New Volvo P1800 revealed by Volvo’s chief designer

Volvo P1800 re-imagined

Volvo’s Chief Designer at its Monitoring and Concept Centre has recreated the iconic Volvo P1800 for the 21st century to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The Volvo P1800 is perhaps the most stylish car Volvo has ever produced, and 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the most unlikely of Volvos; a Volvo that was to The Saint what the Aston Martin DB5 was to James Bond.

Designed to be eye candy for Volvo dealers hoping for more footfall in showrooms full of Amazons, the P1800 was designed by Pelle Petterson – the son of Volvo consultant Helmer Petterson and the driving force behind the Volvo P1800 project – who worked for Italian designers Pietro Frau.

The timelessness of the P1800 can best be seen in the Vox Volvo P1800, an imaginative updating of the P1800 by Mattias Vöcks from Koenigsegg, which barely changed the P1800 – just cleaned the lines and added aggression – but did add a 4.4 litre V8 under the bonnet with around 550bhp, turning the P1800 in to a very desirable modern supercar.

And perhaps the work of Mattias Vöcks has inspired Volvo’s Chief Designer at the Volvo Monitoring and Concept Centre, Chris Benjamin, to put digital pen to tablet to create his vision of a P1800 for today.

New Volvo P1800 Front

Chris has carried over much of what made the original P1800 a success, with a grill that evokes the P1800 but manages to do it in a modern Volvo style. The new P1800 also has C-pilars and greenhouse that is instantly familiar and has retained the same two-door, swept-back look.

It seems as though the re-imagining of the P1800 is simply a design exercise to celebrate the P1800’s 50th birthday, but with Geely keen to drive Volvo forward we wouldn’t bet against the new P1800 seeing the light of day.