So for those that aren't tracking we lost the house to a fire in early January. The point of origin was the garage at the front of the house that as you can imagine held many treasures including 5 motorbikes, my Lotus Elise 111R and many tools and parts for other projects. All gone in the space of about 40 minutes.

Rather than jumping straight back into another Lotus (I have nowhere to keep it as we are now renting a townhouse) I had been kicking along looking at replacement that would be a bit of a jack of all trades fun to drive and look at while not breaking the bank and with some scope for minor modifications to make it my own.

After a false start with a V40 T5 in Melbourne, I have ended up with a 2011 S60 T6 RD in passion red. It has 165k on the clock and I paid $15k for it with 6 months rego. It is a bit of a mixed bag, body and interior are clean but rims are shot. Things like the transmission has been flushed but the brakes have significant wear and shudder under brakes. The ride is ok but suspension is tired.

@Philia_Bear helped with inspection and will be dropping it down to Canberra for me this weekend. Bloke is a bloody legend.

To date I have purchased a B8 suspension kit complete with H&R springs from FCP and a full set of DBA T2 slotted rotors to get me started. From there it will get a detail and I will put some km on it before going back over routine maintenance. A couple of engine mounts are starting to sag etc before potentially looking at a Hilton tune, TFT swap and a few other things.

I have made piece with the fact that I am probably going to over capitalise on this one but have given myself a $5k modification budget of which $3k is going already...

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This is what is left of the garage and my Lotus....

Holy sh#tballls without stating the obvious, what happened , Lotus ?

Edit just read first post , sorry to hear the loss of the house there , not good

The downpipe is available from Voldat , Mark Richardson has had them built or the ones from O/S but the ipd one is smaller diameter, beware.

Rear Sway Bar upgrade is essential as the heavy front pushed at the slightest provocation and HARDRACE/WHITELINE/KC_? parts for strut brace, control arelms and linkages , Powerflex bushes are upgrades I have sitting ready to install to help the front end and also my tired suspension.

I imagine the B8s will be harsh but you come from Lotus!

I put R-Design low mileage springs and shocks to good effect but better on front will also help the understeer.

Driving a V60 Polestar I found it better but still needs understeer help.

Elevate intakes are junk, just put a panel filter in , Volvo do great airboxes.

Elevate intake mani seems to be a slight increase but intercooler and DP biggest gain, TDI TUNING box is a BIG power gain but not a comprehensive one like Hilton.

Jaguar wheels are available cheaply , considering the cost of refurbished job ...and better fit offset wise , centre cap decals from Dave Barton unless you like a kitty on the Jag ones.

Was wondering about the B8's but I had some on my S40 T5 and there were decent enough. Lotus had Nitron 46mm 3-ways fitted so was firm.

Tracking the need for the rear sway, hardrace seem the most likely, whiteline didn't have a listing.

Tossing up between TDI box and Hilton. TDI is 20% off at the moment so could do one for maybe $500 delivered.

If I could grab one to try that would be a bonus, though I suspect I would do DP and Stage 2 Hilton eventually.

Can see a couple of OZVolvo members doing a cameo in one of the photos above as well.....

Anyone got some XC90 calipers lying around for the brake upgrade?

I have some XC90 calipers, I'll have to check but I don't think I have a meed for them. I can post them.

Legend, if you know what year and model they are from I can check that they will fit. Pretty sure 90% of them had the 336mm brakes but I think some early 2.5t only had 316 which is what I have now.

Edit, only the D5 and V8 had the bigger brakes.

It's usually the XC60 front brake upgrade.

Honestly, I drove V60 Polestar with massive Brembos and it wasn't any better.

I've got XC60 parts sitting waiting but am constantly amazed at the feel of standard V60T6 brakes with genuine discs and pads.

It would need track work to see any betterment.

Best spending money on stuff to make car stiffer and all the bushes and links.

Have already got the 336mm discs sitting here so kind of commited. There is only one thread on swede speed that talks XC60 twin piston as an option. I do note that they give a larger pad though 190mm vs 155mm.

Would be curious to know what the piston diameter is on the XC60 twin pots. For comparisons sake.

    Nelpd96

    Have already got the 336mm discs sitting here so kind of commited. There is only one thread on swede speed that talks XC60 twin piston as an option. I do note that they give a larger pad though 190mm vs 155mm.

    Would be curious to know what the piston diameter is on the XC60 twin pots. For comparisons sake.

    @VolvoMike has fitted some and notes improvement.

    I got mine from him too , must get onto @AshDVS when I drag the parts out of storage, Ash can supply pads, discs and HEL s/s lines too.

      Looks like I have some D5 XC90 calipers sorted for now. Will update with how the install goes. If I come across a set of XC60 calipers I might give them a go. From what I have read they need a little grinding if you run the 336mm vs 328mm disc

      Cheers

      Paul

      Yeah, 328. Seems big enough.

      Yet again today I was surprised how damn good the stock brakes are with brilliant feel!

      Maybe they are due to be replaced , just as you get them nice..........

      I'll definitely put on the '60 calipers but use OEM discs and pads I reckon. They know what they are doing and no hit and miss.

      With a recent mention of DBA discs warping X3 replacements somewhere I read I'm not doing that....

      I have no idea... Duncan has some that I can try for now. I really need to just replace the disks as you know, they are shot.

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