1967 Volvo

The Volvo P1800 is one of the brands more lighthearted excursions in the 60’s and 70’s. With Helmer Petterson in charge and with his son, recently employed by the Italian design house Frua, pencilling the shape of the coupé. This resulted in a characteristic design that was made even more famous as the car Roger Moore drove in The Saint.

The P1800 is still a very popular car, as a classic the sporty looking coupé it is really quite respected. Although not all are restored as nicely, this one is definitely one of the prettiest examples we know. The story starts in America where the married couple Lloyd and Laura Steele, Volvo enthusiasts to the core, bought the car and kept it for the next twenty years. They looked after the car with lots of TLC. The story goes that Laura had tears in her eyes when Lloyd eventually decided to sell the car.

The car then arrives in the Netherlands with the buyer offering the car for sale to another couple. Again they love the car to bits with their passion for Volvo. They even write to the first couple to extensively tell them how they got the car, why that wanted it and what their further intentions were. The American couple naturally appreciated the letter and responded with an equally long letter in return, saying how pleased they were the car has been granted a second lease of life. These letters provide of course a great deal of provenance for any next owner and form part of the paperwork also containing a fair amount of American invoices.

In the 90’s the car was restored from top to bottom and from front to back. The owner fortunately chose the rare and original finish of Hell Green. It is a cracking choice, a rare colour that only, we believe, adds to the cars allure.

The bodywork is in brilliant shape. Incredibly pure and clearly the result of professional work and maintenance. Very neat alignment, lovely brightwork and rubber mouldings: everything is as expected with a top-class P1800S.

The interior follows suit. Fine upholstery with minimal patina has that” just worn in” look. The dashboard too, often slightly worse for wear, is very neat. Both carpets and door cards or in peak condition. We could not see anything that required remedial action.

After a more than thorough service in 2017 this Swedish coupé has only been used on the rare occasion. You see that here we have one of the most supple and pleasant handling P1800’s to drive we know.

Under the bonnet lays the 115 hp indestructible B-18 engine. This P1800S may not be quickest, but with its manual overdrive 4-speed gearbox, is certainly able to hold its own in todays traffic. During a test drive you will come to agree with us: this pleasant P1800 with its excellent handling, good brakes and heaps of character 100% fits the brief.

The car comes with a pile of invoices both American and Dutch, the extensive correspondence between the only American owner and the first Dutch owner, an owner’s manual, old pictures and various documents.