The first idea was within the engine bay, which was to house the chosen 5 cylinder, DOHC 20 value engine. When TWR first looked at the the Volvo, they realised that the weight distribution of a front wheel drive car was extremely important. They also realised that by moving some of the weight from over the front wheels that they could improve the balance of the car on the track. So TWR designed a special gearbox and subframe which allowed the engine to be lowered and moved back within the engine bay so that the weight of the engine was behind the front axle line. Luckily there was plenty of space under the bonnet of the Volvo as a result of having to fit turbo chargers to some of the road-going models, and so TWR used that to their advantage.

The weight distribution within the cabin was also looked at closely, and TWR decided to move the driver's seating position as close to the center of the car and as low down as possible within the rules. This places the driver almost parallel to the central door pillar, controlling the car through an extended steering column and pedals.

With two designs in place, the Volvo was able to run close to a 50/50 weight distribution, which when coupled with the car's extremely wide track should have made it's cornering ability second to none. Unfortunately, what TWR found was that the car performed badly through slow corners as a lack of direct weight over the front axle caused the front wheels to loose grip, but through fast corners the car performed extremely well.

Although the Volvos did not perform miracles in their first season, they did make great improvements in their performance and TWR would be the first to admit that it was a steep learning curve for all concerned. The cars did suffer from having an extreemly large frontal area, being very wide, but an extreemly strong engine made up for this

In 1995 the introduction of wings made the estate no longer viable as a race car and the team swapped to the 850 saloon instead.