1971 Volvo P1800

I found these photos while I was cleaning up my house last month. My 1971 P1800, I was only one year old when this car was manufactured! I bought this around 1999 and kept it for about one year. Why did I buy this? Like most car guys, I just wanted to get a vintage car, sort of a rite of passage for gearheads I guess. Plus, this thing is a beauty (check out the fins), Swedish car styled by an Italian designer.


Trivia: this was actually the model used by Roger Moore in the TV series "The Saint" in the UK. You've probably never seen the show unless you lived in Europe. I put a lot of money to fix this car: new original grill surround, new brakes, new tires, new original wheel rings, new original exhaust, new original steel trim pieces, new interior leather/carpet. I remember going to the only mechanic in town that knew about this car almost every week to fix something.


I remember going to work in this thing and going 80mph on the freeway and everything was vibrating/buzzing in the car (and the rearview mirror fell off - everytime). Total insanity! Towards the end, with most foreign vintage cars, the parts were extremely hard to find and it was very difficult to bring this car to the standards I wanted. A buyer came with his whole family to check out the car and bought it on the spot.