We’ve all seen that photo of a Volvo 850 T-5R Touring car mid-flight on two wheels.

If you haven’t, scroll down to the bottom of this page. Its part of the reason why the Volvo 850 T-5R is an icon; and one that impacted society, culture, and motorsport.

Back in the early 1990s, Volvo was considered a conservative and boring brand. Safe, yet bland; Its head office was well aware of this stigma and was compelled to drive change.

Its plan to become cool centred around racing in the British Touring Car championship—the BTCC—with its new 850-series Volvo. As you’ve now seen, Volvo went racing in spectacular fashion and marked the occasion with a limited-edition series of road cars.

The first look at this limited-run road car was at the 1994 Geneva Motor Show, where Volvo debuts its ‘T+5 Concept’ . It was also the first time we saw the brand’s now-iconic ‘Cream Yellow’ hero hue.

Shortly after its debut, the crowd went absolutely wild. The people demanded the product to be produced—in yellow. Volvo got to work, hopped up its five-cylinder turbo, and improved the 850’s chassis and suspension.

It agreed to produce 2400 sedan and 2400 wagons, with the latter blowing out to 4564 wagons exactly. By January 1995, the word had spread globally and the complete limited series of Volvo 850 T-5Rs was sold-out around the world.

Alongside terrorising English race tracks, the Volvo 850 T-5R was also used by the British police force as a Highway patrol vehicle, too.

More importantly however, the Volvo 850 T-5R shifted the perception of Volvo significantly. By now, most car enthusiasts have heard the story of a mighty turbocharged five-cylinder Volvo chasing down crims, or apexes.