1972 Volvo 1800ES Shooting-Brake

For sale by auction on Saturday 06 June 2015 with Historics at Brooklands. Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit. Weybridge. Surrey. Call 01753 639170
In December 1957. the first hand-built P1800 prototype was
driven to the headquarters of Karmann. Volvo had hoped that Karmann
would be able to take on the tooling and building of the P1800 and
they were ready to build it which meant that the first cars could
hit the market as early as December 1958. But in February. br/>Karmann's most important customer. Volkswagen. forbade Karmann to
take on the job as they feared that the P1800 would compete with
the sales of their own cars and threatened to cancel all their
contracts if they took it on. This setback almost caused the
project to be abandoned and it looked doomed until a press release
surfaced with a photo of the car. putting Volvo in a position where
they had to acknowledge its existence. These events influenced the
company to renew its efforts with the car and it was presented to
the public for the first time at the Brussels Motor Show in January
1960. Volvo turned to Jensen Motors. whose production lines were
under-utilised. and they agreed a contract for 10. 00 cars. The
first production P1800 left Jensen for an eager public after its
much troubled inception. In 1972 came the last model. the 1800ES. a
coupé station wagon with an all-glass tailgate. sometimes described
as a shooting-brake.

This superb Volvo 1800ES fitted with a manual gearbox and
overdrive also has electric power steering. The first owner kept
the car until 1989 and had it regularly serviced by main Volvo
agents Messrs Kastners in Plymouth. The 1800ES had two further
owners in the UK before being exported to Ireland in 1999 were it
was put into a private collection. The vendor recently purchased
the car from the Irishman's estate and returned the car to the UK . br/>successfully obtaining the original registration number. Restored
in the early 2000's. the car is finished in red. whilst the
interior has the original black hide to the front seats. original
vinyl to the rear and contrasting grey seatbelts. The cabin carpets
must have been replaced at some point but they are a superb match
to the (albeit faded) original carpets to the boot area. all
complemented by a lovely roof-lining and dashboard. The tools are
present and it has an un-molested engine bay with all stickers
still in place. This lovely Volvo is supplied with a V5C
registration document. an MoT test certificate which expires in
February 2016. owner's manual. service manual and a file containing
invoices and old MoT test certificates. This is an exceptional
example of a rare and sought after Volvo.



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