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The Volvo Sport (also known as P1900) is a Swedish fiberglass-bodied roadster of which sixty-eight units were built, first 19 by Glasspar Company in California, between 1956 and 1957 by Volvo Cars.
| Volvo Sport | |
|---|---|
_1956_on_display_at_Gothenburg_airport,_May_2019.jpg) 1956 Volvo P1900 Sport Cabriolet | |
| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | Volvo Personvagnar |
| Also called | Volvo P1900 |
| Production |
|
| Designer | William Tritt (body only) |
| Body and chassis | |
| Class | Sports car (S) |
| Body style | Roadster |
| Layout | Front-engine, rear-wheel drive |
| Powertrain | |
| Engine | 1,414 cc (1.4 L) B14 I4 |
| Transmission | 3-speed manual |
| Chronology | |
| Successor | Volvo P1800 |
Assar Gabrielsson, Volvo's president and founder, got the idea for the car when he saw a Chevrolet Corvette in the United States and wanted to make something similar. He asked Bill Tritt of Glasspar, an American boatbuilder in Santa Ana, California, to design and tool a fibreglass/reinforced polyester body, which was later produced in Sweden. Glasspar was a pioneer in building fiberglass auto bodies from 1951 to 1957.
Erik Quistgaard was appointed as development team leader. The car was built on a tubular-steel chassis and used the Volvo PV444's 1414 cc engine producing 70 hp (52 kW)[clarification needed]. The engines (B14A and B16B [citation needed]) were fitted with twin SU carburetors, driving through a three-speed manual gearbox. Many other parts were taken also from the Volvo PV444.
Demand was low, and the build quality was not up to Volvo standards.[1] Gunnar Engellau, who replaced Gabrielsson as president in 1956, took one for a drive on a holiday weekend and was dissatisfied enough that on returning to his office the following week cancelled the remaining production. "I thought it would fall apart!" is the legendary quote.[citation needed] The Volvo chassis design was far too flexible to accommodate a fiberglass body, and that Volvo resisted recommendations by Glasspar to alter the frame to address their concerns.
The total "Volvo Sport" production was sixty-eight cars, plus four or five prototypes. Forty-four were built in 1956, mostly for the Swedish market, and most still survive.[clarification needed] The bulk of 1957's production went to the U.S. and elsewhere, and fewer of these are still in existence.
The development of the P1900 led to the tuning of the B-16 engine however, which was later put into the PV 444 series, making this car powerful enough to enter the US market.
Gallery
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1956 Volvo Sport Cabriolet -
1956 Volvo Sport Cabriolet -
1956 Volvo Sport Cabriolet -
1956 Volvo P1900 Sport Cabriolet -
1956 Volvo P1900 Sport Cabriolet interior
References
edit- ^ Hunt, David R. (n.d.). "The Volvosport P1900". volvoadventures.com. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
External links
edit- Czap, Nick (February 18, 2010). "Unrequited Longing for the 67th Volvo". The New York Times. Accessed February 24, 2010.
