It was very hard to believe that Volvo, a company who built luxury cars for day to say travel could ever build a sports convertible. The Swedish company spent the whole Fifties to design and engineer a sports car. In 1961, Volvo brought in the P1800 and a new addition was made to its line of cars; Sports/Grand Touring Model. It came as a complete surprise that Volvo could build a sports car.
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Tags: cars, racecars, volvo cars, volvo p1800
Starting off in 1958, Ferrari was convinced by two U.S. distributors, Jon von Neumann and Luigi Chinetti, to create a convertible to be named after their best market, California. So by 1959, emerged the California Spyder, the rare super-performance car which had very limited availability in the market and each car had its specialty, from competing-spec engines to rare factory hard tops. First introduced in 1960 at the Geneva Auto Show, the interior of the car was no-frills and fabric top behind the seats. A heater being the only luxury in the car, it soon became the successor of the legendary 250 GT who won Tour de France. It was the most coveted car in the U.S. and was often referred at the “Cal Spyder” by Hollywood movie stars like James Coburn.
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