During a build, there’s often a point where you realise things have gone a little too far. For 22-year-old Markus Mattsson, that moment probably came somewhere between cutting the entire floor out of his Volvo V70 and deciding that the front-wheel-drive estate would make much more sense as a rear-wheel-drive pickup.
Markus lives in Linköping, Sweden, and works as a mechanic at a Mercedes-Benz dealership. His introduction to all things on wheels came naturally enough. His father, Henrik, has spent his entire life around cars, and you might recognise his name from the wild Volvo V70 build that first hit the internet many moons ago (see photo below). So, it was only natural that Markus would get pulled into the same world.
Markus purchased his V70 back in 2012, originally planning to turn it into an A-traktor – a Swedish vehicle that younger drivers can use under specific licensing and speed restrictions. But the project kept growing, and a decade later, there wasn’t much of the original car left.
To be honest, I’m very glad it turned out that way.
The Volvo exterior is where things get interesting. From the front, you could almost mistake it for a regular V70. Walk around to the side, though, and things start to look a little… strange.
Markus widened the car by 70mm at the front and 100mm at the rear, doing all the metalwork himself. At the back, he cut away the entire estate section, transforming the V70 into a pickup. And inside the trunk is nothing short of a work of art.
The original floorpan has been completely removed and replaced with a custom-built tube frame chassis, while a Mercedes-Benz rear axle and custom front suspension complete the front-to-rear-wheel-drive conversion. BC Racing and Protech Shocks dampers feature, while the aluminium control arms are all home-built and fitted with uniballs.
With the rear suspension sorted, Markus had one more thing to consider: he didn’t want suspension towers sticking up through the pickup bed. Instead, he built his own suspension arms and worked out the mounting points to achieve a 1:1 motion ratio. It’s a clever solution that keeps the bed clean without sacrificing the custom rear suspension setup.
The braking system is largely sourced from the Mercedes-Benz parts bin, with 8-piston E55 front calipers paired with 390mm AMG GT discs, while the rear uses the E55 4-piston calipers and 330mm discs.
With the amount of custom work that went into the chassis, there was never going to be much appetite for the V70’s factory-fitted running gear.
Under the bonnet now sits a 2.3-litre Volvo T5 B5234T five-cylinder engine. The block has been bored and rebuilt with a new crankshaft, H-profile connecting rods and forged pistons, while a newer cylinder head has received some light porting. Markus has also built the exhaust manifold, intake, radiator and aluminium pipework himself. The stainless-steel exhaust is home-built too, using a three-chamber design.
All told, the current engine setup produces around 400whp and 500Nm on E85, with power and torque transmitted to the rear end via a BMW 6-speed manual gearbox.
The interior takes a different approach. Rather than stripping everything back, Markus has retrofitted parts from a modern Volvo into the old V70.
The dashboard, centre console and seats come from a 2020 Volvo V90, while the door cards have been reworked and trimmed in leather with white stitching to tie everything together. A roll cage sits inside the cabin and is painted in the same orange as the exterior, continuing down into the floor. The gear lever is topped with a Nuke Performance knob and finished with a carbon fibre shifter. There’s even a proper sound system in there, although I’d still rather listen to that T5 up front.
I got to ride shotgun as we finished the shoot, and it felt like I was riding in a car that Volvo itself had built. The finish is second to none, and Markus says it’s one of his favorite aspects of the build.
The car just passed inspection as well, and while that’s all dandy, it was a bittersweet moment for Markus. After spending so much time building the car he wanted to drive as a young teenager, he now owns one of the most detailed builds to ever hit the Swedish roads, legally.
But I guess the car is the perfect representation of Swedish car culture. Take something ordinary, make it faster, wider, and stranger, and keep going until there’s no obvious reason to stop.
