We’ve had a lot of Volvos in our current Saturday COAL series, but how about a vintage review of the newly fuel injected 1972 164E? Like so many cars of the time, the addition of fuel injection didn’t make them faster, but just helped to offset the reduced compression ratios and other aspects of increased regulations of the time. Somewhat curiously, the fuel injection was standard on 164’s sold west of the Rockies (due to CA’s tighter standards) and optional east of the Rockies.
“…should be durable and won’t go out of style tomorrow.” Understatement, for sure.
I love the in-depth description/review of the 3-point safety belt system that we’re all so familiar with now. Remembering the convoluted systems installed (and rarely used by anyone) in domestic cars of the day, I suppose the beautifully simple and effective Volvo belts were a novelty back in ’72.
The BMW Bavaria was an effort to make the big BMW more accessible than it had previously been as the 2500 and 2800. I didn’t realize that the price was so low that it could be cross-shopped by Volvo customers. I think I’d have bought the BMW even knowing that Volvos didn’t rust as vociferously. 397 feet from 80 mph? Those had better be some great seatbelts!
By 1972, I’m pretty sure the Volvo belts were actually on at least a second generation of latching. Earlier versions clipped over a loop on the floor. I saved a clip from our 1964 122S and it decorates my garage wall.
Yup, you’re right. I remember those big hook-and-loop buckles in a ’63 Amazon were easy to use, though my opinion might have differed had my hands been bigger and/or arthritic at the time. I don’t know for sure, but I wonder if they might also have been used in early 140 cars as well.
There were several versions of the buckle in the 164’s ’69-’75 timeframe, all with what we currently think of as conventional belt tongues. My ’71 had lift-lever releases on the central unitised anchor for both front belts. Some later cars had one or two styles of face-button release on a central anchor, and other later cars had individual buckles—don’t recall whether the release button was on the face or on the side.
I remember something like this on my Father’s ’68 Renault R10. The latch was similiar to to this one, with a ring-like anchor point between the seats, that the hook on the buckle latched onto. I think there was a separate set of shoulder belts also with the hook type latch…they operated independently of the lap belt, so you had to fasten both if you wanted full protection.
Now seatbelts all latch pretty much the same…wonder if there’s something in the Federal auto safety regulations that requires a standard latch mechanism now? Can’t remember the date where seatbelts became required in the US, but it might have been 1968…my Father’s Renault had no options (that I recall), though it did come with Michelin Radials, the first car in our family with Radial tires, not sure what his new ’69 Country Squire had, but by 1973 the replacement ’73 Country Sedan had (infamous) Firestone 500 radials, which had to be replaced almost immediately due to delamination of the tire (good thing they found ours during a routine service on the lift, he had also bought a ’73 Viking “pop-top” camper that we took on vacation that year that the Country Sedan was bought for, could have been a bad time if the tread or sidewall had separated while pulling the trailer on vacation, many miles from home.
Never owned a Volvo, but by 1981, when I bought my ’78 Scirocco, I had my first fuel injected car, and haven’t had a carburator since then. My Father had bought a new 1980 Omni 024 which we had rebuilt the carburator (at least once) which was likely the last car with a carburator that he was to own, the next one ’86 Dodge 600 I think was fuel injected, but we didn’t have it but a few years, and I may be remembering wrong (at least we never rebuilt th carburator on the 600…maybe because we didn’t own it long enough; it was totalled in an accident in 1989 when my middle sister was driving it).
There’s no reg requiring standard latches as such, even on the relatively laxly regulated North American regulatory island. Here’s the relevant part of the rest-of-world (used to be “European”, now U.N.) regs. The rest-of-world reg requires the release button to be red. Red release buttons are common in North America for that reason; they’re not required here, but they’re not prohibited, either, so most belt makers just provide red buttons on all their belts, no matter which standard they’re built to.
Here’s the relevant part of the relevant rest-of-world reg, U.N. Regulation № 16:
And here’s the relevant section of the relevant U.S. reg, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard № 208:
There’ll be more eventually; I’m working on an article for this site about seatbelts.
Friend had a Bavaria, I liked it so much I bought a 530i in lapis blue, tan leather. I loved that car!
Dave
In places where leaded petrol kept on merrily lowering the IQ of the population, such as mine – and don’t you just hate having to put your mouth onto those filthy air nozzles to inflate your tyre at the gas station – the injected 164 was a bit of a sleeper, with 0-60 down into the 8-second bracket and 1/4 miles in low 16’s for a manual. Always had a name as heavy drinkers, though, as did the owners, because to choose this over the glories of a high-winding independently-suspended Bahaus-cool Bavaria must surely only have occurred under the influence of some substance that was dulling of the senses and possibly even the will to live.
That’s mean. I actually rather like these old Nordic carriages and prefer the ’62 Wolseley front end of the 164’s to somewhat blank face of the fours. And there’s no doubt they stay the course – often imperiously slow in the fast lane, behatted driver oblivious to anyone not him, but I’m getting snippy again. The Beemer would be long departed for the big roundel in the sky.
I think that top speed in this slightly castrated automatic version is pretty damn impressive, especially because an aero masterwork, the ancient Swede is not.
I imagine the east/west of the Rockies differentiation was about shipping. Every 164 going through the Panama Canal got FI, period.
Pity about the automatic; with the M410 4-speed + overdrive these cars are a much bigger delight. And the B30E (high compression/rest-of-world) rather than B30F (low compression/USA) engine, natch.
The fuel injection, in this rather primitive form and on the low-compression motor, might not have made any giant improvement in power and torque, but it did clean up the exhaust quite dramatically even without feedback mixture control (which likely also would have improved fuel economy). The ’72 FSM gives idle CO specs as 2.5% with the carburetors, 1.5% with the EFI—meaning the carbureted motor was 67% dirtier by that metric. Given that, the lack of a big performance boost is less of a disappointment.