To the untrained eye, Aaron’s 2004 Volvo V70R looks like a plain, anonymous Swedish box. That couldn’t be more wrong.

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From its 2.5L turbo five-cyl to its Haldex AWD system to its unique “spaceball” manual shifter, the V70R is a special piece of kit to begin with. But after buying it in college—and ignoring his friends’ doubts—Aaron set about building this 20-year-old Volvo into his perfect do-it-all vehicle to handle track days, road trips, New England winters, and everything in between.

His first project was swapping the exhaust to an 8Eight Fab dual catback in his dorm’s parking lot in the middle of winter. Next came suspension work: TME lowering springs, rear sway bar, upgraded bushings. Then the big stuff: a full interior swap to Atacama, a lightweight flywheel and short-shifter, and swapping the stock motor for a stronger ‘4T5’ five-cyl built by Re-Volv performance shop. Those are just the highlights.

The result? A perfect match of owner and machine, and a true forever car. "It's become this extension of myself. People know me, and they know my car. It goes hand in hand. This is an association with me, and there's nothing else I can find that can really do it,” says Aaron.

It’s also reconnected him to the feeling of joyful exploration he used to get riding around on his bike as a teenager. “It's been this gateway for me into the world. That started as a kid—I loved biking around, I worked at a bike shop in high school. That was my vehicle, so to speak, for getting around and exploring. This car has become that."

The under-the-radar look makes it even better when someone sees it and understands. It’s like a secret handshake for the car community. “It's cool to pull up at a traffic light, somebody rolls down the window and goes 'Oh my god, where did you find this? How did you get one? I can't believe it's manual!' There's nothing better than getting that kind of reaction from somebody from what is just a gray Volvo station wagon."

Watch the video and you’ll see “just a gray Volvo station wagon” is the understatement of the century.

(By the way, his friends get it now.)

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