February 10, 2008

Volvo P-1800 E

While driving through campus here at Penn State, I found a vehicle that I normally wouldn't expect to see on a saturday night sitting in a college parking lot in a wintry mix of precipitation. It's an early 70s (71 perhaps according to the vintage Maryland plate) Volvo P-1800 E Automatic. It appears to be in largely original, unrestored condition. Paint looks original and there's some rust popping up in the fenders to go with it. I'm not sure if I'm happy to see the car being driven or if I'm depressed to see it weathering away in a Pennsylvania winter. Perhaps it had a good reason to be out that night. Either way, it's a testament to the build quality of these old Volvos.






4 comments:

Ronan Glon said...

Ha, there was a similar P1800 for sale behind a record shop before I left SLC. Real rusty but it seemed to run. It was always out there, covered in snow/salt. Doesn't the P1800 hold the record for the car with the most miles or something?

Ian Rothwell said...

Indeed theres one with something like 2 million miles on it, but I believe it's on it's 3rd engine and so on.

Ronan Glon said...

Yeah, something like that. I'm surprised it's still on the original body, they're not exactly immune to rust.

andrew said...

I've got great shots of a P1800 I found in Michigan. I'll have to post them up at some point.

And, yeah, Irv Gordon's P1800 has something like 2,000,000 on it.