Volvo Museum Pictures

[michael t]

cracking thread and excellent pictures, what more do you want when sat down with a mug of tea 

[scruff]

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.

 

Agreed. Seen a few ex-BL/Rover collection motors sold off in '01 stood in a field going to rot - sad in the extreme. Though I think some have passed on gradually.

 

There's all manner of museums and collections with stuff that really isn't in the "right place", or if it is will NEVER come out in public... our national museums are probably the most guilty but at least they do loan out stuff to places like Beaulieu, Coventry and even Gaydon.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Brilliant work as always, Jon ! Many thanks for sharing !

[ProgRocker]

That 1976 343 DL is pretty sweet!