Volvo P1800

Being the youngest child in my family and who was born in the 80s, I was certainly exposed to a lot of classic music, TV serials and even movies right from the 50s to the 80s. There will be some of you who would remember one of the most iconic TV serials of the 60s, The Saint which starred none other than Roger Moore (now Sir Roger Moore) as Simon Templar. And there was another attraction to the serial and it was a Volvo P1800 which had the plate 'ST 1'. The Volvo P1800 was a car built right from the early 60s to early 70s and close to 50,000 units were built which included coupes and sports estates or commonly known as wagons.

The Volvo Museum in Sweden

The P1800 was built with the ‘sports car’ direction in the mind of the designers and Volvo. They came in a number of variations such as the P1800, 1800S, 1800E and 1800ES. The general bodylines were the same but minor cosmetic differences such as bumpers and chrome linings made the difference. There were also two engine variants which were the B18 and the B20 of which the B18 was a 1.8 litre engine and the B20 a 2.0 litre engine. But of course eventhough they have different models they are all commonly known as P1800 to the common man which in this case includes me.

There are two P1800s that I come across very often. Below are shots of one of those, a pristine Volvo P1800 owned by a friend who is also a Volvo restorer and collector. This definitely has to be one of the fine examples of this model here in Malaysia. This car has also recently been given a full round of bodywork as well as a new coat of paint. And the other is a rare left-hand drive (US spec) variant which is known to be the only one of it’s kind in this part of the world. This car was also used for my wedding so of course it deserves special mention here.

 The rare left-hand drive

One in beautiful condition would fetch close to RM100,000 but that of course means it’s close to mint if not mint. This is a car which has definitely appreciated in it’s value over the recent years so chance are if you get one at a good bargain, you wouldn’t loose money on it. I’ve attached two videos below. One a description of the car and the other a testament of this car’s capability, running 3 million miles on the same motor. Yes, I said it correctly, 3 million miles. :)

The left-hand drive US Spec

The 3 million mile car