Brisbane’s Pete Bellars is a man of eclectic tastes. Before embarking on this Volvo build, his most recent project was a Model T Ford – not a hot rod, but a legit vintage car with wooden wheels and all the danger. “I had an Austin 7, too,” Pete says. “Vintage cars are tinkering in its most pure form, but man, they’re slow!” Pete’s car portfolio has also included RX-7s, RX-8s and V8 Holdens, so it was anyone’s guess as to what he’d build next.

First published in the October 2025 issue of Street Machine

He’d been happily chugging along in his Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when fate intervened in the form of Jamie Spiller. “Jamie started at my work, and we became friends,” Pete recounts. “Not long after, he took me for a spin around Lakeside Raceway in his LS-powered Sigma wagon, and it reignited the need for speed I had as a teenager.”

With a plan to put a tough engine into something relatively light, Pete scoured Facebook Marketplace. “I wasn’t really sure what car I wanted – only that it had to be a bit comical,” he laughs. “I started looking at Volvos, and found the cleanest one possible. It was a dead-stock, four-cylinder 240 wagon, and I mainly chose an auto as I’m kind of lazy and didn’t want to swap the brake pedal over!”

The plan was to build something on a budget and make about 400hp at the wheels, with an LS swap initially on the table. “Covid prices had made LS engines expensive, so I thought I’d go a Barra, although the build got so silly that it definitely wasn’t cheaper,” Pete says.

Jamie loves an engine conversion, having swapped all manners of donks into cars never designed to hold them. In fact, at the time of writing, he’s fitting a Toyota 22R into a 1950s Hillman Minx, and a turbocharged Windsor into a GD Galant. He’d previously dropped a turbo Intech into a similar Volvo, so he knew what needed to happen.

The boys got busy stripping out the factory Volvo running gear and prepping it for the Barra turbo six and BTR auto combo, with Jamie fabricating the necessary mounts.

A Pulsar turbo is paired with a Plazmaman intake and front-mount intercooler, along with a 6boost exhaust manifold. The cooling system was sorted using Jamie’s go-to Nissan S13 radiator, before he got busy on the TIG and fabricated the full 3.5-inch exhaust system. What Pete may lack in fabrication skills, he more than makes up for in electrical prowess, so he handled all of the wiring duties and spliced the Volvo’s Swedish spaghetti with a Barra loom from Bill at Hootons Harnesses.

With the mock-up sorted, Pete freshened a factory turbo engine with a basic ring-and-bearing package, before adding upgraded valve springs, oil pump gears, head studs and a Cometic head gasket. The whole package is good for 640rwhp on E85.

The BTR transmission was rebuilt and fronted with a 3500rpm converter and billet flexplate, while the standard Volvo diff retains its factory 3.7:1 gears. Being a Dana unit, it runs the same guts as a Jeep diff, so a Truetrac centre was easily sourced.

The Volvo immediately showed promise on the road, but some transmission tuning issues caused a few headaches. “The shift points were delayed, so it would hit the limiter before shifting,” Pete says. “When it did finally shift, the changes were sloppy. I told DTM Automatic Transmissions in Geelong of my BTR woes, and they supplied me with one of their custom valvebodies and billet servos. It has seriously transformed the car – it’s made an incredible difference.”

After a few trips to Willowbank and Warwick, the boys are finally getting some good numbers under their belts. An extra-thick rear sway-bar has solved issues with the left rear tyre unloading on launch, while aftermarket LandCruiser rear torque arms were a perfect replacement after stretching the originals.

“So far, it’s run a best of 6.44@109mph on the Warwick eighth, and I plan to do some full-quarter passes soon; all I want is a 9.99 and I’ll be happy,” Pete says.

“It’s so much fun to drive – it runs dead-straight at the track yet is docile enough to putt around town. I drive it to work every week, rain, hail or shine. And yep, it’s just a little bit quicker than the Model T!”

PETE BELLARS
1989 VOLVO 240

THANKS
My wife Holly and kids Tommy, Ollie & Charlotte; Jamie Spiller; Aaron Millican; DTM Autos; Bill Hooton; Powertune.

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