1990 Volvo 740 Project Car on 2040-cars

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Paul Newman's overachieving 'Volvette' up for bid

For the longest time, it was the ultimate suburban family hauler. But this particular Volvo wagon had a life far beyond the Wegmans parking lots and high school playing fields. This particular 1998 V90 belonged to no ordinary soccer mom or dad, as Paul Newman owned it. Maybe he raced it around the rural roadways of Westport, Connecticut, with kids is tow or to pick up pizzas. The actor, who owned a race team in and out of three decades and racked up four SCCA National Championships, was given the “Volvette” as a surprise gift from one of his teams in 2007, so-called because it was crammed with a 400 horsepower 6.0-liter Chevy LS2 engine and four-speed automatic found in sixth-generation Corvettes from 2005 to 2007. The car, as well as dozens of artifacts of NewmanÂ’s racing career including rings, medals, art, and memorabilia, are on auction currently at RM Sotheby's online: High Speed: Paul NewmanÂ’s Racing Legacy. Bidding closes June 13. The V90 is one of two Newman machines on the block. Estimated winning bid is expected to be $20,000 to $25,000. NewmanÂ’s affection for Volvos dated back some time: his first pumped-up Swedish example was a1988 Volvo 740 powered by a 3.8-liter turbocharged V6 from a Buick Grand National. The car recently sold on Bring a Trailer for $87,777. The middle-child swapped Volvo was a 1995 960 with a supercharged 5.0-liter Mustang V8. Newman famously convinced friend David Letterman to get one (Letterman once co-owned Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing). Quipping that Volvo station wagons were “just as ugly as homemade shoes,” Letterman nevertheless ordered one and went on to rave about it. With upwards of 400 horsepower or more, one such modified Volvo 960 tested by Car and Driver was as fast as a mid-Â’90s Mustang Cobra. The hot-rod Volvo currently on offer accommodates Porsche 911 components in the front end and mods to the driveshaft. Says the auctionÂ’s description, “The exterior was kept unchanged, as Newman was known to prefer a stock look with his Swedish station wagons.” Sadly, Newman had not enough years left to sufficiently enjoy the Volvette. He died of cancer at age 82 a year after it was given to him. Related video: Celebrities Buick Volvo Auctions Automotive History Wagon

2015 Volvo S60 T6 Drive-E [w/video]

The Swedes Bend Sixes And Fives Into Fours
With government agency pressures mounting, the auto industry's latest engine and powertrain trends invariably include the cobbling of heretofore eight-cylinder models into charged (either turbo- or super-) six-cylinder models, six-cylinders into charged four-cylinders and so on. And then there's the mating of these downsized engines to fuel-saving automatic transmissions with ratio counts previously reserved for bicycles and semi trucks. Volvo can at last follow suit with the best of Germany and Japan thanks in great part to an $11-billion multi-year investment by its Chinese owners, Geely.
After we survived the recent Frankfurt Motor Show marathon of news and reveals (chief among said bits being the stunning Volvo Concept Coupe), we were escorted by the Swedish automaker to the far less frenetic air of southern France to explore the most significant step yet in the company's new life. Volvo's entire movement of new tech is referred to as Drive-E, and it includes these all-new four-cylinder engines we just tested, a new modular architecture called Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) that will first be found under the next-generation XC90, along with a host of other onboard advancements. Think of it as a Scandinavia's version of Mazda Skyactiv, a total-systems approach to developing more efficient yet more sporting new models.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.