Volvo P1800 (Mk1, 1961-1963) icon review: not fast, but just look at it

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. 

Its replacement would be a very different beast. The P1800 used a conventional steel shell that was built around a shortened unibody platform taken from the Volvo Amazon. Many of the mechanicals would also be sourced from the Amazon. The P1800 was a pragmatic creation, but it didn’t matter because it looked gorgeous, thanks to delicate Italian styling from a Ghia subsidiary. 

Today, it looks tiny. We’ve been loaned a stunning example that’s been part of Volvo UK’s press fleet for the past three decades. This car was built in 1962, which means it was assembled in Britain by Jensen, while the bodies were made in Scotland by Pressed Steel. Initially, Volvo didn’t have the capacity to produce the car itself, but by 1963 that had changed, and further P1800s – at that point renamed the 1800E – were manufactured in Gothenburg, Sweden. Scottish production of the bodies, however, lasted until 1968. 

The car feels equally small behind the wheel, although what certainly isn’t tiny is the steering wheel which, compared with modern ones, feels more akin to the helm of a galleon. It sits awkwardly on your lap, with no way of adjusting it to a more comfortable position. 

The P1800’s dashboard features a simple but elegant design. Split into two sections, the upper part includes a row of dials, while the lower portion has a neat little drawer plus an array of push/pull knobs for various functions, including the fan and the choke.

Our car’s seatbelt