Volvo P1800
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.
A lot of thinking was done building and before putting the car in market; the assembly line was full and a new model was not in plans. The car’s body structure and chassis was assembled in Pressed Steel, UK and later the car plus new shells were sent to Jensen, West Bromwich for final assembly.
The car was the same like the others except looks, where Volvo was unique in. The gear was borrowed from the ‘Amazon’ sedans, a 1.8-litre overhead valve and 4-speed synchromesh gearbox. The overdrive turning rear wheels were connected to a coil-sprung rigid axle including Panhard-rod location. Front suspension was evenly regular: separate with uneven -length A-arms and coil springs. The power generated was just 100 mph. The later P1800’s had horsepower of 130-135 mph. The body design was by Frua, giving the car a distinct line and shape. With later models produced, the design kept changing with the final design being stylized C-panel script. The car could do 0-60 in 12-14 seconds and could outdo the other contenders like Jaguar, BMW etc. with a top speed of 105 mph.
The driving position in the Volvo P1800 was low but comfortable. The interiors were just relaxing seats, useful ventilation, a systematic dash with full instruments and a handy trunk. The Volvo P1800 had a crowded under-hood compartment that nevertheless was well-tuned and precise. There were two front seats but the back seat was like a small ledge to keep parcels.
The main reason for increasing sales of the P1800 was because the car comparatively cheap than the others. The car was just $4000 while BMW cost $10000. In such light, the car was called the “Poor man’s Ferrari” in its ads plus the car wasn’t only for sports but was a Grand-Tourer. It is also the car with the highest accrued mileage with 2.5 million mile run.
The car was featured in the 1960’s show “The Saint” which starred Roger Moore who drove around in P1800. It made the car an icon of 60’s but in the next series of the show, a Jaguar was used. The last production year was 1962 after which a new modified P1800 was sold, called the 1800S.
- Hiren Naresh
Tags: cars, racecars, volvo cars, volvo p1800
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