With A Corvette Engine, This Hollywood Actor's Volvo Is Offered IDR 500 Million

1998 Volvo V90 "Volvette". (Doc. Rmsothebys)

JAKARTA - The late Paul Newman is known as a well-known actor and director from the United States as well as an Academy Award winner. However, it is also known that the actor who was born on January 26, 1925, has a high interest in the automotive world.

Newman was first interested in the automotive world while practicing as a racer for the film Winning (1969). Amazingly, in 1972, Newman first appeared in a professional racing competition at Thompson International Speedway, Connecticut. He even participated in the 1979 Le Mans car resistance competition and became the second winner with a Porsche 935 car driven by Newman with his teammate, totaling Stommelen from Germany.

Quite successfully in the world of racing, Newman is interested in forming a professional car racing team with a company that specializes to high-performance racing cars in the IndyCar series.

Another great record, at the age of 70, the actor who during his lifetime was far from Hollywood's sparkling record as the oldest driver to join the racing team and win in the 1995 car resistance race.

During his lifetime, the actor who died at the age of 83 was also a car collector. One of them is a 1998 Volvo V90 car which has a long dimension. At first glance, there is nothing strange, it is interesting to have at the heart of the runway.

Actually, this car was born not from Newman's idea but was built by his racing team as a surprise gift in 2007. The Newman racing team pinned the Volvo with a Chevrolet LS2 6.8 liter engine, or the same engine as the one owned by one of Chevrolet's sportscars, namely Corvette. The car performance is supported by an impressive four acceleration transmission. In order to be unified, the Newman racing team also provides a special driveshaft with a slight adjustment to the shiftr.

The front end of the car was also modified with components from its Porschesir exterior remaining unchanged, as Newman is known to prefer the appearance as it is. Unfortunately, Newman died shortly after the car was finished so he couldn't fully enjoy the performance of this car.

Now, Paul Newman's Volvo V90 is auctioned by RM Sotheby with a dowry of between 20,000 and 25,000 US dollars (Rp299.2 million to Rp374 million). However, to date, the offer has reached 40,000 US dollars or around Rp598.4 million.

This is not Newman's first Volvo to be auctioned off. Previously, the 1988 Volvo 740 Turbo with its Buick GNX engine was also auctioned last March. In addition to the modified engine, Newman also embedded a five-speed Borg-Warner manual transmission with high performance and a set of suspension mods. The 740 Volvo was sold for 90,000 US dollars or equivalent to Rp1.3 billion.