Volvo P1800

After the complete fiasco of Volvo P1900 few years later Volvo came up with another sports car - Volvo P1800 designed by Pelle Petterson, who at this time was working for Italian company Carrozzeria Pietro Frua. And it shows the influence of Italian style in the magnificent lines of the car body.

There were many problems with providing financial backing for the model, so the contracts were signed with outside companies and in effect Volvo P1800 was also manufactured outside Sweden - in Jensen Motors factory in West Bromwich. But with time the problems with quality control in Jensen factory forced Volvo to cancel the deal and move all the production back to Sweden, where the car was further developed with version S, E and station wagon ES.

The performance of the car wasn’t very impressive comparing for example with Jaguar E-Type (they both were introduced on the Geneva Motor Show in 1961), but the good quality of the car and the magnificent look made Volvo P1800 one of the icons of 1960s.

Why is it legendary?

The body of Volvo P1800 was enough to make it a legend - it was one of the best looking cars of 1960s - but what made it a legend happened about 30 years after Volvo ceased the production. Responsible for it was American Irv Gordon, who bought red Volvo P1800S in 1966 and drove it since then. When the mileage of his car reached 1.69 million miles in 1998 he was registered in the Guinness Book of World Records as car with the highest certified mileage driven by the original owner in non-commercial service. When he reached 2 million miles in 2002 he gathered large media attention. In September 2013 the car reached 3 million miles of mileage and still counting...