Under the hood of Adrian Jarnjevic’s 264 Volvo is a 4.6-litre Range Rover V8 with twin turbos and EFI

This article on Adrian’s 264 Volvo was originally published in the August 2008 issue of Street Machine

ONE of the great things about street car racing is the sheer variety of under-bonnet engineering you see in the pits. Sydney’s Wicked Wednesday meets are an excellent example, with Adrian Jarnjevic’s 264 Volvo at the top of the heap.

“I built it just to upset people,” said the 34-year-old Canberra-based spanner-man. “I’ve had the thing for years and just acquired bits and pieces to build something special. It all just went from there.”

The car is a 1976 model and under the hood is an aluminium 4.6-litre Range Rover V8 with twin turbos and EFI. It’s all engineered and runs on pump gas.

We spotted Adrian at WSID and after running 10-flat the previous meeting, he was hoping to cut into the 9.50s this time around.

The motor is fairly mild, with aftermarket rods and pistons. Hanging off each side of the motor is a GT35/40 turbocharger with external wastegate.

On pump gas it makes a hefty 410hp at the tyres through a Powerglide transmission and a Ford nine-inch rear, with a McDonald Brothers mini four-link. Adrian wasn’t able to improve on his 10.0, running a mid-10 after suffering a few electrical problems with the car.

“I ran the first pass on seven cylinders after a ’plug lead dropped off, then had trouble with the fan on the second pass. On the last run of the night the motor cut out after I brought it up on the transbrake. It was an awful night so I’ll be back next week. As much as this is all about having fun I really want to run a mid-nine and I know the car can do it.”

UPDATE: Since this article appeared in SM, the car went on to run 9.6-seconds at 145mph, back in 2009. Adrian has now put a new 4.6-litre engine combination together, with TA Performance heads, an Ivan Tighe solid roller cam and all the fruit. We’re looking forward to seeing it hit the track again!