When Volvo announced that it would enter the British Touring Car Championship for 1994, one question quickly began circulating around the paddock: surely they weren’t really going to race the estate?

The Swedish manufacturer had signed a three-year agreement with Tom Walkinshaw Racing to develop and run the 850, marking Volvo’s return to top-level touring car competition for the first time since the 1980s. Jan Lammers and Rickard Rydell were signed to drive, but when Rydell agreed terms around Christmas 1993, there was one fairly important detail he had not been told. “When I signed up for Volvo and TWR around Christmas 1993, I didn’t know about the estate plans,” he later recalled. “If I’d known, I would probably have hesitated. It was lucky I didn’t know!”

For a driver who had spent years chasing Formula One through British Formula 3 and Japanese Formula 3000, the contrast was considerable. As Rydell put it, “It must be said that it was a bit of a change from someone dreaming of being in F1, to racing an estate!”

Rumours about Volvo’s choice circulated throughout the winter, but the manufacturer did little to stop them. In fact, the uncertainty was deliberate. Volvo’s Martin Rybeck later admitted that the company wanted to “keep people guessing”. At the Stockholm Motor Show, a racing-liveried estate appeared while a similarly liveried saloon was also displayed, and Tom Walkinshaw continued to insist that TWR would race whichever body shape proved most competitive.

Rybeck was equally careful not to give the game away. “Obviously, from a PR point of view we’d like to see the estate racing,” he said before the season, “but we are not going to sacrifice performance for media exposure.” Volvo clearly recognised the enormous publicity potential, but this was still intended to be a serious three-year racing programme.

Nor was the estate quite as ridiculous a choice as it initially appeared. TWR designer Richard Owen later explained that it actually produced marginally less aerodynamic lift than the saloon, something Rydell also remembered: “The aerodynamics of the estate were slightly better than the saloon.” Its biggest disadvantage was the additional weight carried higher and further towards the rear of the car, compromising the centre of gravity and making rapid changes of direction more difficult.

Nevertheless, plenty of people remained convinced the estate story was little more than an elaborate publicity stunt.

Preparation had also been incredibly rushed. Rydell and Lammers’ first experience of the completed 850 was hardly a conventional racing-car shakedown, taking place on the driveway of Tom Walkinshaw’s Broadstone Manor home. “We drove it from his house down to the front gate and back,” Rydell recalled.

Lammers went first. “Jan drove it up and down and was not sure about it,” remembered Rydell. “He said, ‘This is a bit strange, maybe you should try it.’”

It was an extraordinary beginning for a works BTCC programme. Proper circuit running followed only shortly before the season began, leaving both drivers and TWR with very little time to understand an entirely new front-wheel-drive racing car.

Lammers’ first proper experience did little to reassure him. After driving the car out of the pits at Snetterton and selecting third gear, he remembered thinking, “Thank God I’ve only signed up for one year.” He later described the experience as “a bit of a reality shock.” After years in Formula One and high-downforce sports cars, the techniques required by a front-wheel-drive touring car were completely different.

Rydell faced much the same learning curve. The lack of development became particularly obvious at Thruxton, where the Volvo suffered badly from bump-steer and could move unpredictably over the circuit’s bumps. “You couldn’t stay at the edge of the track,” he explained. “You had to be one metre inside because the car would suddenly jump to the left or to the right either on the bumps or when you were accelerating.”

The estate was also awkward through rapid changes of direction. “The car was quite slow in terms of change of direction,” Rydell remembered. “It was OK if you only turned once, but in a chicane where you had to change one way and then another it wasn’t good. The rear didn’t really want to follow the front.”

That characteristic partly explained why Snetterton suited the Volvo rather better. On the faster Norfolk circuit, Rydell qualified the huge 850 third on the grid, proving that beneath the novelty value was a racing car capable of troubling the established BTCC machinery.

Underneath the distinctive bodywork was a serious piece of engineering. TWR pushed the naturally aspirated five-cylinder engine rearwards in the chassis to improve weight distribution, coupled it to a six-speed sequential gearbox and extracted around 290bhp. Volvo also became the first BTCC manufacturer to compete using a catalytic converter.

Volvo was equally happy to embrace the humour surrounding its unusual choice. The 850 was comfortably the largest car on the grid and some rival drivers were apparently less than enthusiastic about the prospect of being beaten by an estate. “There were a few taunts from other drivers – but that was no problem,” Rydell recalled.`

Volvo responded in suitably mischievous fashion. “To wind them up, we drove with a large stuffed collie in the boot during the parade lap!”

For all the jokes, TWR continued to develop the car seriously throughout the year. “We had learnt an enormous amount during the season, and developed the car continually,” said Rydell. The results remained modest, but the estate became increasingly competitive as the programme gathered mileage.

Its greatest success, however, was arguably measured away from the results sheet. “Our best finish was fifth place at Oulton Park,” Rydell recalled, “although there were more column inches written about us than about any other team!”

That was exactly what Volvo had hoped for. At a time when the BTCC grid was filling rapidly with manufacturer-backed four-door saloons, the 850 estate was instantly recognisable. It changed perceptions of Volvo and generated publicity far beyond anything its results alone could have achieved.

Rydell even believes it could have become a genuinely competitive proposition had Volvo continued with it. “Yes! I think the estate could have been more competitive in a second season.”

It never received that opportunity. Changes to the aerodynamic regulations for 1995 brought greater freedom to use front splitters and rear wings, making the saloon a much more suitable platform. TWR switched body styles and Rydell immediately became a regular polesitter, race winner and championship contender.

The estate disappeared after just one season, but its impact lasted far longer. Thirty years later, it remains one of the cars most closely associated with the Super Touring era. It never won a race, or even finished on the podium, but it changed perceptions of Volvo, generated enormous publicity and helped lay the foundations for the programme which would eventually take Rydell to the BTCC title in 1998.

And it all began with a driver dreaming of Formula One, an estate car he did not know he had signed up to race, and a first test consisting of a run down Tom Walkinshaw’s driveway and back.

For the full story in Rickard’s own words — from Formula One ambitions to the Volvo estate and beyond — listen to our complete Stories From SuperTouring episode with Rickard Rydell below.