The Volvo P1800 is best remembered as the car that Roger Moore used in the hit TV series, ‘The Saint’. It was a sports car made by Volvo Cars between 1961 and 1973, which came in two body styles, two-door coupe and three-door sports estate. The project of the P1800 started back in 1957 when the manufacturer wanted a sports car despite the previous model, the P1900, had been a disaster and only 68 units were sold. The P1800 was powered by a choice of two engines and the model was 4.350-4.400 mm long, 1.700 mm wide and 1.280-1285 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 2.450 mm and a total weight of 1.130-1.175 kg. Now Volvo design director Christopher Benjamin has marked the 50th birthday of the firm’s iconic P1800 by producing images of what a modern version could look like.
The sketches here show the same rounded grille, elongated bonnet and sweeping outline that made the P1800 so distinctive. And Benjamin has also managed to integrate Volvo’s current design language into the drawings.
Originally penned by Pelle Petterson for Italian designer Pietro Frau, the P1800 very nearly never made it into production. Fortunately for Petterson, Volvo snapped up the design after seeing it at a motor show in Brussels in 1960, and commissioned British-based Jensen Motors to build the first P1800 soon after. It was manufactured until 1973.
Volvo insiders maintain that this is purely a design exercise, but elements of the sketches are set to grace future concepts and we are sure a production version will be shown in 2012 at a Motor Show.
