Volvo P1800 - the most beautiful coupe of the Swedish concern

Volvo cars appeared in the USSR in the late 1980s. Then they were popular with serious businessmen and were considered a sign of success in business. In the mid-90s, the Swedish brand became known in a different role - a reliable "workhorse". It was Volvo station wagons that amazed with their capacity and carrying capacity.


Now the Swedish brand is known primarily for its off-road crossovers. What about sports coupes? In this class, Volvo has not been present since 2013. And before that, they had only one modern model - the C70, which is sometimes found in Russia, but is not in demand.

But once Volvo firmly entrenched in the class of sports cars. Model P1800 still looks stylish and has long been a collector's item. Now in Russia at least one such coupe is being sold - they ask for 14 rubles for it.

The emergence of the model

The history of the stylish Volvo P1800 began in the 1950s. The P1900 roadster, manufactured by Volvo, turned out to be unsuccessful, so the manufacturer approached the creation of the next sports model with all responsibility. The main goal was to develop a car that would be popular not only in Europe but in the USA.



The task, I must say, is almost fantastic, given the demand in those years for American models. The chief designer of the Volvo P1800 was Pele Pettersen, a Swede who worked in an Italian body shop.

Work began to boil and the running prototype was assembled in 1957. It seemed that the matter was small - to launch the car into mass production. But that's where the problems started. Volvo did not have the capacity and capacity to produce a sports coupe. I had to look for partners.

Initially, it was assumed that the models would be assembled in Germany, by Karmann. But the future partners could not agree and the issue fell through. NSU, ​​Hanomag and Drautz offered their services, but the Swedes were not in the best opinion about the quality of the assembly of their cars. And the model was planned to be made a full-fledged competitor to the BMW coupe, Mercedes and even Ferrari.



As a result, the British company Jensen Motors was chosen as a partner in the production of the Volvo P1800. But the work was expensive.

The process itself consisted of several stages:

• ? Bodies produced in Scotland
  
• ? Chassis came from Sweden
  
• ? A number of English-made components were also used - brakes and electrics
  

The first production Volvo P1800s appeared in 1960. Production volumes were planned to be brought to the level of 600 units per month, but this was not achieved.

Technical features of the model

The new sports coupe from Volvo was not difficult to constructively make. The main problem was the creation of a body from scratch and the search for assemblers who can give high quality. The chassis and part of the car's units are taken from existing Volvo models.

The main donor was the Volvo-Amazon sedan. The engine was positioned as new, created from scratch, but in fact it is a redesigned B38 V8 truck engine, which was simply split in half. The resulting power unit had a working volume of 1 cm780 and developed a power of 3 liters. With.



The gearbox was offered in only one version - a four-speed mechanics. In those years, cars were reliable and trouble-free, so they tried not to make a variety of units, except for the engine, within the same model.

The front suspension of the Volvo P1800 is a lever-spring type, which for 1960 was quite an advanced solution. Behind - a drive axle on torsion bars and trailing arms. The front brakes were disc. Behind were the standard drums. The car was controlled sharply and clearly, but it did not stand out against the background of Italian Ferraris.

Appearance

The design of the model from the Volvo company definitely turned out to be successful. Even in our time, the car impresses with stylish, elegant and balanced body features. At the same time, the appearance of the model does not copy other brands, but has its own unique design.



The salon continues the theme of a sporty character. The black panel is combined with leather interior in bright colors. The model is considered a four-seater, but only slender teenagers can be accommodated in the back.



Despite the typical features of the American car industry, visible in the details, the Volvo P1800 looks more like an Italian sports car. Thanks to a weight of 1 kg, even with a 130 hp engine. With. managed to accelerate to 100 km / h in just 100 seconds. The speed that a stylish Swedish coupe could develop was 13,5 km / h.

Various manufacturers

Volvo's contract with Jensen was originally signed for 3 years. During this time, the manufacturer was supposed to produce 10 Volvo P000 cars at its facilities.

But the contract could not be fully fulfilled - for the entire period of cooperation, Jensen managed to assemble only about 6 cars, and Volvo had complaints about the build quality. In 000, it was decided to move production to Sweden. The model was slightly modified, after which it received a new index - Volvo 1963S, that is, "Sweden".



After the update, the coupe received a straight front bumper. The engine was modified, after which its power increased to 108 hp. With. As an option for an additional price, they began to offer a manual transmission with an overdrive - this added dynamics to the model. The maximum speed has increased from 170 to 180 km/h.

Other changes over the years:

• ? 1968 - the appearance of an engine with a working volume increased to 1 cm986. Due to this, the engine power increased to 3 hp. With.
  
• ? 1969 - replacement of the carburetor power system with fuel injection. The power of the power unit immediately increased to 125 hp. With. The car then received the index 1800E. Acceleration to 100 km / h now took 10 seconds, and the maximum speed reached the threshold of 190 km / h
  
• ? 1971 - introduction of the version with automatic transmission
  

After the transfer of coupe production to Sweden, production was increased - more than 39 cars were made in total, of which only 000 were assembled in England.

Atypical model

Few people remember, but in the late 1960s in the United States there was a demand for three-door station wagons. Volvo responded to this by releasing the 1800ES model based on the sports coupe.

The new car was bought well in the USA, but it lasted only two years in the production range. Then a law was passed obliging all cars to be equipped with shockproof bumpers. Demand would not be so great as to carry out modernization, especially since the coupe has already been discontinued. Just over 8 three-door station wagons were produced for the United States.



The main reason for the decline in demand for the Volvo P1800 was the global oil crisis in the United States in 1973. After that, the demand for glamorous and expensive models dropped sharply and Volvo decided to abandon the production of sports cars.

Volvo P1800 turned out to be a reliable car. In the US, there is one copy that traveled 1966 kilometers from 2018 to 5. Of course, over these decades, the car has been repeatedly repaired, but all the main units, including the engine, gearbox and chassis, have remained “native”.

Volvo P1800 is a real oldtimer. And if fans of the Swedish brand do not need to tell the story of the most popular Volvo coupe, especially such a beautiful one, then in Russia only a limited circle of people knew about this model.