International Beauty
The 240 may be the best-selling model series in Volvo’s near-100-year history, but the automaker’s car that’s dearest in the hearts of aficionados around the globe is undoubtedly the 1800. This grand tourer, of which 47,485 were built over 13 years, has a reputation that far exceeds its physical footprint. The earliest examples—those 6,000 P1800s built in England between 1961 and ’63 by Jensen Motors—are truest to the original design and remain the rarest extant. The 60-year-old example on these pages enjoyed a special restoration that has made it possibly one of a kind.
Originating at Pressed Steel in Scotland, the body that would cloak 1962 P1800 chassis 3440 would be one of 2,236 painted Volvo’s #70 Red. That car, seen here, was completed in May 1962, came to America, and spent decades in Idaho and Illinois. The U.K.-built P1800 bodies were more rust-prone
