2.5k: Rally Canuck: 1979 Volvo 242GT

In contrast to the stanced out hellaflushed-down-the-toilet craze going on today with all manner of Japanese and European cars, some people are still not afraid to go old-school and raise the ride height of their project car. Older rear wheel drive Volvos are perfect for this; they were designed from the start to trudge through Scandanavian winters and are very common as privateer rally cars in their homeland. So instead of stretched tires, “fitment,” and 25 degrees of negative camber, today we bring you a sweet little rally-prepped machine. Find this 1979 Volvo 242GT Rally Car here on kijiji.com in Monte Creek, BC Canada for $2500 CDN.

Canadian market 242GTs were either silver with a black & orange stripe package, or black with silver & orange. The stripes went up over the trunk lid in a distinctive pattern. It looks like this car has been repainted in a semigloss battleship gray (great for its intended usage) with some vaguely GT-esque stripes that just run straight down the sides. With the studded snow tires on 14″ Virgo alloy wheels (from a 240 Turbo), its original massive Commando bumpers and a quartet of driving lights up front, this GT certainly looks the part of a dirt road machine. Those chin lights are in danger of being bashed during sweet jumps however.

The seller says it has successfully completed a handful of winter rallies and that his wife likes the car so much, she uses it as her daily driver in the snowy months. Cool wife – wonder if she can recite lines from The Big Lebowski too? We enjoy the provided inter-stage rally pictures as there is lots of good stereotypical Canadian stuff in the background…log cabins, carven wood bears, Santa, a Saab Sonett II…etc. Regardless of locale it’s nice to see this 242 was used for its intended purpose. Comparing/contrasting with this previously featured rally 242, today’s car is definitely more towards the stock end of the scale and should be perfectly usable as a road car. Scandanavian Flicks shoud still be high on the to-do list though.

The seller says it has a Euro-spec B23E 2.3 liter four-cylinder, which in stock form with 10.3:1 compression was good for 140 hp – a great improvement over the agricultural ~110hp US spec engines at the time. There are many other upgrades listed so this thing seems to be well sorted out; with some power and ground clearance this should be an entertaining 240 even in non-turbo form. This is an NA Volvo with hairy Canadian balls. At only $2500 it seems like a great way to have some fun in the dirt and/or snow.

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