Came across this listing on EBAY for a Volvo 270 with a Speedmaster lower unit. These are indeed very rare and would be a unique addition to a restoration of a 70's era boat. Note there is a "Make Offer" option so there is some room to bargain.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/292750248139

He's dreaming if he thinks that will hold 600 HP I raced them on my old 28 Cigarette with 450 HP SBC and was lucky to finish a lap or two and I had mine built by Mo Beck in So Cal he was the only person that I could find that knew what he was looking at. Don't get me wrong they are cool and would finish out any restoration but be nice t them. Regards Dan

I agree. He's definitely been told a tale about the max horsepower for those units. I had a friend that had one on his 18 Donzi that had no problems but that is a light boat that was running a small block with about 350hp. Getting any work done on it could be a challenge too. But it does look cool. ;-)

5 grand, I'll say it, they are out of their minds.

Yes cool find. Me and a buddy had them back in 70's. I became the largest Volvo dealer in Chicago (by $$ volume) due to the number of gear sets I purchased. If I remember correctly they were almost $2k a pop even then. I got really good at rebuilding them.

Compared to the stock Volvo lowers they were probably 10 mph faster however behind our small blocks they had a lifespan of a few hours at most if run hard. And after a few explosions or enough hours the housing would crack around the bearings at the bottom of the vertical shafts.

Looks like the one on Ebay has the bronze gimbal ring that was made by Wolverine Bronze. The stock Volvo one would break and if lucky the drive would still be hanging off the back of the boat by the tie bar and shift cable.

The bronze one would just bend and I made a fixture to straighten them.

We converted both boats to TRS once they came out and never looked back.

ahhhh, memories

Wrote this on another U.S. forum a few years back;
The Volvo Penta R- and E-drives were developed in the '60s and '70s in cooperation between Volvo Penta and the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The first drive of its kind was a modified VP 100 D-drive that was paired to a Volvo competition 4 cyl. engine. The next developments were the 250 and 270 drives in R and E versions. The really slender R-drives were for in-line 4 cyl. Volvo B20 competition engines that were now delivering 170 hp plus. The E-drive was designed for all the Swedish race boats in the about 17'-24' range powered with a single or twins of the sometimes heavily tuned Volvo in-line 6 cyl. B30 competition engines and they often delivered 230 hp plus. Many owners who had 270 E/280 E-drives also powered their boats with small block Chevy and Chrysler V8's. The E-drives were ALL rated to handle 40 kilogram-force meter (kgf-m) = 289 pound-force foot (lbf-ft) = 392 newton meter (N-m). As You figure plenty of guys that had light 20' boats were doing fine with high revving small block V8s and high horsepower 6 cyl. Volvo B30 competition engines and were running 75 mph. Now there's never enough horsepower and speed, so most sooner or later realized that the limit was around 500 hp if you ran the boat in calm waters and the highest claimed horsepower that could be run was around 600 hp and those E-drives were only modified by 'THE' Volvo Penta engineer the last 40 years, who came to Volvo in 1961 from Norway. His name is Oddbjoern Hallenstvedt and has been part of teams that invented the R- and E-drives, Volvo's revolutionary sailboat drives and the now famous IPS drives among other products.

The good news is that a Volvo E-drive is pretty strong and that most of the E-drives available on the market are to be found outside of Scandinavia. The U.S. has, without doubt, most of them and they are laying around shops and sitting on non-running performance boats all around the country. The drives in Scandinavia are almost all accounted for. Enthusiasts, over there, are now finally restoring a few of the boats that were in salvageable condition. It's not as easy to find boats that can be brought back to life over there as there is over here, in some parts of our big country where nature's forces are kinder to the old beauties than back among the Norse. This has mainly been going on the last ten years and the E-drives in good to decent condition are fetching between $1,500 and $2,500. A select group of people over there with more time than money, (also not too seldom just old money and folks with brains), are usually interested in these drives and native boats, whereas there's a large crowd that wants 'Old School' American offshore racing and performance boats with mainly Mercruiser equipment. If the new money deep pocket crowd was into the old native stuff I bet an E-drive over there would cost $5,000 all day long, but maybe that will happen in a few years. There's plenty of restored Cigarettes, Magnums etc., but not too many restored, classic, Scandinavian race boats and people are finally getting more nationalistic over there. The generation who were kids in the 1960s and '70s now finally got the time, (their kids are out of the house). Most importantly, many also got the monetary means and the E-(energy)drive to realize(restore) their childhood dreams and one day run a Swedish classic racing boat with a Chrysler 340 and an E-drive or ultimately twin Volvo B30 competition with 270 E-drives and a combined 460 hp plus."

Thanks for the great information and pics! I never really knew the full background on these lower units, just knew they were "scarcer than hens teeth". The friend I mentioned in the initial post got his from a local marine mechanic that was hoarding about 5 or 6 units he acquired from a Volvo dealer. Considering the propeller technology of the day these lower units did produce impressive results on small boats. He claimed a full 9 mph increase over the stock lower unit equipped with an Ellis prop. Not bad.

Small boats and no torque. Torque and its broken. Kind of like the 250 and 270 but worse. For the money you could dump into them and only use them once you could buy a modern Merc package and have vacation money left over. They are just from a different time. When I was building my 1966 16 Donzi I would loved to have one but I would have built the boat around it meaning tame 6 banger or castrated V8.
You want to do something interesting? If you get a chance look at a Volvo Penta and a Merc Model O or 1 or whatever they call the first gen. I have both and I will admit I have worked on my Volvo's case a little there is not much difference between the two.