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| © Darren Martin 1983-Volvo-242-Front-Grille |
By Micah Wright, Darren Martin, Super Street Online
Ever watch the Netflix show Ugly Delicious starring
foul-mouthed food mogul David Chang? It's a TV series that explores
homegrown culinary staples from around the world and delves into their
mainstream emergence. Whether you have seen the show or not, the Volvo
in front of you is the automotive equivalent of an "ugly delicious"
dish: a vehicle with lowly beginnings and equally humble appearances,
packing more heat and flavor than a fat slab of Nashville hot chicken.
By taking a vehicle that epitomizes '80s frumpiness and family safety
and giving it the level of high-performance acceleration, braking, and
handling one comes to expect from a C7 Corvette, owner Sean Fogli has
crafted one of the greatest sleepers of our time. With beige and brown
as its two primary colors and a stock-looking tan interior adding
further covert cool points, this Volvo 242 makes people look twice every time its owner takes it out. And boy, does he take it out...
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| © Darren Martin |
The Volvo was finished in March 2019, and Sean took it out for a
series of shakedown tests at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during LSFest
West. This was followed by trips to Goodguys Pacific Northwest Nationals
in Puyallup, Washington; SCCA Time Trials at Portland International
Raceway (PIR); and several Tire Rack Track Night in America events at
both PIR and Pacific Raceways in Seattle. Like we said, he takes it
out...
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| © Darren Martin |
Aside from the paint in the engine bay, upholstery work, and a few
one-off additions, all the work on this Volvo was done by its owner.
That means every bit of fabricating, wiring, plumbing, welding,
converting, swapping, assembling, and finishing work pictured was
completed by one guy in his garage. Sean tells us that by taking aspects
of the hot rod scene and blending them with import and European
influences, then adding a couple dashes of drift car spice for extra
flavor, he was able to turn his Swedish snoozer into a super stealthy
sleeper.
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| © Darren Martin |
Tracing his style of "cooking" all the way back to his childhood,
Sean tells us he got the build bug from his old man, who was always
knee-deep in some sort of '50s Chevy
project. What started with watching his dad turn wrenches eventually
turned into a part-time gig fixing cars at a local hot rod shop—an act
of necessity when Sean realized he couldn't afford to pay someone else
to do his custom work.
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| © Darren Martin |
Like most car enthusiasts, he got into fabrication early on, and the
self-taught gearhead discovered he had a knack for wiring and
troubleshooting, along with TIG-welding, plumbing, and painting. As
Sean's automotive skills evolved, installing stereos and water-cooled Volkswagen builds quickly turned into Foxbody Mustangs and made-from-scratch tubular framed buggies.
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| © Darren Martin |
The transition over to modding Volvos came about five years back, when Sean found himself wrapping up a '68 Ford F100
pickup build. It was complete with custom paint, a Coyote swap, and a
textbook hot-rod upgrade—and the realization he had just built something
that was too nice to drive hit him like an anvil. So, he swore off show
cars, ushering in Swedish street sleeper extremism in its stead.
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| © Darren Martin |
While early Volvo "test batches" proved fruitful, the two-door 242 is
easily Sean's best recipe yet. Like a faded relic of a Rubik's Cube,
the 242 came into Sean's life scorched by the California sun and unable
to move under its own power. With the obscure coupe obtained, swapping
out the front end for an early-model nose quickly became the first order
of business, thus allowing Volvo's iconic round headlamps and sloping
grille to replace the quad rectangular headlight layout that originally
came with the vehicle.
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| © Darren Martin |
After pulling the front fenders a full 1.75 inches outward to
accommodate his matte brown CCW wheels, Sean turned toward the task of
tackling the rear quarters. This required significant amounts of work,
since the only way to make the squared 18x10 three-piece alloy setup fit
was to fabricate all-new wheel wells from scratch.
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| © Darren Martin |
With the stretched corners complete, extensive steps were taken to
help the 242 handle, with Sean engineering his own adjustable rear
suspension based off the factory Volvo setup, which consists of a
parallel four-link layout mounted to the body. Moves such as these
required Sean to fabricate his own lower links, which sit alongside
inboard-mounted RideTech coilovers. By mounting the suspension directly
to the bottom of the rear axlehousing, Sean says he was able to achieve
both upper and lower link adjustability.
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| © Darren Martin |
While these suspension and sheetmetal mods required massive amounts
of man-hours, Sean says the installation of the supercharged Chevy V-8
was a cinch, as was the fitment of the T56 six-speed manual drivetrain
along with various other mechanical augmentations. Since aftermarket
support for such a swap remains miniscule at most, Sean's determination
to stuff the affordable 6.0L into a Swedish snoozer is applaudable.
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| © Darren Martin |
Looking to maintain a balance between extreme street machine and
unassuming weekend warrior, Sean began looking toward both performance
and period-correct upgrades to complement his Volvo's newfound
powerplant. On the race end, this meant installing a Racepak digital
readout in place of the factory Volvo cluster, upgrading to Schroth ASM
four-point harnesses, and fabbing up a rollbar that attaches to the rear
unibody framerails for added rigidity.
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| © Darren Martin |
With Sean's OCD approach to fit, finish, and function turned up to
11, the gravy-colored coupe proceeded to receive more interior work than
any other build in his portfolio. Sporting vintage Recaro seats,
modified door panels with pocket and speaker deletes, and a functional
rear bench with custom-stitched tube holes for the 'cage to pass
through, this 242's interior is a sight to behold.
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| © Darren Martin |
As the project is nearing completion, Sean tells us his final goal is
to get as close to 650 whp as possible and then add flared fenders and
315-series tires all around. With looks that border on being labeled as
bland by the untrained eye and supercharged American audacity tucked
within its frame, Sean's sharp-handling 242 is anything but ordinary.
Its flavor resonates well with all different types of car enthusiasts,
like a beige plate of hearty downhome cooking, all made from scratch and
served up hot with numerous sides. Delicious.
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| © Darren Martin |
