For Five Short Years, You Could Buy A Demure Volvo S80 With A 4.4-Liter V8

When you think of plush, V8-powered highway cruisers, your mind might conjure up a Cadillac, or a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, or even a Lexus LS. Those are all fine and dandy choices, but there’s another, more obscure one out there that might pique your interest. Although Volvo isn’t known for a history of V8 engines, for about five years, you could get a Volvo S80 with a 311-horsepower naturally aspirated V8 engine. How’s that for an unusual proposition?

However, the Volvo S80 V8 wasn’t entirely a Swedish contraption. Sure, Volvo built the body and the interior and worked out the suspension and electrical system, but for the engine, the Gothenburg-based automaker called on Yamaha for help, and the result was just as unusual and compelling as you might expect.

Welcome back to Beige Cars You’re Sleeping On, a weekly series in which we raise the profile of some quiet greats. We’re talking vehicles that are secretly awesome, but go unsung because of either a boring image or the lack of an image altogether.

Yes, that Yamaha. From pianos to motorcycles to the Toyota 2000GT, Yamaha seems to have a hand in just about anything fun, and for a while, automakers could go to the Japanese conglomerate if they needed an engine or substantial engine parts. Toyota used Yamaha’s expertise for the 2JZ, Ford installed a Yamaha-built V6 in the original Taurus SHO, and now it was Volvo’s time to use a little bit of that expertise.

Transverse V8s aren’t anything new. From the Cadillac Allante to the Y2K-era Lincoln Continental, automakers have experimented with cramming eight cylinders into predominantly front-wheel-drive platforms. However, the B844S V8 in the second-generation Volvo S80 was a bit different than most.

For starters, it was a 60-degree V8. Conventional wisdom states that 90 degrees is the ideal bank angle for a V8, as it keeps vibrations low. To prevent the 60-degree Yamaha V8 from shaking S80 occupants, Yamaha utilized offset crank journals to ensure one combustion cycle per 90 degrees of crankshaft rotation.

Oh, but that’s not the only trick Yamaha used to keep this V8 compact. The alternator was simply bolted to the engine block rather than to a bracket, and the exhaust cams ran off of secondary chains driven by sprockets on the intake camshafts. See, fitting a V8 where a V6 usually goes often isn’t too crazy, but fitting a V8 where a much narrower inline-six usually goes? That requires some finagling.

The end result was an all-aluminum quad-cam transverse V8 that weighed a modest 418 pounds, yet cranked out 311 horsepower. While that’s not an earth-shattering figure today, keep in mind that a Ford Mustang GT of the time made just 300 horsepower. However, more than sheer numbers, the engine had charisma, as Car And Driver wrote:

Perhaps due to its not ideal 60-degree bank angle, the V-8 delivers a raucous intake snarl at full throttle. It’s a pleasure to hear a V-8 working hard, and the sound is the most sporting aspect of the S80 experience. At 4179 pounds, the S80 is heavier than most others of its class, but the V-8 has 792 fewer pounds to contend with than in the XC90, and the result is a 0-to-60 time of 5.7 seconds — a few ticks slower than its more expensive V-8 rivals but quicker than comparably priced six-cylinder variants. The engine is perfectly matched to a six-speed automatic with manumatic override and all-wheel drive. Quick downshifts and healthy torque make for stress-free passing well into triple-digit speeds.

Indeed, the Yamaha-sourced V8 in the second-generation S80 is a sonorous engine, although the rest of the car is far more luxury cruiser than sports sedan. In normal operation, its all-wheel-drive system sends 95 percent of the torque to the front tires, and when you add in somewhat cushy suspension, it all adds up to the Swedish equivalent of a Buick Lucerne Super. That ought to get your pulse moderated.

However, don’t think that the V8 S80 is a waste of time, because it’s still a beautifully made long-distance cruiser. With a flowing, floating center stack, plenty of soft materials, a charming human-shaped button arrangement for HVAC air direction, and God’s own seats, you just get the sense you can set the cruise control to 70 mph and just go until the 18.5-gallon fuel tank is dry. Granted, with a combined fuel consumption figure of just 18 mpg, that only gets you 333 miles of EPA-rated range, but still. Plush is plush. You could even get the S80 V8 with adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, and rear seat entertainment. Not bad for model year 2007.

These days, if you’re looking for a V8-powered Volvo S80, you can find one remarkably cheaply, even though this car had a relatively short production run from mid-2006 through the end of the 2010 model year. Want a high-mileage hero? Here’s a 2007 S80 V8 with a whopping 181,801 miles on the clock up for sale at an Audi dealership in New Jersey for just $2,599. No, I’m not missing a digit there, high-mileage examples really are that cheap.

Mind you, a high-mileage luxury car of any sort will likely come with issues during the ownership period, so how much is a nice S80 V8? Well, here’s a 2008 model with a mere 87,446 miles on the clock up for sale in Wisconsin for $9,595. That’s still barely in the four-figure category, a price which makes these eight-cylinder S80s seriously temping buys.

So, if you’re looking for a relatively modern, big, comfy, V8 highway cruiser, you might want to put a 2007 to 2010 Volvo S80 V8 on your shortlist. Sure, it’ll require odds and ends over the years, but with a unique soundtrack and damn near perfect seats, you can’t help but get the sense that these cars are keepers. Maybe that’s why so few are for sale nationwide.

(Photo credits: Volvo, Autotrader sellers)

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