Long-Haul 242T Group A/Evo

This thread will be a long-term one, but I'll do my best to keep up with it, and keep the pictures coming as things progress.


Part 1: The long-winded backstory!

Bought a silver '84 242 GLT Turbo car from a forum member here, and absolutely fell in love with it. It needed some help due to some.. questionable work that was performed on it, but I quickly undid some hackery (I thought I found/fixed all the hackery, but alas..) and began driving/enjoying the car daily.







The car had some dangerously put together suspension, a few areas of terrible wiring, and amongst several other faux pas, the lug nuts were all on backwards It needed a clutch almost immediately, but was straight, solid, and with the aforementioned items addressed, drove very well. It rapidly climbed to a tie at the top of my ownership list for "Favorite Vehicle Ever Owned"; no small feat after over 150 cars.



The car developed a misfire under load, which I tracked down to the wrong fuel hose being used for the in-tank pump (non-submersible fuel hose.. more shoddy work.) When I removed the pump, I noted that the fuel feed line was just *barely* on the barb for the pump itself. "No prob" I thought to myself, "I'll seat it properly when I re-install the pump." And so I did.
And so was the mistake.



The botched job I had not yet noticed? For reasons unknown, a previous owner replaced the hard metal fuel line under the car with a rubber line from the fuel pump, tight against the body, alllll the way forward to the fuel filter at the cowl.. With little-to-no slack. When I pulled the line onto the fuel pump to seat it, it stressed the connection up front at the fuel filter.
I drove the car for ~ 45 minutes that morning, and it ran the best it ever had; simply flawless, great power, no flat-spots, no surging.. beautiful.

I took the car out to meet friends for dinner, hopped on the highway and was steady cruising at 70mph when.. I felt my shin getting wet. "What the hell?" I look down, and fuel is running down the hood release cable, spraying the floor, underside of the dash, carpet, and my left leg. I clutched in, rolled up the next exit, through the first light while killing the ignition, and came to a stop. Maybe two seconds later, I felt and heard the car get rear-ended. Sound of crunching metal, my head getting whiplashed back and forward. I think "you gotta be f-ing kidding me" as I turn my head to see.. no one behind me. Instead, in my periphery, flame rolls from near the pedals, up and over the top of the dash. The car had just exploded in flames due to the fuel leak. I bailed out (took my keys, thankfully, though no recollection of doing so), ran to the passenger side and emptied the glovebox. Took one last hard look inside to see if there was *anything* else I could save.. then walked away.





A tow-truck driver happened to be right across from the intersection where it happened, and was on the car immediately with a sizeable fire bottle. Zero effect. I could hear the fuel still spraying under pressure under the hood, and knew the car was a goner. I stood by and watched it go up, and eventually, out with the work of the fire department.



I walked to dinner.
I ate a bacon-wrapped filet mignon.

I tasted nothing.
::sadness envelopes::

Holy ****... What a beautiful car. Sorry for your loss. Looking forward to this thread!

Part 2: Enter the Long-Haul 242



I was really distraught over losing the silver 242. Slightly distraught over the loss of leg hair on my left leg, but far more-so the car. I couldn't stand to look at it, so I gave the remains of the car to a local buddy, who could benefit from some of the undamaged parts. The search for a replacement began: here, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, LetGo.. looking everywhere, multiple times a day. Some dead-end leads, some perpetual time-wasters, a few possible candidates.. but nothing that seemed the proper fit for a replacement.

About two months after the death of the '84, I was contacted by a long-time/OG TurboBricks member via messenger here with a proposition. He had a coupe and a sedan, both rust free, sitting in southern California for many years. The coupe was disassembled for paint, the sedan basically used as a parts car, but clean titles for both. The sedan was an original turbo/M46 car with an intercooler. The real draw? The coupe was an '83 242 turbo Evo; one of the 500 made in Belgium Group A homologation cars. Low mileage (114k), never wrecked, rust-free. Already had a B230ft in the engine bay with Megasquirt (unwired), and an original M46 car as well. I was sent ~5 grainy pictures, and one phone call later, we came to an agreement. I would have to take *everything* Volvo, so both cars, years and years of collected/hoarded parts, etc.





Original plan: Fly to Southern CA, spend a few days collecting all the parts, making both cars roll and steer again, putting glass back in the coupe to make it water-tight, packing *all* the Volvo parts into the two cars, fly home, then arrange transportation to ship both cars back to North Carolina.

Spur of the moment change of plans: Buy a pick-up truck sight-unseen in Spokane, Washington, have a friend fly into Spokane, pick up the truck, and drive it 20+hours south to where I would be in California, then load the coupe and parts all up, tow it home, and transport the sedan later.



Flights purchased, truck secured, and we were off! My awesome friend flew into Spokane, picked up the truck in snow and rain, and headed south. I flew to Ontario, CA, grabbed a Kia Rio S rental car, and drove a couple hours south to the desert. Met Steve, the awesome gentleman who offered up the cars, and who graciously also offered use of his shop, tools, and really, whatever else I needed to make this whole thing happen. A quick survey of the coupe proved it to be exactly as described. Originally a bright red flat-hood Turbo, someone had shoddily painted the car black many years back. Steve started stripping the car down, prepping for a respray in the correct color, while accumulating other goodies for the car. Recovered front seats, random IPD goodies, key-less entry, etc. Swapped in the B230FT, but never wired/finished before his paint guy flaked on him, and the car sat in his shop for the next decade+, untouched.





The 244 turbo was another story. Straight body, rust/rot free, but 250k miles, various parts borrowed from it over the years for other cars, and a pack-rat nest built into the driver's floorboard. A great candidate to build from a shell, but not worth me dragging back to NC.







Steve agreed to let me sell the car from his property, or otherwise part it out and he would scrap whatever was left. I posted the car to a couple places for reasonable money, had a few interested parties, a few tire-kickers. Ultimately, my friend who had then arrived with the truck from Washington made another suggestion; she had a close friend who lived nearby, with a young son *completely obsessed* with turbo Volvos, 70's-90's-era cars and motorsports. We invited said friend and son for a visit, and after giving them the tour of the cars, the backstories and details.. gave the 244T to the son. A great project for father and son to bond over, and a super cool first car for a 13 year old motorhead.



Back to work, we got everything packed, U-haul trailer rented (tried my damndest to find a trailer to buy in the area, but no luck!), and loaded the coupe for it's cross-country trek.







We left Anza, CA at ~12:30 in the afternoon on Saturday. We arrived in Raleigh, NC at ~3am Tuesday morning, including an overnight hotel stay outside Jackson, MS. Lots of snacks, a bit of caffeine, but even time to stop in Phoenix and visit my sister for a bit. Truck managed to net right at 15mpg while towing 6k lbs, generally at 70mph, while leaking diesel fuel the entire time. Couldn't be even a little upset about it. The highway driving did nothing to blow the desert dirt and dust off the coupe, so still much cleaning to do.



But it's home.
And I'm happy.

So what's next for the coupe? It'll have to wait it's turn a bit in the queue, but.. I need to pull the engine back out, strip the engine bay and have it painted. The prior black paint job was just thorough enough to be annoying, and I need to tear the car down further to undo it all. I've been humoring the idea of painting the car myself, with the help of a couple friends far more talented than me. But we'll see. Hopefully in the next month or so, I'll start digging in further, and see if I can't chip away at what's a sizeable project, on a really neat car.

I'll also be parting ways with the "Field-Find 242 GLT" project, as this coupe will take enough of my time and money.

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=361714


Oh and "Long-Haul 242?" Because it was towed across country, *and* because it will take a while for me to get it fully sorted.

God damn, I feel like i just read War and Peace and it's just one post.

Edit: There's two posts in there. I looked.

Amazing, heartbreaking and hopefully a triumphant return.

That's a nice truck! You're doing this in good style, the fly and drive and trailer is MAX adventure!

The fire pictures are great... I mean it's heartbreaking but if it's going to happen you might as well have the photo history!!

Excited to see this. The story that led into this is heart breaking though. Hope you can make this one as clean as the original car you had.

Jordan

Glad to see you on the forum with a thread.

It found a great home, I wish I could have finished it but hurt body parts and old age changed my mind, you guys got home quick, good luck with the car. Don’t forget about the fuel line from the tank to the junction where the old fuel pump use to be. I have to change my avatar and signature…

Amazing story well told. You should get in touch with the 13 year old kid and his dad and tell them to start a build thread too!

Those photos are painful to see, but really cool to have. Can't wait to see how this progresses.

It hurt seeing the ‘84 engulfed in flames but suiting that it was replaced with an originally flaming red flat-hood, as well as a tow pig to match haha. Congratulations on the find!