Volvo Museum Pictures

[dugong]

 

Hello there. These are the final pics from my Sweden visit that I started as Wat. I held off from posting them because they're not much cop. The lighting conditions in the building were variable to say the least, especially when your fill-in flash is on strike.

 

 

This rather excellent granite 850 sculpture greets you at the entrance (insert joke about Volvos resembling breeze blocks, etc).

 

 

Bronze statue of Larson and Gabrielsson.

 

 

Volvo was originally an SKF subsidiary.

 

The building's split into several sections representing the various Volvo departments - the Car Division, Aero and Flygmotor, Penta Marine and commercial \ farm vehicles. There's love for all those factions in here, so I'll post what came out reasonably in the edit.

 

 

 

OV4 Jakob - the first Volvo model produced. This is the car the Caresto hot rod alludes to.

 

 

You can see both open and closed OV4 variants here, along with what I think is a PV851 Limo.

 

 

Flygmotor section next. Space is rather tight in the museum - I encountered this problem again and again when trying to frame my shots. This is a Saab Viggen fighter with a Volvo built GE J72 jet engine built under license.

 

 

 

License-built Bristol aero unit. Yes, that Bristol - the one in Filton. Did you know they had a working relationship with Volvo? I didn't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wonderful Art Deco PV444 dashboard from an early iteration of the model. My shots of the car itself were tragic. Have a 1/8 scale model instead.

 

 

 

 

 

P1900 Sport. I bet you were wondering how long it was going to take before one of these showed up. Weirdly, the 1900 in the Sommer Motor Museum in Denmark is older than this example. Ole has number 3 - this car is from much later in the series.

 

 

Looking back through the first upper deck hall.

 

 

The original Frua P1800 prototype.

 

 

You can see how much heavier the detailing is on the [much later] P1800ES, the fastback that inspired the 480 design team.

 

 

There's also a 1958 Amazon in the background. Not a particularly early first-series 120 (there was an older car at Eskilstuna with 'Amazon' wing badges that later got deleted) and the paint on its roof was crazed.

 

 

Late B20-engined Amazon estate.

 

 

 

142 for WTC.

 

 

 

The Born Volvos were in the next room facing off with the 200 series variants.

 

 

There was also a 1976 343 DL, one of the very few from that first production run that survived. The 66, 440\480 and V40 were the last cars off the line.

 

 

PRV V6 [b28], just for Pete-M. Luckily this isn't the Autoshite Facebook page.

[warren t claim]

No 142/4 or did I miss them in an earlier thread?

[Partridge]

Thanks for sharing, that place looks great.

[Jim Bell]

I demand 343 Rallycross action.

[dugong]

 

 

Remember the OV 4 Jakob? This is the Caresto hot-rod that was created in its image.

 

 

 

 

 

The 760, 780, 850 and C70 had a small enclosure to themselves. To the right was the Motorsport and Prototype section.

 

 

 

 

343 Rallycross car ran a highly tuned 1.4 litre Renault engine and was very competitive.

 

 

 

Sadly, I don't think its been run in a while.

 

 

TWR 850 Estate and Cecotto's 242 ETCC racer - stuffed in a corner with a dented door.

 

 

 

5-pot race engine.

 

 

Volvo Philip concept car in all its Kaiser-aping insanity. This was fitted with an autobox and a B36 V8 from Volvo's truck range - the only passenger car to ever use it. The B36 was used in the LV420 truck and also as a AQ series Penta marine engine.

 

 

'Raketa' P1800ES design study. Someone clearly liked von Goertz's Toyota 2000GT - but the results divide opinion. Volvo didn't option it because of concerns over crash worthiness. I think it looks incredible, albeit disjointed against a standard P1800 front-end. The Coggiola P1800 wasn't on display. I'm not sure if the Museum even own it.

 

 

343, 142 and 120 rallycross \ rally cars.

[Jim Bell]

Fwar! Now you're talking.

[dugong]

No 142/4 or did I miss them in an earlier thread?

 

[Jim Bell]

That 242 makes all the blood go away from my brain.

And into my trousers.

[dugong]

 

Yes, a 480 convertible. A few were hawked around motor shows and a brochure was produced. Volvo's directors were worried about its image and it would have been an expensive option had it made it to the showrooms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Truckshite is coming.

[dugong]

That 242 makes all the blood go away from my brain.

And into my trousers.

You'd be surprised at how much of a bitch it was to frame and photograph properly. The condition of some of the motorsport exhibits was a bit shonky, to be honest.

[trigger]

Wow, Wow and Wow. and Wow again!

[Inspector Morose]

I remember seeing the cabrio at the NEC one year. Shame they didn't make it as it looked quite nicely balanced rather than looking like a conversion job.

 

Waiting for truckshite....

[hairnet]

denna tråd ger mig horn

[dugong]

 

 

 

 

Er.....trucks, buses and tractors. My knowledge is weak.

 

 

 

Penta Marine section was interesting - and yes, that's a B30 straight-six attached to an inboard leg.

 

 

 

 

The foyer had a random smattering of concept and safety vehicles. The 1993 ECC was also on display with a cover over it (for some reason).

 

 

 

Mint PV544 had a Penta powered boat on its towbar.

 

 

View from the outside.

[Inspector Morose]

The green bus thing was shown off all around Europe. It had a roof mounted gas turbine feeding electric motors in the hubs. Pretty sure it was 4ws too! Glad it was put to one side. IIRC I'm sure it was '93 and they did the bus, a truck and a car as a technological show off piece.

[Jim Bergerac]

Great stuff. I'd have sold vital organs to get a 480 Convertible, had such a thing ever been offered for sale.

[scruff]

Brilliant!! Thanks for posting. Looks like a great trip. The concept estate looks interesting.

 

That yellow F7 is mega cool. Did many a mile sat on the bed of one of those going to steam rallies when I was a nipper. 

[brickwall]

242s always looked great on the track.

[rml2345]

^ I remember those too! (The Volvo concept stuff)

Bloody brilliant pictures Dugong, looks like a fascinating place to go.

[HillmanImp]

That place looks amazing. 

 

I held off from posting them because they're not much cop. The lighting conditions in the building were variable to say the least, especially when your fill-in flash is on strike.

 

Hey they are better than anything I ever take and its the content we crave not artistic flair (although appreciate it when we have both). 

 

[Jim Bell]

You'd be surprised at how much of a bitch it was to frame and photograph properly. The condition of some of the motorsport exhibits was a bit shonky, to be honest.

 

A lot of people have said that. Odd really. Youd think it would be like a flagship.

[eddyramrod]

I feel a holiday in Sweden coming over me...

[hairnet]

^^^perv

 

schlumpf first

[eddyramrod]

You know me too well!

[HMC]

Thanks for sharing!

 

Id like to think THE set square the stylists first found in the mid/ late 60s is in a humidity controlled glass case somewhere there

[Lord Sterling]

Thanks for sharing these John. Amongst my favourites is the 480 Cabriolet, shame the idea never went into production, but there does seem to be one or two floating about, including a H-reg one here on the UK. I really must get around to trying a 480 at some point, I just really, really like them.

 

I also must take Fatha_Sterling there at some point if we ever find ourselves in Sweden. Fatha_Sterling seems to have become a bit of a Volvo fan of late.

 

Having seen these pictures and other pictures/TV documentaries of other car museums such as the BMW museum located at its headquarters, the Mercedes museum, VW (sorry) museum and even the collection of Fords and Vauxhalls owned by said companies, it does seem that pretty much most other car manufacturers seem to get it right when preserving thier important/historic vehicles. It shows that they are very proud of thier marque and thier achievements whether or not the car was popular. No expense seems to be spared on thier upkeep and preservation as well as their modern, inviting accomodations.

 

Yet, here in Britain, we seem to lack this pride with a passion. We have a piss-poor excuse for a "Heritage" museum, we make a crappy half-arsed effort of preserving BL/Austin/Rover tat on an official level so much so that other home-brew museums have popped up displaying clean, well preserved models. So far, many of the exhibits have been sold off, some are left outside to slowly rot away. It's almost as if we're ashamed to display our own motoring heritage and are trying to quietly brush the past under the carpet of time. At Gaydon, there are indeed some great cars on display, but there are also STILL many great, historically important cars that have left outside to rot, or that were sold off to private buyers in 2001, one of which, the last Austin Ambassador A500KWK was sold to a private buyer and has subsequently been left standing on a driveway with a smashed rear screen. Fucking ridiculous.

 

Soz for the rant but it boils my piss.

 

Great photos Jon, thanks for sharing.

[Jim Bergerac]

You're absolutely correct there, LS. The way in which parts of Britain's Automotive history are left outside at Gaydon-by-the-bins to rot is utterly shameful. Maybe another idea to add to my Euro Millions wishlist is to buy some of Gaydon's more shabbily treated exhibits and store and display them properly.

[Inspector Morose]

I hate to be a supporter of Gaydon because of the historically important items they've left to rot outdoors but the simple truth is that without the financial input from major investors, motor museums fight a losing battle in trying to conserve motoring heritage. The market for the number of motor museums we have already is just not there for them to be financially stable without the aforementioned investment. All they can do is do the best they can with the meagre resources that they've got. Gaydons problem is that they were given a huge and important collection of cars, documents and artefacts, a brand spanking new museum for them to show it all off in, then the funding company folds. Resulting owners of the site either have their own collections to worry about/fund and are not really that interested in what was a competitors cars and history. Sad but as long as we feel the need for everything that happens in this country to make a profit it will always be this way.

[dugong]

Added some more photos to the original posts.

[michiel]

Great photos.