took the other night:
So, future plans. At the moment there's a big box sat at home with a new do88 intercooler and 3" pipework waiting to be fitted, and the list of things to buy looks like this:
-550cc injectors
-Uprated wastegate actuator
-Uprated recirc valve
-Uprated plenum/inlet manifold
-Thicker rear anti-roll bar
Hopefully I haven't bored you all to death with this!
I'm not sure if anyone will be interested in this, but you clicked the thread so you're here now! This is my 2008 Volvo C30 T5. I've had the car since July 2016, and I'm still loving it.
As purchased - July 2016 on 68k miles. It already had some modifications including the Volvo-provided Polestar remap that the original owner paid extra for. This takes the car from 230bhp to 250bhp and 272 ft/lb of torque, without any hardware modifications. It also had the originally diamond-cut Midir wheels powdercoated in gunmetal grey. This is now starting to bubble so I'll be looking at getting them redone next year most likely. Finally, the rear 3 windows were tinted.
The first photo once it was home, next to my old MX5 that it was meant to replace - I ended up keeping it, only got rid last year after a minor crash in it!
I also run a car club, mostly based in the Oxford area but we have members all over the UK and some international ones - Limitless (Facebook page here). This is the first show I took the Volvo to, Trax at Silverstone in October 2016:
Not too much happened over the winter, apart from 30mm Eibach lowering springs and a Milltek catback exhaust - which was so quiet I thought something was wrong with it! Please excuse the filthy car:
I also fitted 20mm rear wheel spacers to fill out the rear arches a bit more, as can be seen in that last photo.
Sometime after Trax, I think it was late October 2016, I took the car on track for the first time at Silverstone on the National circuit. It behaved... about as well as you'd expect a standard Volvo to - it was good in a straight line, not so much in the corners! I need to get around to sorting the handling, and I've got a few ideas to help.
I also had a few nice photos taken of it by local photographers:
In January 2017, a do88 intake pipe from the airbox to the turbo inlet was fitted. This is a 3" diameter pipe as opposed to the standard 2.25" pipe with resonator that the car came with, and it gave a decent increase in torque and turbo whooshy noises, so smiles all round!
I also fitted some LED sidelight bulbs around the same time - comparison below:
And of course another fancy photo:
Show season 2017 with Limitless began with Fast Show at Santa Pod - my entrance shot:
Waiting in line for the strip - never do this at a show! Wait until a RWYB day:
Various photos from the strip:
Best on that day was I think a 15.3 at around 95/96mph - my first time on a drag strip!
We did the Katsi Brighton run:
And the big one and my personal favourite show of the year, Modified Nationals. Entrance photo and camp set up:
Yes, my tenting skills have thankfully improved since then!
Mod Nats is always a great show, unfortunately I can't find many photos of my car from then. However I did put it on the dyno - which was a mistake in hindsight, as the fan was far too small and the expansion tank cracked from the heat. This has since been replaced.
Headline figures were 243.9bhp and 310 ft/lb - I told you that intake pipe made a difference!
Shortly after Mod Nats, a carbon grille was sourced and fitted. Yes, you really do need a butter knife to remove the standard grille:
And fitted - the horns didn't stay yellow for long, and the Volvo badging was taken off shortly after:
I did a silly thing with the rear badging too - I like it, but it is childish:
I took the car on track at Trax 2017 on the Silverstone National circuit again, with a bunch of other Volvos - a brilliant time, and really made me fall in love with wet track days!
A RWYB day at Pod - best time was a 14.4 at 99mph:
Followed shortly after by helping a friend out - his supercharged, 340bhp EP3 Civic Type R snapped a driveshaft on the line, so I towed him out of the Pod to wait for recovery:
Then some boxes started to arrive:
Another artsy fartsy photo because I can:
The Maxton Design box was a splitter - which looks mean, but I'm now on my third one after smashing the first two on bumps!
Found an old Volvo 244 in Tesco, so of course I took some photos:
I replaced my LED sidelights with some angel eyes - they're bright white in real life, the camera doesn't pick them up very well!
Photo from the ad when I bought the car to remind me of how far it's come since then:
This brings us up to... March 2018 I think. I did a track day at Thruxton with a friend of mine (his Megane):
On my last run, which I took a video of, an S2000 that I'd been having a nice play with decided to spin out in front of me (around 7 mins in on the video) and do this to the front of the car:
Luckily this all washed off and didn't seem to do any paint damage. Around the same time, I had the block mod done by Tim Williams to try and stop the liners cracking when the boost gets turned up, which is a relatively common issue for Focus ST225s and Volvos with this engine.
We then went to Silverstone yet again, and again in the wet:
This and the Thruxton day highlighted a weakness in the car - the brakes weren't up to the task of stopping a Volvo tank repeatedly from high speed. So, some research and some bidding later, these turned up:
They're BMW 7-series E39 4-pot Brembo calipers. I had these professionally painted and fitted with some 336mm MTEC grooved discs from a mk2 Focus RS - photos of this further below.
Engine bay shot, with panel filter and ECU spacer installed:
I gave the car a full machine polish, which has taken most of the swirl marks out but not all of them. It'll be going for a professional detail for show season next year.
And we got onto show season 2018, starting again with Fast Show at a soggy Santa Pod:
Nothing really to report - a wet day so the strip wasn't open for much of it. Some very nice cars around though!
Mod Nats 2018:
Turns out Volvos can make good lawnmowers:
Some photos from the stand:
Shortly before Mod Nats, I bought a daily driver to save some money on my commuting. the Volvo only does 23-25mpg, so a diesel Civic was purchased to try and save some money (and my splitters!)
We had a small stand at a local transport festival supporting a club sponsor:
And on the second Sunday of each month, our main meets that we run:
Video of the meet - ignore my dodgy camerawork!
The calipers came back from being painted, and were fitted:
Random shot of my Insta tag on the car, feel free to follow me there as I'll be updating that more often than this thread:
Show season 2018 continued, with Trax Donington:
The car went out on track again, my first time at Donington and it won't be my last! The new brakes really helped slow the car down with great initial bite and they just seemed to get better the more I used them. The DS2500 pads I'm using really helped.
That's just about up to date now - so well done for making it through my ramblings! Have some arty photos I took the other night:
So, future plans. At the moment there's a big box sat at home with a new do88 intercooler and 3" pipework waiting to be fitted, and the list of things to buy looks like this:
-550cc injectors
-Uprated wastegate actuator
-Uprated recirc valve
-Uprated plenum/inlet manifold
-Thicker rear anti-roll bar
Hopefully I haven't bored you all to death with this!
Edited by TheVole on Friday 20th July 14:53
Edited by TheVole on Friday 7th December 15:54
Love these, much prefer them over the ST they share an engine with. What sort of power are you aiming for with the bits you're sourcing?
Am I right in thinking they're open diff? Swapping in an ST/RS lsd might help with the traction if the swap is easy enough.
The noise off that 5-pot is right up there
Am I right in thinking they're open diff? Swapping in an ST/RS lsd might help with the traction if the swap is easy enough.
The noise off that 5-pot is right up there
Hammy98 said:
Love these, much prefer them over the ST they share an engine with. What sort of power are you aiming for with the bits you're sourcing?
Am I right in thinking they're open diff? Swapping in an ST/RS lsd might help with the traction if the swap is easy enough.
The noise off that 5-pot is right up there
Precisely why I looked for one of these rather than just buying an ST! Much nice body, the interior is a better place to be (possibly seats aside) and it's just a bit different. I'm aiming for around 320bhp with those bits on and the car mapped, which should be around 400 ft/lbs as well.Am I right in thinking they're open diff? Swapping in an ST/RS lsd might help with the traction if the swap is easy enough.
The noise off that 5-pot is right up there
That's right, they're open diff. If it needs it, I'm tempted for a Quaife diff. Not sure if the ST has a LSD, the RS does but again I'm not sure if it would fit easily.
The noise is awesome
I'm also waiting on a quote for a new catback system. the Airtec box in the OP is a 3" downpipe and decat pipe, but even with that, and no other boxes other than the Milltek backbox, it's incredibly quiet. I'm hoping some more of the 5-pot rumble can be found 
TheVole said:
Precisely why I looked for one of these rather than just buying an ST! Much nice body, the interior is a better place to be (possibly seats aside) and it's just a bit different. I'm aiming for around 320bhp with those bits on and the car mapped, which should be around 400 ft/lbs as well.
That's right, they're open diff. If it needs it, I'm tempted for a Quaife diff. Not sure if the ST has a LSD, the RS does but again I'm not sure if it would fit easily.
The noise is awesome I'm also waiting on a quote for a new catback system. the Airtec box in the OP is a 3" downpipe and decat pipe, but even with that, and no other boxes other than the Milltek backbox, it's incredibly quiet. I'm hoping some more of the 5-pot rumble can be found
320bhp is a good number, I'm sure it doesn't hang about at the moment either. That's right, they're open diff. If it needs it, I'm tempted for a Quaife diff. Not sure if the ST has a LSD, the RS does but again I'm not sure if it would fit easily.
The noise is awesome
I'm also waiting on a quote for a new catback system. the Airtec box in the OP is a 3" downpipe and decat pipe, but even with that, and no other boxes other than the Milltek backbox, it's incredibly quiet. I'm hoping some more of the 5-pot rumble can be found Should sound good with a catback, plenty of videos on youtube where they've been made to sound awesome. Enjoy it!
Shadow R1 said:
That car needs suspension (dampers) before throwing yet more power at it.
For the track stuff, a more focused tyre will help.
Good write up.
Thank you For the track stuff, a more focused tyre will help.
Good write up.
I've not long put another set of Rainsport 3s on, but once they wear out the plan is a set of NS2Rs or AD08Rs in 225/40/18 flavour. OEM is 215/45/18, but those are much more expensive as it's a less common size - The RS3s are 225 anyway so I know it all fits.As for the suspension, I'm toying with the idea of BC coilovers - although I'm worried about the possible loss of ride comfort. It only goes on track 3-4 times a year, so I'm keen to keep it as usable on the road as I can.
Grahamdub said:
Gotta love a C30 ! I had a face lift 2.0 petrol R Design until 6 months ago. Much under rated cars and not too common.
They're great cars! Much nicer than the equivalent Focus in my opinion andy118run said:
Great stuff. Enjoyed looking through those pics. Nice S60 caught my eye in those pics towards the end too.
Here's mine, exactly as I purchased it a few weeks back
Thanks! Here's mine, exactly as I purchased it a few weeks back
there are hundreds if not thousands more pictures, but I didn't want to bore everyone to death! I tried to pick the main events. The S60 is an S60R that's been lowered, uprated injectors fitted, aftermarket exhaust custom-made, bigger intercooler, etc etc - it's a weapon and is owned by one of our club members; she's very proud of it Podie said:
Who painted the Calipers? Looks a tidy job.
It was a company called BCS Automotive - it's a lovely colour and a decent enough job, but after one track session (they went on just before Donington), the paint is starting to bubble. If it gets any worse or it starts flaking off, they'll be going back to be redone as it wasn't a cheap job.Another quick little update that will most likely be a bit Marmite around here - in the week I removed the rear wiper arm and motor (what a pain it was to remove the arm!) and fitted in their place a dewiper bung from Kill All Wipers after taping up the wiring that went to the motor. I think it tidies up the back end nicely:
Edited by TheVole on Sunday 22 July 23:14
Update time. I've had a large box sat in the garage for a while, and finally decided to get the contents fitted to the car.
It's an uprated do88 intercooler, with all the associated piping. A friend fitted it for me as I'm useless with the spanners, here are the results:
I also had him fit a lower grille to try and protect it, using a spare bit of mesh I had laying around from the carbon grille:
And the finished result:
I've also had the car up on the ramp at a local exhaust fabricator's place for a quote on a louder catback system as a replacement for the Milltek. More news on this when it's been done.
It's an uprated do88 intercooler, with all the associated piping. A friend fitted it for me as I'm useless with the spanners, here are the results:
I also had him fit a lower grille to try and protect it, using a spare bit of mesh I had laying around from the carbon grille:
And the finished result:
I've also had the car up on the ramp at a local exhaust fabricator's place for a quote on a louder catback system as a replacement for the Milltek. More news on this when it's been done.
Greendubber said:
I do like a C30 and love everything you've done to yours, looks great.
Thank you! I'm taking my time as I want to make it tasteful rather than chucking half of Halfords at it.ZX10R NIN said:
Nice work OP, don't lose to many boxes otherwise you'll lose that 5 cylinder wail.
Thank you! At the moment there are no boxes or resonators at all apart from the Milltek backbox. The plan is to replace that with two small backboxes, one just before each tip. If it's too loud or not quite the right noise, it can be looked at again as the fabricator is only 10 minutes from home.Maty said:
Don’t see many C30’s around and I can never work out why... nice looking cars!
On a more important note... how the hell do you actually put that tent up correctly! It’s a nightmare ??
Thanks! I never used to see any, then I bought one and it seems every other car around here is a C30 now. On a more important note... how the hell do you actually put that tent up correctly! It’s a nightmare ??
As for the tent, it really helps if you have someone to help! It worked this year, it's nice having a full bedroom in a tent rather than mucking about with sleeping bags - I'm one of those who will take everything they can think of to make it as comfortable as possible!
chrismarr said:
Niice Can't say i've see many in that colour !
I've got a gunmetal C30 D3 remapped to a tad over 200bhp, always looking out for a nice local T5 to go have a mooch at
Think I'll go have a look more closely at the rear wiper mod .
Thanks! It's Orinoco Blue, I haven't seen too many in this colour either. The T5s are great engines, I highly recommend looking at one! Can't say i've see many in that colour !I've got a gunmetal C30 D3 remapped to a tad over 200bhp, always looking out for a nice local T5 to go have a mooch at
Think I'll go have a look more closely at the rear wiper mod .The de-wiper is easy, the most difficult part of it is getting the wiper arm off of the spindle attached to the motor. WD40, a screwdriver, a hammer and finally a wiper arm puller got it free in my case. After that, it's a couple of bolts to remove the motor and the bung is attached with some silicone sealant.
Edited by TheVole on Thursday 30th August 10:22
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