There’s nothing better than accidentally happening upon a car show. Except when people attend a show with an interesting car they’re trying to sell. And that’s where this site comes in, though the Volvos only fulfill half the criteria the name suggests. Last weekend, ipd, a supplier of Volvo performance parts, hosted a garage sale and car show at their facilities near the Portland airport. There were some pretty fantastic cars there, including a nice selection of older Volvos with period performance parts, even a 122 sedan with a supercharged engine. With that, let’s take a look at one of the for-sale offerings, a 1979 Volvo 242 GT for sale for $4500 in Oregon.
Posts Tagged ‘242’
Volvo Show, Part 1 – 1979 Volvo 242 GT
May 24, 2016Cool Box – 1979 Volvo 242 GT
May 11, 2016Here’s another car that’s become interesting with time. In the 1970s and 1980s, and even the 1990s, Volvo’s 240-series cars were so ubiquitous, they were a cliche of the left-leaning family wagon. In that sense, they were the Subaru Legacy Outback of their time, and you wouldn’t even look twice if you saw one going down the road. And similarly, both are fairly unremarkable to drive, but both do quite well with aftermarket upgrades. And both have at times come with performance upgrades from the factory – witness the Legacy GT or the 240 Turbo. Let’s take a look at an earlier sporting Volvo 240 – this 1979 Volvo 242 GT for sale for $3300 in San Rafael, CA.
Red Stripe – 1980 Volvo 242GT
September 5, 2013If you grew up in the 1970s or 1980s, there’s a good chance you have some level of nostalgia (ironic or genuine) for the spoiler & strip performance packages they used to put on cars back then. Thanks to relatively new emissions and fuel economy regulations, manufacturers were likely reluctant to revisit the testing process for a limited-audience high performance models, so performance was in the eye of the beholder. Among its visual upgrades were a flat hood, red striping inside and out, and fog lights in the grill, but it did also get some proper performance features – anti-roll bars and a special grill with integrated fog lights. However, the rest of the world also got an upgraded engine (injected 2.3), where we had to make do with the standard 2.1 found on the regular DL. Anyhow, in the meantime it’s a fun oddity and possibly a good subject for an upgrade to a later Volvo turbo unit or a V8. Wait, did someone say V8? Today’s 242GT is available for $3300 in Arizona.