A fiery red Heico Sportiv Volvo C30, seen on a local auto show in Beijing in 2010. It looked absolutely brilliant and there was another one nearby.
The show was in a small sports stadium. Just previously, there had been a travel exhibition at the same venue, and the backdrops were still there! The red C30 stood in front of Greece.
Heico Sportiv is a German tuner founded in 1995. They modify and race every Volvo imaginable. I knew the company that marketed Heico Sportiv kits in Beijing. They sold and maintained many of cool cars, including a Connaught Rolls-Royce and a BMW M3 with a Camaro engine. For a while, they also took care of my Beijing-Jeep.
However, when I saw these C30’s I didn’t know that company yet, and at the moment of writing they don’t sell Heico Sportiv anymore. More on time traveling in a later post. Now back to the C30’s!
The Volvo C30 was manufactured from 2006 until 2013 with a major update in 2010. Our Heico cars are pre-update.
Heico offered a wide range of performance upgrades for the Volvo C30, ranging from a simple spoiler to a full sport suspension set. Engine upgrades were available too. The cars we have here are both Heico T5, the red one with a pretty modest body kit, and the blue one with…
… the full Heico treatment. The T5 was powered by turbocharged five-cylinder petrol engine. Stock output was 227 hp and 320 Nm. Heico tuned that up to 300 hp and 420 Nm. With that, the Heico Volvo C30 T5 sprinted for 0 to 100 in just 5.4 seconds. Unlimited top speed was 269 km/h. Gearbox was Volvo’s own 6-speed manual, left unchanged.
This car is painted in a color Heico called Ocean Blue. It also got an extra sporty set of brakes with large 326 x 30 mm brake discs. Darkened windows match nicely with black wheels.
The Heico C30 T5 had four pipes, two on each side. There is a small Heico badge on the right side but no type name or number. I always thought the pre-update C30 was a pretty car, and Heico made it look even better.
Somewhere further down the stadium I found this ultra cool and rather old Pirelli billboard on the side. Probably more rare in China than the Heico Volvo’s are.