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Originally Posted by Herbert
I also talked to Rainer Kühl and how the Volvos came to Germany in the first place. The organiser of the DTM race at Mainz-Finthen wanted the works cars from the ETCC for his race in 1984 as guest starters. He was a Volvo enthusiast. He talked to Volvo Germany and Kühl who then contacted Bo Wikås in Sweden. But the Volvo race director told them it's not possible that the works cars could race at Mainz-Finthen, but he suggested to contact the private IPS team of Per Stureson and Ingmar Persson. Stureson then took part in the race and totally crushed the German regulars. He beat them by more than 30 sec.
After his success Stureson took part in some more races in 1984. At the Noriring he qualified in pole, but retired after just two laps becuse of gearbox problems. He struggeled at little bit at Hockenheim, but at the last race of the season at the Nürburgring Stureson was again on pole, but only finished the race in seventh place. After this promising beginning he commited for the whole season in 1985 and won the title.
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Brilliant stuff Herbert- I'd wondered about the number of Volvos that appeared in Germany, particularly the contrast between that and the total absence of them in the BTCC, as discussed earlier in the thread