The N/A 850's ECU can't be tricked into giving you more horsepower by installing parts and tuning an N/A Volvo won't work either. Volvos aren't like other cars that benefit from cold air intakes, or exhaust systems that reduce back pressure. N/A 850's need back pressure to make the little bit of power that we have. Replacing or upgrading suspension parts may improve handling, as long as you don't try to lower your car to some ridiculous ricer level. Replacing brake rotors? Don't waste time or money on some sort of "big brake kit". Stock sized rotors with or without slots and holes, will do just fine. Stainless steel brake lines and Samco Silicone hoses are more durable than stock and will last longer than replacement OEM parts. According to IPD, their MSD Ignition won't cause a N/A Volvo to fail emissions, but since the OEM ignition is Bosch, may as well stick with that. I don't know if 8mm wires will do anything good for an N/A Volvo or not. I always replace wires, distributor, and rotor, and those are all Bosch again, so it's not an upgrade. it's just maintenance.

Since most Volvo owners here are Turbo Volvo drivers, this thread is a place to specifically discuss N/A 850's but don't get it twisted. I'm not encouraging anyone to jump in with "how can I make my N/A Volvo faster" discussions. There's already a sticky on that and the bottom line is, you can't trick an N/A Volvo into increase horsepower and torque without spending more money than the car is worth. Maintain your N/A Volvo with quality parts. If you installed something and it worked, tell us about it. If you installed something and it made the car worse, tell us about it. N/A 850 drivers could benefit from hearing about your experiences. Robert has a bunch of maintenance and repair videos that you need to watch if you want to replace parts on your car yourself, and save a ton of money. But understand clearly that under no circumstances, do we need to have any sort of N/A 850 performance discussion. Unless you're rich and bored, it's just not going to happen. And if you're rich and bored, you wouldn't be driving a Volvo, would you? ;-)

You're typically going to hear the above from Turbo drivers. It's about you heard it from an N/A driver. These guys all told me this and at first, I was resistant, but research shows that they are correct. Don't waste a lot of time and money trying to mod an N/A Volvo. If you're after 300HP or more, sell it, buy a Turbo Volvo, and start from there. Good tuning is your best friend on a Turbo Volvo and that, plus Turbo performance parts will get you some real performance in a turbo Volvo, versus N/A.