CAR FEATURE

Euro flavour and supercar style may well be what automotive-modification dreams are made of - but a 360bhp Volvo S60 for half the price? Well that’s just pure final fantasy. Text: Fabian Cotter - Photos: Kevve.be

SCREAMING around bends and ripping across high-speed sweepers are all

part of the fun before wide-open throttle down The Green Hell’s Antoniusbuche straight, but when an engine goes pop there’s the ensuing urgency for many to get their motors ‘back on track’ fast. When 29-year-old Belgian Koen Lauwereys had his Volvo S60’s 170bhp 2.4-litre lump die hard on him after a blood-pumping circuit lap, he seized this opportu-nity to re-invigorate the looks

and performance of his 2002-model ‘Ovlov’. And he’s never looked back since.

“As a young guy the Volvo S60 wasn’t the hottest car I could imagine, but with a little ef-fort...” thought Koen. Near three years later, we can hon-estly say … shit, he was right.It isn’t so much that the S60 pictured here has been dis-cerningly ‘evolved’ in strict ad-herence to the fundamental – though often completely bloody ignored by morons - principal

of ‘taste’, but more importantly that this ‘cleaned’ project has been executed so authorita-tively and inspiringly that the very ‘Volvo’ brand-name can be seen by many modifiers in an entirely new, alluring light. Yep, that’s right! In the case shown here, Volvo is now … voluptuous. This S60? As sexy and sordid as ever.

Put simply, Koen’s taken an ar-guably bland but nonetheless potential-brimming Euro car as a daily-driven base, then

enhanced key styling queues from the factory with subtle bodykit application, luxuri-ous interior enhancement and audio specification, imbued it with sexy-as-fcuk deeply-dished multi-piece rims – then nailed it all to perfection with carefully dialled-in, belly-scraping lowered stance. And that 360bhp wallop from Gar-rett turbo grunt? That’s right on the money, too.

How Swede it is...

Bought in July 2005, the ex-leased 2.4-litre company-car S60 did have leather, but not much else. Koen first bought rims: 8.5x19-inch RH AN Cross-lines with 225/35 Pirelli Zero Neros. Then, because of his “fear of heights”, Koen bought a KW Variant II-kit (front ad-justable lowering, rear not) to achieve that tarmac-scraping look.

All cool, but then he wanted

the rims to look a little less standard, so he changed them to 9x19-inch at the front and 10x19-inch rears – but the non-fit meant arch rolling 1.5cm front and 3.5cm rear, which totally looks hot.Koen, though, did not want it all to look like “just a chassis on wheels”, so after some months an Evolve bodykit arrived. He cleaned out the towing eye holes, made another for the exhaust, then got a bodyshop to spray the bits. While waiting for the paint-job Koen welded

up a custom-made Inox ex-haust for it.

Ice man

Come winter 2006, he installed fully clear headlights, cleaning out the holes for the headlight-wipers, the windshield-wash-ers, then tackled the interior as he wanted different coloured leather and alcantara.Outside, with the interior out, the car was resprayed in its original silver after thoughts to change it were eventually

eliminated. The renewed body looks lean, mean and low over those deep dishes, which house upgraded, big-arse 320mm Volvo R Brembo brakes with four-piston calipers now. And these get a proper workout as Koen loves fanging this bitch around many a racetrack when he can.

Up front now sits a 2.3-litre T5 injected block running a Gar-rett 2871R turbo with MTE software, K&N air intake, and Ferrita 3-inch downpipe to

custom Inox exhaust exiting into Ferrari 612 end pipes. The five-speed manual gear-box works in conjunction with a high-spec stage 3 clutch. Vi-sually under the bonnet, the engine’s been painted body colour and there’s carbon de-tails throughout.

“T5s are rare around here, but the cops drive around in them and sometimes they crash one. I took that engine out, gave it a complete check-up and cleaned it completely.

As the engine wasn’t of the same year like my car, I got some mayor problems to start it. After changing every elec-tric wire and part of the car, everything started working,” Koen explained.

And it all sounds awesome when he’s racing, balls out, around circuits like The ‘Ring – but even when he’s not the Fo-cal Utopia speakers, Steg am-plifiers and Rockford Fosgate 360.2 bouncing tunes around the Dynamat-cossetted cabin

are pretty rock and roll, too.Ultimately, Keon says he chose this car as you don’t see it done much in the world tun-ing scene. But given how cool it’s all turned out, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was about to change. An inexpensive su-percar that’s an almost fac-tory-look special? Yep, we’re ordering more IKEA stuff and Swedish meatballs right now!