The intriguing gems of the Volvo Museum
It drove like one, too, because it used a 120hp V8 engine designed in-house by Volvo. The firm notes the Philip remained a one-off model because it would have cost far too much to mass-produce. The V8 engine later powered trucks and boats, however.
Sport (1954)
On paper, Volvo’s first sports car closely resembled the original Chevrolet Corvette. Called Sport, it took the form of a two-seater roadster with a fiberglass body, an eye-catching exterior design and wall-to-wall leather upholstery inside.
Assar Gabrielsson, Volvo’s co-founder and CEO in the early 1950s, commissioned the car after taking a trip to the United States in 1953. Production started the following year and ended in 1957.
Sport (1954)
The Sport sold poorly because it was expensive, it suffered from quality problems and Swedish motorists showed little interest in buying a roadster they’d have to park half the year in order to avoid hypothermia.
Volvo made 67 examples of the Sport, and it’s the only Volvo ever made with a fiberglass body.
P1800 prototype (1958)
The memorably ill-fated Sport didn’t discourage Volvo from trying to make a name for itself in the sports car segment. In 1958, it showed a prototype called P1800 that accurately previewed a sporty coupe introduced in 1961.
The differences between the prototype and the production model were minor; early cars even came with two-piece bumpers.
Rally-winning PV 544 (1965)
Brothers Joginder and Jaswant Singh won the 13th edition of the grueling East African Safari Rally in this purpose-built PV 544.
The modifications included squeezing more power out of the four-cylinder engine, adding stronger suspension components and fitting thick skid plates below the vital mechanical components.
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