Originally built as an 850 Estate and used as the spare car for the 1994 British Touring Car Championship although never raced.

By the end of the season the imminent introduction of the FIA’s SuperTouring regulations meant that a switch to the saloon shape the following season would be inevitable – ST rules required that the rear wing had to be below the roof line and forward of the rear bumper, which was impossible with the estate body. To speed the development process the car was converted to a saloon, essentially by chopping off the roof and rear of the car and grafting on saloon bodywork. Known within the team as 'Ringern', the car became the test hack to help with development of the 1995 race cars.

Once the proper race cars had been built, the car was relegated to PR work and used for static displays as well as the occational demo run.

The car was eventually brought from Volvo by Greger Pettersson, who sold it to Johnny Haraldsson, who in turn sold it to Jan Pahlsson. In the winter of 2004 the car was acquired by Dutch Volvo dealer Thom de Jong and used as a promotional tool for his company. By this stage the car sat on a mix of 1994 and 1995-spec running gear.

In 2017 the car was acquired by Jason Minshaw, who soon hatched a plan to convert the car back to an estate.