Volvo S40 TWR Team sponsored by Q8 - British Touring Car Championship - BTCC 1997
Car scale model kit in 1/24 scale manufactured by Nunu (ref. PN24034, also 4545782075779)

And finally, Volvo achieved its goal of winning the most important touring car championship of the 90's, the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). Since joining up with TWR to tackle the championship with guarantees of success, starting with the famous 850 SW in 1994 and continuing with the 850 sedan for the next two seasons, Volvo had come ever closer to winning the championship, notably the Swedish driver Rickard Rydell, but it was necessary to wait until the model change, relying on the "smaller" S40 to see Volvo win the championship.

That happened in the 98 season. Previously in the year 1997, the S40’s debut brought some success. Both at the beginning and at the end of the season the S40 challenge was strong, but for much of the middle part of the year it was a team of nearly men. Several victories and podiums were obtained, which was not enough.

Initially all seemed to be going smoothly, with TWR’s usual comprehensive winter test programme making the S40 a pre-season favourite. Rydell then finished second in three of the first four races to establish himself firmly as Alain Menu’s closest early season challenger.

After that thought the team found it hard to keep the car right on the pace. Much of this was simply down to the process of learning how the new car worked, as it was an entirely different machine to its predecessor, with improved aerodynamics and better base rear suspension on the plus side, but a much smaller foot print (narrower track and shorter wheelbase).

The car’s race pace was usually pretty good, but hot qualifying laps were hard to come.

By the end of the 1997 season, TWR thought they knew what they needed to do to make the S40 the consistent winner they wanted, and they had all winter to figure it out and prove that the S40 was a worthy successor to the 850... Wrong they did not, since finally, the 98 season was Volvo.