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He built his first V-8 Volvo for his 75-year-old mother. In high school, he bolted an aluminum Buick V-8 into a worn Datsun 510. The five-speed shifter from the Ford transmission pokes up through a Volvo shift boot, but the fabricated shift lever Converse adds to the transmission uses the Mustang shift knob.Ĭonverse is always eager to recycle. He went to school to learn to be an aircraft mechanic, but his Yankee-inventor, hot-rodder personality became frustrated with strict FAA regulations that discourage the hot rodding of airplane engines. He also lived in a BMW 1600 sedan for a few weeks in the 1970s and spent a couple years as the live-in mechanic for a wealthy gentleman in North Carolina ("It sure was a lot warmer there than in Maine"). Extravagant, perhaps, to Converse, who once lived for two years in the Maine woods in the back of a delivery truck. Modest, that is, to a car fan like Newman. Converse lives on a dirt road on the outskirts of Portland and does all his work in a modest-sized garage. Cost, however, was the major motivator for Converse's conversions. #INSTALLATION MANUAL POWERDYNE AUTOMOTIVE PRODUCTS TV#"It's like driving a go-kart or a jet fighter," adds the toothy TV star.Ĭonverse designed the package to be an affordable way to preserve otherwise sound Volvos Newman wanted a supercharger and a bunch of engine tweaks, cost no object. But Letterman revealed that Newman had already been stopped by the cops. Newman, you see, wanted a car he could drive fast but not be noticed in. ![]() Letterman was chastised for his loose lips: "The guy gets a little cranky about mentioning his name," Letterman told interviewer Al Roker on CNBC later. What circumstance would Paul find himself in while driving around in a Volvo station wagon where he feels he's got to chew somebody's ass?" Letterman continued: "Paul told me from 20 to 100 you can chew anybody's ass. 'Dave, I'm thinking about getting a Volvo station wagon, with a Ford 302 V-8 the size of a small piano. Appearing on the now-defunct Jon Stewart Show, Letterman revealed: "Six months ago, Paul Newman calls up. The trouble started when another Indy-car team owner, late-night TV host David Letterman, bought one of Converse's V-8-powered Volvo wagons and was so excited that he let it slip-to the whole world-that Newman had one, too. But the low-key Converse gets nervous about us mentioning his famous clients. "It was a lot of fun riding with, you know, Newman, as he slid the car through some corners at 90 mph," Converse recalls, reveling in the pure adolescence of one shakedown trip with the 72-year-old Newman. Our blown test car also had 89,000 miles on the odometer, making it relatively new for the average Converse conversion. #INSTALLATION MANUAL POWERDYNE AUTOMOTIVE PRODUCTS UPGRADE#The supercharger is a popular upgrade priced at $2500, and it takes two to three hours to install, says Converse. It's by nature not a lucrative business, since he charges just $750 for the parts or $1700 for doing the engine swap himself. In eight years, Converse has built 50 of the V-8-powered cars and has sold 150 kits for do-it-your-selfers. Throttle response in both cars is quick, and you can spin the stock-size tires at most speeds on a whim. A new 740 Turbo wagon reached 60 mph in 8.0 seconds and took the quarter in 15.9 at 85 mph back in May 1985. Our second test subject from Converse had a stock Mustang engine and a four-speed automatic it made it to 60 mph in a still-zoomy 7.4 seconds. That's 1 mph faster than the sizzling 850 Turbo wagon we tested last March. Top speed for the station wagon is 145 mph. In fact, that Volvo got down the quarter-mile in 14.3 second at a trap speed of 100 mph, faster than July's Cobra. It was as quick as the convertible Mustang Cobra we tested last July. It was a special version, with a Powerdyne Automotive Products centrifugal supercharger driven by a shielded, toothed belt. In fact, one of the two Converse-built Volvo wagons we tested got to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds. The other reason is this: A Volvo wagon weighs only 100 pounds more with an iron-block Mustang V-8, so performance improves. ![]() Cops and autograph hounds normally tend not to notice ubiquitous Volvo station wagons. See, one of the advantages of having a V-8-powered Volvo, especially in the Northeast, is that Swedish cars blend into the traffic like Toyotas in Tokyo. The Sportiest, Coolest Volvos of All TimeĬonverse, a soft-spoken 46-year-old Mainer, is more concerned that Indy-car team owner and actor Newman will be angry with him for divulging a secret: Known fast-car lover and salad-dressing-and-salsa salesman Newman tools around his home base in Connecticut in a V-8-powered Volvo 960 wagon built by Converse. ![]()
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