IT’S said that to make an omelette, you first need to break some eggs. That’s probably the best way to describe Volvo’s attempts at making a sports car in the mid-fifties.
For its first effort, the P1900, the brand – curiously – decided to collaborate with a Californian boat maker, which would make a glass-fibre body for the car. The result is still quite possibly the worst Volvo built in the Swedish company’s near-100-year history. Issues with the model included a bendy frame, ill-fitting doors and fibreglass that had a tendency to crack.
Then-Volvo president Gunnar Engellau is said to have borrowed a P1900 for the weekend and come away disappointed enough to scrap the whole project, with a mere 68 examples having been manufactured.
