Volvos are stodgy, safe, boring, people-movers. They have a reputation for solid safety ratings as well as a reputation for not crashing in the first place because, well, they just aren't that fast. In 1996's The Rock, Nicholas Cage plays a biochemist, and when he wants to express how out of his element he feels fighting terrorists, he says, "I lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo, a beige one…what say you cut me some FRIGGIN’ SLACK?” Everyone knows Volvos are boring. Everyone that is, except Volvo.While Michael Bay was developing the aforementioned Cage/Connery flick, the Swedish automaker was cooking up a special performance edition that’s since become legendary. This Volvo was so wild, so gutsy, so "yeehaw," that it out-cornered the BMW 540i. All while costing a fraction of the 5 Series’ price. And being a station wagon shaped like a brick. The BMW 5 Series: Untouched For 30 Years BMWBMW launched its 5 Series sporting “executive car” in 1972. For the 1973 model year, BMW upgraded the big sedan to its legendary “M30” I6 engine. Over the decades, the 5 Series stuck to the same solid formula. Big, torquey, front-engine, and RWD-biased layout, with available stick shift transmissions. It offered tuned suspension and luxurious amenities.For 1991, BMW began offering station wagon configurations in some markets. The 5 Series was refined, looked fast, handled better than most cars on the road, and as a hatchback it had ample cargo room. The Bavarian-built tourer scowled down its nose at all its competitors from Europe and elsewhere. Nothing could touch its class or its road manners. Nothing.Then from somewhere in Sweden came the lusty sound of a turbo spoiling. The screech of tires as an FWD wagon whipped around a corner. Is that? Can that be? A Volvo? Impossible! Volvo Spools Up Bring a TrailerVolvo was originally trademarked in 1911. It's a Latin conjugation of “Volvere” that translates to “I roll.” Why? It was originally going to be a ball bearing manufacturer, but began building cars in 1927. It grew rapidly in both the passenger car and commercial vehicle segments.Today, the separately-owned Volvo Truck is the second-largest truck manufacturer in the world. Volvo Cars built its own reputation for sturdy, reliable, and safe vehicles such as its line of station wagons popular in the U.S.The automaker certainly dabbled in the sports car market, namely with its 1956 P1900 roadster and 1961 P1800 coupe. It later pivoted to focus on different segments, but never gave up on its performance dreams. Volvo launched a true “sporty station wagon” in 1981: the turbocharged four-cylinder 240 Turbo. The automaker shocked the world when it took a stripped-down 240 Turbo sedan (nicknamed the “flying brick”) racing. The car won both the European Touring Car Championship and German Touring Car Championships in 1985. The Volvo 850 T-5R A Turbocharged Wagon That Out-Cornered The BMW 540i Bring a TrailerVolvo’s logic was simple: If the four-cylinder 240 Turbo had been fast, adding a cylinder would make it faster. The straight five-cylinder Volvo 850 debuted for the 1992 model year. The automaker rolled out a turbocharged variant that made 222 horsepower for the 1994 model year. But for 1995, it pulled out all the stops.Bring a TrailerThe 1995 850 T-5R featured a tuned ECU for two extra PSI of boost. How did it work? If the driver revved the T5-R to 5,100 rpm, its tuned ECU bumped the turbocharger from 9.5 to 10.9 psi for 30 seconds. The result was a 243-horsepower/250-pound-feet beast. Volvo claimed the car could hit 60 mph in 5.8 seconds. Reviewers found its top speed of 153 mph beat out multiple European performance sedans. That included the BMW 540i, which tapped out at 130 mph. Volvo’s 850 T-5R Trounced The BMW 540i Bring a TrailerEven though it was only available in the U.S. with an automatic transmission, the 850 T-5R made a great drag-racing sleeper wagon. But that was far from its only party trick. The production version had the regular Turbo’s sport suspension. In addition, it got 17-inch cast-aluminum wheels that were 6.5 inches wide and wrapped in Pirelli P-Zero tires.The automaker entered the wagon configuration in the 1994 Touring Car Championship. Going wheel-to-wheel with sedans, the full-size, 3,400-pound wagon was impossible to ignore. The crowd favorite placed fifth. Meanwhile, BMW’s factory team showed up with a 318i. Despite weighing in under 2,900 pounds, the compact sedan only placed fourth.Bring a TRailerSo what happened when the Volvo 850 T-5R faced a BMW its own size? The 5 Series to be exact? It schooled the Bimmer.When MotorTrend got its hands on one of the first Volvo 850 T-5R wagons in the U.S., it drove the car to Death Valley California for a punishing head-to-head. Its nemesis: a 1995 BMW 540i six-speed sedan ($53,670). Editor C. Van Tune "latched on" to the stately BMW. Meanwhile, Senior Road Test Editor Mac DeMere went for the new 850 T-5R ($36,350 sedan MSRP, $38,056 wagon). The numbers didn’t lie.On the skidpad, the 5 Series pulled 0.82 g-force. The FWD 850 T-5R eked out a win with 0.83 g-force. Other metrics were even more impressive. The big BMW took 124 feet to stop from 60 mph. The Volvo did it in 115. The BMW steered through a 600-foot slalom course at 64.4 mph. The Volvo out-cornered it, doing the same course at 66.0 mph. The Volvo also laid down better numbers than the Jaguar XJR. It only lost out to the Mercedes-Benz C36 AMG Edition. The Volvo 850 T-5R: The Raddest Dadcore Wagon Ever Built Bring a TrailerVolvo only offered the special edition T-5R in the U.S. for the 1995 model year. It was succeeded by the 1996-1997 850R. But the iconic T-5R has gone down in history as one of the raddest sleepers around. Maybe that’s because its unassuming signature color, “Cream Yellow,” is almost beige.According to Classic.com, seven 850 T-5R Volvos have sold over the past year. The relatively small sample size's 12-month average was $17,277, while the top sale was $26,395. VIN YV1LW5815S2124823 (pictured) sold for $19,250 on Bring a Trailer in November 2024.
