2005 Volvo Xc90 V8 Sport Utility 4-door 4.4l on 2040-cars

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Top torque-to-weight ratios under $100k, $50k and $25k

Horsepower may steal a lot of headlines, but the always-more-complex torque figure is often a critical one for both the workingman and the motoring playboy. The measure of rotational force represents the twist that can liquefy one's tires or haul one's horse trailer. Good stuff.
It follows then, that as with the horsepower-to-weight list that we assembled for you a few months ago, a list of cars that offer the most pound-feet with the fewest pounds to carry, is an interesting one to break down. Sure, there's a big difference in how the torque is applied from a turbocharged six-cylinder in a Swedish luxury sedan and a massive heavy-duty truck's turbo-diesel. But being the car/stat geeks that we are, we think it's kinda neat that those two vehicles rank near each other where torque and weight intersect.
As with the horsepower list, we've given you figures as pounds per every one pound-foot. Again broken down into broad price categories, we've got a mixed bag of 2014 and 2015 models here, too. Every effort has been made to select the most up-to-date prices and specs, and we've also to omitted some '14 cars that won't be re-upped after the ongoing yearly changeover.

Junkyard Gem: 1969 Volvo 145 Wagon

Volvo managed to sell the 1940s-design PV544 and its 1950s-design Amazon descendant all the way into the mid-to-late 1960s in the United States, but those iconic machines were replaced here by one that began a line of even more iconic Volvos: the 140 Series. Starting with the 1968 model year, the 140 became available in the United States as a two-door sedan (the 142), a four-door sedan (the 144 and 164), and a station wagon (the 145). These rear-wheel-drive, brick-shaped cars later evolved into the 200 Series and its heirs, with the very last of the breed appearing here in the form of the 1998 S90/V90. That's a lot of history all wrapped up in one vehicle, and so I was pleased to find this 145 in a Denver-area car graveyard earlier this month. This car rolled out of Goteborg with a gleaming coat of Morkgron (dark green) paint and, according to this build tag, was built to California specifications. At some point, it made its way to Colorado. Very few US-market cars had six-digit odometers prior to the middle 1980s, but Volvo felt optimistic about their cars' longevity (at a time when reaching the magical 100,000-mile mark was something that rarely happened with non-Mercedes-Benz vehicles) and so now we can see that this car made it well past 200k miles. The 2.0-liter pushrod four-cylinder engine in this car can trace its ancestry back to the Amazons, P1800s, and PV544s of the early 1960s, and it was rated at 115 horsepower. A six-cylinder version of the 140 sedan, known as the 164, could be purchased here as well (though it had few American takers). But wait— what's that Detroit-looking two-barrel carburetor doing on an engine that's supposed to have a Stromberg 175? Yes, it's a GM-spec Rochester clone built at the ancient Bay City Plant (now known as GM Powertrain) in Michigan. Earlier Volvos came with a pair of British-made Skinner Union sidedrafts, which could be pretty painful to keep working right, but perhaps even the less-oddball Stromberg proved too much hassle for whoever installed this carb (which was meant to go on engines with much more displacement than a Volvo B20). Transmission choices in the 1969 140: a four-on-the-floor manual or a three-speed automatic. This car has the manual. The interior is pretty thrashed, as is usually the case with the 140s I find during my junkyard explorations.

Leno shows off his current project cars

When your car collection grows to the enormous size of Jay Leno's, adding the usual muscle cars or European exotics loses the allure. It becomes necessary to start taking the things in weird directions. Leno is proving just that with his latest tour of many of the ongoing projects currently happening in the garage. With everything from Harley-Davidson generators to '50s hot rods on display just in this short video, there's something any fan can love. The place is like an automotive wonderland. For most people any one of these projects would be an absolute dream. For example, Leno has a copy of a one-off Mercedes-Benz racecar transporter that is nearly ready to drive. Another project hasn't even started yet but already seriously piqued our interest. Leno obtained a very ratty 1966 Volvo 122S wagon, but rather than just a restoration he's has a plan to get a V8 with a flat-plane crank from Volvo performance specialists Polestar. Another project on the way should provide a significant upgrade in performance, while still being quite green. Leno's team has already rebuilt the frame and wooden body from a 1914 Detroit Electric, and with that work done they've started dreaming of a modern drivetrain for it. One proposed candidate for the swap has been to install motor from a Nissan Leaf and a bank of lithium-ion batteries. News Source: Jay Leno's Garage via YouTube Aftermarket Celebrities Mercedes-Benz Volvo Electric Performance Classics Videos Jay Lenos Garage detroit electric