Volvo’s Forgotten Sports Car That Almost Changed Everything!
In the 1950s, Volvo was known for making tough, reliable cars, but one model stands out as a rare and unexpected experiment. The Volvo Sport P1900 was the company’s first attempt at a sports car, but it ended in disaster. Inspired by the American Chevrolet Corvette, Volvo’s co-founder Assar Gabrielsson wanted to create a lightweight, stylish car that could compete in the growing sports car market. He saw the potential of fiberglass, a new material at the time, and teamed up with the California-based company Glasspar to develop the body.
The P1900 looked promising at first. It had a sleek design, a lightweight fiberglass body, and a modified four-cylinder engine from the Volvo PV444, producing 70 horsepower. This setup gave it a top speed of around 95 mph, which was respectable for a small European sports car in the mid-1950s. However, the excitement quickly faded when Volvo engineers began testing the car. They found major problems with the fiberglass body, including cracking and poor structural rigidity. The build quality was inconsistent, and the car felt fragile compared to Volvo’s usual high standards.
Despite these concerns, production began in 1956, but only 67 or 68 cars were ever made. The final blow came when Volvo’s new CEO, Gunnar Engellau, took one for a test drive. After just a short trip, he was so unimpressed with the car’s quality that he canceled production immediately. He even joked that the doors might fall off if you drove too fast.
The failure of the P1900 pushed Volvo to rethink its approach to sports cars. Instead of using fiberglass, the company returned to its roots, focusing on durability and build quality. This led to the creation of the Volvo P1800, a much more successful sports car that became famous in the 1960s. Today, the P1900 remains one of Volvo’s rarest models, with only a handful still in existence.
Even though it was a failure, the P1900’s story is a fascinating part of Volvo’s history. It was a bold attempt at innovation, but the company learned valuable lessons from its mistakes. If you’ve never heard of this car before, you’re not alone—Volvo itself would probably prefer to forget it!
____
We do not own the footages/images compiled in this video. It belongs to individual creators or organizations that deserve respect. By creatively transforming the footages from other videos, this work qualifies as fair use and complies with U.S. copyright law without causing any harm to the original work’s market value.
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER:
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.
_____
