Volvo 960 | Shed of the Week
Need owt shifted? None finer...
Shed has always fancied the idea of setting up an undertaking business. He’d certainly have plenty of custom round his way, where the average age of 83.5 years has been only slightly reduced by the recent arrival in the village of an Italian butcher and Carlotta, his voluptuous wife. If Shed was to go ahead with this deathly plan a Volvo 960 would be high up on his list of potential stiff luggers. And as with Carlotta, given a chance Shed would be all over this example.
The 900 series sat at the top end of Volvo’s range between 1990 and 1998. The 960 saloon/estate, one of Peter Horbury’s first Volvo designs, landed in the 1991 model year. The more modern 850 was introduced in that same year, so Volvo could have been forgiven for neglecting the 960, but they didn’t. It was revised on an annual basis, with the best changes – including new 850-style independent rear suspension – coming to facelifted 1995 model year cars like the one you see here.
The big thing about the 960, apart from its actual physical bigness, was its B6304 2.9-litre 24-valve straight-six petrol engine. When it was new, this all-aluminium ‘white block’ engine pushed out 204hp at 6,000rpm and 197lb ft at 4,300rpm, enough with the 4-speed auto to hustle the 1,490kg estate through the 0-60mph run in under nine seconds. What with it being rear-wheel drive, you’ll need to go steady on wintry UK roads, and you’ll also need to be aware that average UK fuel costs having nearly tripled since ’95, rising from 54p a litre back then to £1.64 now. Shed is happy to accept the vendor’s mention of nearly 30mpg on a cruise, but overall you’ll be doing well to get figures in the mid-20s. There is some good news on taxation costs at least, the capacity-based annual VED bill for cars of this age coming in at £375.
Glorying in its unusual poverty spec, this particular 960 was clearly bought to do a job rather than impress the neighbours. Shed is thinking it won’t have the Boge Nivomat self-levelling air suspension that became an option in ’95, rather than standard which it had been up to then. Like just about any air suspension system ever made, the Nivomat setup was potentially troublesome. Swapping it for conventional shocks and springs was a popular mod.
Those plastic boot liners are the absolute Billy Whizz. Shed’s ancient Merc wagon has one and although it’s now got holes in the front corners it’s a brilliant chuck-in/drag-out cargo solution that can be left out in the rain when not needed. Sadly, aero-optimised modern cars are no longer boxy enough to accommodate this kind of simple practicality.
The car is located in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, which for many of you will feel about as accessible as Pluto, but Teeside International Airport is only half an hour away. You can get a one-way ticket up there from London on Yorkshire Airlines with Hale and Pace at the controls for as little as forty-three quid.
It’s a private rather than a dealer sale, which accounts for the understandable, caps-free and informative ad. There’s full disclosure on the car’s condition plus a great set of pics. The seats and the door card tops are sagging a bit, but even the postmistress’s seat and top are starting to do that, which is why Shed is having to fend off the mental image of Carlotta’s tenderloins and the thought of her studiously preparing his T-bone.
Preparing the Volvo’s entire roof for a lacquer peel fix isn’t such an appealing prospect. You’ve got to sand off the lacquer that’s still on there and then carefully blend in some new paint. Shed’s simpler solution would be to carefully gaffer tape some black rubble sacks to the roof for that historically accurate vinyl roof look and then crank up the audio to drown out the inevitable racket on the motorway. If you don’t like the sound of that, quite literally, you could instead stick a black Kev and Stacey-style windscreen sunstrip on the leading edge of the roof. That’s the only bit that anyone below six foot tall will see.
Believe it or not you can still get those strips. If you do go down that route there will be lots of pointing and laughing from the younger occupants of other vehicles, but they’ll be doing that anyway on account of the car’s registration...
https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-features-sheds...
Most rwd Volvo estates are worth a lot more than this now, so get in whilst you still can
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