1957 Volvo P1900/Sport

Victoria's Secret flannel pajamas, Sony's analog windup clock-radio, Wal-Mart house-brand vin du method champagne, and Fox News's "We Report, You Decide" have nothing over, oxymoronically speaking, the two words stamped on the rear bumper of this little 1957 beauty: Volvo Sport. Yes, Volvophiles, this half of Sweden's auto industry competed with Saab and others in international rally events in the 1960s, when the car gods of Gothenburg also marketed the P1800. But the rally cars were sedans, and the P1800s were fixed-roof coupes with tiny back seats, whereas the P1900 has an open fiberglass body and two seats, like its contemporary, the Saab Sonett sports racer (not to be confused with the Sonett II and III street cars that came later). What's Swedish for barchetta? "Little boat" certainly applies to the P1900.

Volvo chief executive Assar Gabrielsson began visiting U.S. suppliers and business contacts in the 1930s to keep up with industry trends. During a visit in 1953, he picked up on the trend for British, Italian, and German sports cars and was fond of the Nash-Healey and especially the Chevy Corvette. Gabrielsson went to see California's Glasspar and immediately commissioned the fiberglass boat and car body pioneer to build two-seat fiberglass bodies for Volvo.

Back in Sweden, Volvo designed a dedicated tube-frame for the body and added the engine and front and rear axles of the PV444 coupe. It mounted a full flow oil filter to the B4B 1.4-liter, 44-horsepower four, plus twin SU carburetors, a hotter cam, and higher compression. The resulting B14A was rated 70 SAE gross horsepower at 5500 rpm and became the engine used in U.S.-bound PV444s. Unfortunately, the P1900 also got the PV444's three-speed manual gearbox with a rather long throw and a trucklike, long-gooseneck shifter.

The automaker built four or five prototypes and displayed one at the Brussels Salon in Belgium in January 1955. The first prototype, never publicly exhibited, had a hardtop with a wraparound rear window. The next three, with round front turn-signal lights instead of the production car's square ones, were displayed at Gothenburg's Torslanda Airport on June 2, 1954. The car was to be built for export only, not for chilly, snowy Sweden. Another prototype was shown at the Brussels Salon in January 1955. Volvo talked of building an initial run of 300 cars, and three of the Torslanda prototypes were sent out on a tour of Swedish dealerships in summer 1954.

Volvo displayed the production model at the January 1956 Brussels Salon, but customers didn't receive the first cars until that spring. In March, Helmer Petterson and Pelle Nystrom drove one on a 9800-mile trip to Southern Europe and North Africa. Petterson reported that the frame was weak, body mountings were chafing away, door mountings were poor, and in general, the car didn't meet Volvo standards. Soon, Volvo reversed its sales plan and marketed the car in the homeland, where 38 of 68 cars built in two years were sold. The 1956 model accounted for 45 cars, with the remaining 23 built for the 1957 model year. Most of the 1957s went to the U.S., but a few were sold in Belgium and Brazil.