John Bowe reunited with Group A Volvo touring car - 30 years later!

By: Guy Allen, Unique Cars magazine, with John Bowe, Video by: Mark Bean

Date: 18.11.2016

Is this like visiting an old girlfriend? Maybe...John Bowe gets together with his Group A Volvo racer, three decades down the track.

Bowe gets together with an old Swedish friend.

It's 30 years almost to the day since Supercar legend John Bowe last clapped eyes on his Group A Volvo touring car, and a brief opportunity to reunite happened recently at Eastern Creek.

This car is from the days when he was swapping paint with the likes of Seton and Fury, while he was teamed up with Francevic.

The car is pretty simple by current standards - 'very analogue', he says - with simple dials and a bolt-together roll cage in the stripped-out production chassis.

It claimed a modest 340 horses (not convinced about the number - Ed)  for an 1150kg car, which was competitive back in the day. It developed that power from a 2-litre engine, with turbo at 1.5 bar (@22psi) and mechanical fuel injection. Note the dog-leg 5-speed Getrag transmission.

JB reckons its best feature was the braking, which he says helped him win a lot of ground. And the funny thing? The rear brakes used to lock up back in 1986 and they still do today!

Join him for a lap of the big Swede...

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