When Volvo President Assar Gabrielsson saw a Chevrolet Corvette in the US, he wanted one too; meaning one built by Volvo. Glasspar, an established builder of fiberglass boats of Santa Ana, CA. was commissioned to build the prototype. Glasspar’s Bill Tritt did the design, and there’s a reprint of a very in-depth article about that at forgottenfiberglass.com. The fiberglass body sat on a tubular frame, and the running gear was all pretty much straight off the PV444, which meant the B14 and B16 engines in twin SU-carb tune and its three-speed transmission. And how did it all come together?
Not so well. There were build quality issues. Its price was high, and sale s were almost non-existent. A total of 68 production cars were built in 1956 and 1957, the majority of the ’57s were sent to America. A number of these cars still survive today. It may have been a false start for Volvo in building a sports car, but that’s one that was soon solved with the much more successful P1800 (CC here).
I don’t see much in the appearance that distinguishes it from the other generic sports cars of it’s period. Possibly I’m missing something. What I can imagine is something more reliable than my MGB of almost 10 years later. I bet that reliability was expensive.
It’s too bad Volvo didn’t offer the 1900 here in the USA. Maybe it wasn’t a Corvette, but so what?
It was sold in the US, in 1957, which was the first or second year that Volvo sold cars in the US. But they had a pretty limited dealer network, the price was high, it only had a three-speed transmission, and there were lots of established brands selling many different sports car models at the time. But some of the sold in the US have survived.
Paul,
1956 was the first year that Volvo officially began car sales in North America but a small batch was brought over – albeit unofficially – in the fall of 1955 to test American interests. The plan worked.
The earliest PV444s sent over here had the B14B engine, rated at 70 hp with dual SU carbs.
I could be wrong, but I remember something about Volvo not being very happy at all about the end result, fit and finish, and so on. If they didn’t buy them back, they sold them very reluctantly “on your own risk” to some die hard Volvo fans. I think the buyers were well aware of the cars shortcomings. A poor mans Mercedes 190SL of sorts.
Yeah. That’s what I read about the car as well.
I threw this together very quickly late last night, without any extensive research. There’s a comment about the new President of Volvo, who replaced Gabrielsson right during the production run, having taken one on a weekend trip and coming back very unhappy about its build quality/structural integrity.
It’s fairly obvious that the P1900 wasn’t developed quite fully enough. But then the corvette had similar issues, for much of its life. Had Gabrielsson actually driven an early Corvette? They had quite a rep too.
This was not an uncommon issue during the great fiberglass sports car boom of the fifties. Integrating the body to the chassis generally was more difficult than a either a unibody or steel body on frame. And undoubtedly, Volvo’s standards were high.
But I didn’t see any reference to Volvo buying them back, but I suppose that might well have happened if a customer was unhappy with it. Quite a few of these have also survived in Sweden and Europe.
I don’t know exactly what the price was, but apparently it was high. And the 1956 version still used the B14 engine, which teamed up with the three-speed transmission, was a bit lacking for a somewhat expensive sports car.
My knowledge of the P1900 is very diffuse. It was made, and then abandoned. They weren’t happy with it, but it lead to the P1800 later on. A good enough first try for a better second. Even if the history repeated itself with the build quality of the P1800. They weren’t happy with that either, and brought it home to Sweden. P1800S, “S” for “Sweden”.
But the P1900-community in Sweden is very strong for such a low output. I’d guess most of the cars survived, and the ones that are left can be regularely seen on car shows, and so on. With its history it became an instant classic, even as new. A sort of Swedish Edsel. And histories like that are always interesting and intriguing.
That’s what I’ve read about the P1900. It’s too bad Volvo didn’t continue research and development with the car until they thought it was ready for public use. To me, that’s what a good company does, test, re-test, crash it, run the engine 24/7 at various loads, and then when they feel the car is worthy of public use, sell it to the public. 🙂
Well, the reason they didn’t continue developing the P1900 is that very soon after realizing the fiberglass car was not working out, they started development of what became the P1800. That project was born in late ’56/early ’57, so it wasn’t like Volvo gave up and decided to go back to the sports coupe idea later. (The reason the P1800 didn’t go into production until 1960 was that it took that long to develop the new car and the new B18 engine and figure out where they were going to build the cars.)
So, the real question was whether it would have been worth continuing to pour money into a model Volvo had already concluded was disappointing (if not outright embarrassing) and already planned to replace with something more thoroughly considered.
That makes more sense than trying to tie it into a ‘Corvette’ !! Well said !
Is it me, or does the woman in the factory photo look like a very sporty nun?
That’s exactly what I thought when I saw the photo!
Swedish women’s fashions must have progressed quite a bit between here and the bench seat betty of ’72.
I remember Volvo had one of these on display at the auto show a few years back, its sort of like a Volvo Nash-Healey.
I had never heard of these before. A very interesting car. The front end styling is a little unfortunate, but overall, it is quite an attractive little sports car.
A Bristol 405 drophead look-alike for a fraction of the cost?
Are those 1949-52 Chevrolet taillights?
When I see that grille aperture I think of the shape of the backglass on the C30.
Also makes me think of the Firearrow. This drawing is a Michelotti for Ghia design from 52 I think. Very pretty if it was ever made. I’m not so much a fan of the P1900. Its sort of awkward like those Austin and early Jensen convertibles. I like what she’s wearing.
I always liked the looks of the P1900.
Very “1950’s Modern Sports Car” looking.
Too bad the idea never took.