Audi 200 Avant quattro vs Volvo 850 T-5R: race-bred estates

By Jack Phillips

Features

| 1 Nov 2023

Classic & Sports Car – Audi 200 Avant quattro vs Volvo 850 T-5R: race-bred estates

There are faster estate cars than the Audi 200 Avant quattro Turbo.

There are bigger ones, too; more powerful and more spacious; more famous and more notorious.

There aren’t many that are rarer, though.

A handful at most remain from what was a limited run of 171 UK cars.

The Audi 200 Avant quattro shares its drivetrain with the Ur-quattro, but adds practicality

An estate that ticks most, if not all, of those boxes, and even runs the rarity race close, is the Volvo 850 T-5R.

The similarities run deep: both have five cylinders, each is boosted by a turbocharger, and both are truly, madly, deeply rooted in motorsport – and both in estate form, albeit one more acutely than the other.

Despite appearances, they all but crossed over as contemporaries in the early 1990s, too.

The Volvo 850 T-5R’s silhouette defined a special moment in the BTCC in the 1990s

The Volvo’s racing origins are a little more obvious than those of the Audi.

In 1994, the 850 returned the Swedish manufacturer to top-flight motorsport for the first time since the ‘Flying Brick’ 240 of the mid-1980s.

In the European Touring Car Championship the 240 had beaten BMW and Jaguar, with the Brits being run by the man to whom Volvo would turn a decade or so later: Tom Walkinshaw

Just 171 Audi 200 Avant quattros came to the UK

It would have been a surprising union, but Group C had finally died its long, slow death, and the TWR XJR prototypes were destined to become nothing more than mongrels – when merged with a Porsche, they still had the pace to win Le Mans in 1995.

The XJ220 had promised so much, but been bought in such small numbers that Jaguar wound it down, potential unfulfilled.

Walkinshaw therefore needed a new project and, perhaps more importantly, a new paymaster.

The Audi’s rear overhang spans time zones

When Volvo’s on-track comeback was announced in October 1993, it simply said that it would be by means of the 850, and in partnership with TWR.

Surely they would be working together on a saloon?

Yet on 2 February, at the Stockholm motor show, two racing cars were displayed, both a saloon and an estate, and it wasn’t for another month that the persistent rumours were confirmed to be true: TWR was indeed developing an estate for the British Touring Car Championship.

Inside, the Audi 200 Avant quattro’s dash is a 1980s vision of the near future

The rules dictated that there could be no turbocharger, and it would be a 2-litre engine rather than Volvo’s more familiar range-topping 2.3, but to the fans on the banks up and down the country it was the same rugged Volvo wagon: it wouldn’t win on Sunday, but you could still buy it on Monday – and especially so when the new 850 T-5R road car was shown at the Autosport Show in January 1995, after that initial season of limited results in the BTCC, in striking ‘Cream Yellow’ alongside the Ian Callum-liveried racer.

That it was going to be retired and replaced by a saloon in the BTCC was immaterial: Volvo bragged of having broken ‘all publicity records with the interest that this choice attracted’.

The retro Blaupunkt Bremen stereo looks right at home in this classic Audi

The reason for the estate’s demise, Volvo said, was not that it could only manage a best finish of fifth place all season, but because of the BTCC’s ‘new aerodynamic and roofline regulations’.

It is impossible to dispute its impact, and it endures in so many ways.

When Honda used a Civic Tourer in the BTCC a decade ago, most used it as an excuse to remember the 850 rather than pay attention to the Japanese car.

The Audi 200 Avant quattro is surefooted in turns

The T-5R was the fastest Volvo to date, after all – although certainly not the fastest estate car on sale, because Audi and Porsche had already conspired to create the RS2.

Weissach had also had some involvement in the 850’s turbocharger, but the two wagons were no match.

The 850 would be a rubber mallet to the precision-instrument RS2.

The Audi 200 Avant quattro Turbo was a rather fairer fight.

The Audi 200 Avant quattro’s five-cylinder engine makes 165bhp

The car that provided the 200’s drivetrain, the Ur-quattro, has a competition heritage more widely known even than the Volvo’s, but behind the four-wheel-drive trailblazer was often a wagon loaded with spares and tools heading for the service park.

And those spares would work on either rally car or recce car, because beneath the longer but not laughable body is the same gearbox, the same quattro four-wheel-drive system and the same turbocharged five-pot.

It can lay claim to some of its Group B sibling’s glory, because ‘quattro’ in this instance was not merely some marketing exercise capitalising on the wild success of the wildest rally car, but a line on the very same branch of the family tree.

Likewise the epic Trans-Am 200 silhouette racer that came later.

The machined ‘turbo’ badge under the Audi’s bonnet is very of its time

The wheelbase of the Avant quattro is obviously stretched compared with that of the coupé, by a not inconsiderable six inches, but it is the same as the 200 saloon and therefore feels natural and wears its new shell well.

There is a fair overhang aft of the rear axle, which comes together with an interesting solution.

A mammoth rear window that looks as though it is split by a panel is in fact almost the full length of the hatch, and the ‘quattro’ script beneath the sought-after wing is heated so it reveals itself first under any frost or snow.

God forbid ever cracking the glass.

Owner Josh Spencer ordered the Audi’s rare polished Centra wheels from Lithuania

Audi wasn’t first to hit upon the recipe for a more practical quattro version of the 200.

In 1980 a firm called Artz fashioned one with all-wheel drive and an estate body – or rather a shooting brake, courtesy of a Volkswagen Scirocco’s rear hatch.

It attempted a 100, too.

Audi’s in-house version arrived five years later in 1985, the year Stig Blomqvist tried in vain to retain his World Championship title – the last for the Four Rings in Group B.

The ‘quattro’ motif on the Audi 200 estate is heated so it can’t be obscured by frost or snow

‘The new Audi 200 Avant quattro represents a special combination,’ the manufacturer said in its press release, ‘of high performance with versatility and the kind of active safety benefits in all conditions that are only possible with permanent four-wheel drive.’

And safety is certainly the overriding sensation, combined with a natural willing pace.

It canters along when wound up and feels remarkably stable through the bends.

This particular 200, likely the finest of the four or five running right now in the UK, has lived a curious life but found a suitable owner in Josh Spencer.

‘Safety is the overriding sensation. The Audi canters along and feels remarkably stable through the bends’

Working in electric vehicles by trade, but also the owner of a TVR, he has carefully fettled it to what it is today.

“Haynes had the car from brand new until 2013, and it came off the road in 1999 and was in the depths of the museum,” says Josh.

“It was in the millennium exhibit for a while and languished at the back after that for 10 years.

“In 2013 there was a scientist who bought it in Cambridge – he put winter tyres on the original wheels and did loads of work mechanically to take it on yearly skiing trips. Then it was owned by a guy in Norwich before I bought it.”

These classic load-luggers mix practicality with high-speed thrills

“I saw it and knew I wasn’t going to find another one, having been looking for a 100 initially,” explains Josh.

“My parents had a 100 CS Avant when I was a kid, on the same wheels.

“Funnily enough they were going to Norwich, so I sent my dad on a fact-finding mission and went up the following weekend: I drove it straight home, 200 miles.

“It just needed a lot of attention to detail, and I’m a bit of an attention-to-detail kind of guy.”

The Volvo works well on smooth roads; elsewhere the Audi inspires more confidence

Badges and headlining have been swapped to as-new, but a bit of licence has been allowed at the rear.

“The tail-light normally had an orange bar, but this is the Audi Sport look,” Josh explains.

“It was a factory accessory but they never did it specifically for the Avant.

“I bought a set of 100 lights and painted the lenses.”

Being a pre-facelift car makes renovation an even harder task, but Josh clearly enjoys the chase.

Exploits in the British Touring Car Champioship gave the Volvo 850 T-5R cult-hero status

The Centra wheels, another option, came from Lithuania via Facebook.

“These are much rarer because they’re a five-stud pattern,” Josh says.

“A local engineer machined the centre caps for me – he’s even milled the rings in.

“Mercedes, BMWs and Volvos have such a following, but with these it’s partially Audi’s fault: most parts are no longer available after 15 years.

“I luckily got new quattro badges before Audi Tradition closed its doors to the UK.”

In the mighty Volvo 850 T-5R, torque trumps traction in corners

“There is a huge following for these cars in Eastern Europe, too,” he says.

“If you’re willing to wait, the hunt for parts is quite fun – I have a scratch-off map and have done about 15 countries.”

The 850 has a similarly dutiful owner in Volvo UK, as part of its burgeoning heritage fleet.

So both feel as fresh and as tight as they must have done when new.

The Volvo’s upright seats are at odds with its sporty ride

Their five-cylinder engines sound fantastic, too, pulsing through each combustion cycle with impatience.

Both feel utterly vast inside, although mainly only when you glance into the rear-view mirror.

The rear window looks as though it should be part of the car behind, rather than your own, and in the Volvo the sunroof only adds to the exceedingly light, spacious feel.

Yet these cars are also fascinating in their contradictions, almost as though the wrong shells are shrouding the wrong cabins.

The Volvo 850 T-5R’s sombre dashboard is a ’90s button-fest

The Audi, the elder by all but a decade, mixes what is evidently an old-car shape with something that is packed with futuristic technology.

Fumbling around for a lever to adjust the seat ends at buttons on the seat frame.

The dash, angled slightly towards the driver, is awash with switches and electronic climate controls.

Josh has added a Blaupunkt Bremen stereo, which fits perfectly with the car and also its ethos of modern fusing with old – the 1980s playlist transports you to its prime, too.

The familiarly boxy rear of the Volvo 850 T-5R

The boost gauge is digital, unlike the good old-fashioned needle of the 850.

Really, the Volvo interior looks barely updated from what came before, a dashboard with controls that make sense only when you know how, but it certainly feels executive.

The seating position is no different from that of any of its stablemates, so high and upright.

More contradictions, compared to the ‘low and laid-back’ that performance cars should be.

The Volvo 850 T-5R has a transverse ‘five’ that produces a rather potent 240bhp

The Volvo’s timber inlays are particularly anachronistic – as though plucked from the cast-off bins left lying around from TWR’s Aston Martin and Jaguar work. (The V70 R from 1997 got carbonfibre trim.)

The huge steering wheel can’t escape your view, again contrasting with its sporting credentials.

Perhaps Volvo couldn’t truly shake off its practical default.

There’s no denying the T-5R’s pace and power, though, and it doesn’t take too heavy a prod of the accelerator to push the balance beyond the grip of the front wheels and chassis, and leave the tyres audibly scrabbling for grip.

The turbocharged 2319cc unit in the 850 T-5R road car is very different from the naturally aspirated 2-litre engine in Volvo’s BTCC racer

The automatic ’box of our test car is certainly willing enough, happy to creep towards the redline when it feels you want it to, and it lazily but brutishly delivers its torque.

On smoothly sweeping roads the Volvo works and flows together perfectly well, but on anything less every bump ripples through the chassis beneath you.

The suspension verges on too stiff, but any softer and the understeer would be insurmountable, despite the balance brought by the engine being set so low down and far back in the engine bay.

As a result, the Audi appears so much more in sync with itself than the Volvo does, and that scientist’s ski trips must have been a breeze across the Continent.

The Volvo’s Titan five-spoke wheels are simple but effective

They would have been aided by the four-wheel-drive system’s ability to smoothly deliver traction, too, because there’s never a feeling that the suspension and chassis are anything other than working in unison.

With that comes a confidence that is rather more fragile in the Volvo, which is exacerbated by it being an automatic.

The earlier Audi gives away 80bhp to the 240bhp Volvo – later 200s were closer to 200bhp – and in a straight line there is little contest, but when the roads get interesting the chase gets, well, interesting.

With the Volvo’s cult-hero status set aside and the cars considered equally, the Audi would undoubtedly be the car to take again and again.

The Volvo 850 T-5R shines on smooth country roads

The playing field would be levelled by matching transmissions, so if round one goes to the Audi, round two might be claimed by a manual T-5R.

That’s sort of how it played out in the BTCC.

Audi made its own splash of a different kind by winning its 1996 debut year, with the quattro S4 beating the 850 saloon.

Then Volvo’s S40 returned the favour in 1998, as Rickard Rydell finally took the title for the Swedes.

The estate was long gone by then, Group B even longer.

Gone, but never forgotten.

Images: Max Edleston

Factfiles

Audi 200 Avant quattro

Sold/number built 1985-’91/6153
Construction steel monocoque
Engine iron-block, alloy-head, sohc 2144cc ‘five’, with turbocharger and Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection
Max power 165bhp @ 5500rpm
Max torque 177lb ft @ 3000rpm
Transmission five-speed manual or four-speed auto, 4WD
Suspension independent, at front by MacPherson struts rear double wishbones, coil springs, telescopic dampers; anti-roll bar f/r
Steering power-assisted rack and pinion
Brakes ventilated front, solid rear discs, with servo and ABS
Length 15ft 9in (4807mm)
Width 5ft 11in (1814mm)
Height 4ft 8in (1422mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 10in (2687mm)
Weight 3197lb (1450kg)
Mpg 26
0-60mph 8.2 secs
Top speed 132mph
Price new £27,102 (1986)
Price now £10-20,000*

Volvo 850 T-5R

Sold/number built 1995-’96/6964
Construction steel monocoque
Engine all-alloy, dohc 2319cc ‘five’, with turbocharger and multi-point direct-port fuel injection
Max power 240bhp @ 5600rpm
Max torque 221lb ft @ 2300rpm
Transmission five-speed manual or four-speed auto, FWD
Suspension independent, at front by MacPherson struts rear trailing arms, coil springs, telescopic dampers; anti-roll bar f/r
Steering power-assisted rack and pinion
Brakes ventilated front, solid rear discs, with servo and ABS
Length 15ft 6in (4720mm)
Width 5ft 9in (1760mm)
Height 4ft 8in (1415mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 9in (2660mm)
Weight 3113lb (1412kg)
Mpg 31
0-60mph 6.9 secs
Top speed 155mph
Price new £28,840 (1995)
Price now £8-15,000*