In 1956 Volvo wanted to produce a sports car. After the disaster with the P1900 with only 67 cars build, they thought it was time to give it another try. This time they went to two italian design studio's, Frua and Ghia. Ghia rejected but Frua proudly made 2 designs. A third design was made by the swedish Pelle Peterson, son of Helmer Peterson who was responsible for the Volvo PV-444. The 23 year old Pelle was 'working' at Frua, and was able to get involved. When Volvo had to make a decision they -unaware of the designer- choose the design that was made by Pelle. The italian-designed volvo was a swedish after all. The P1800 was born.

Three prototypes were build, with minor modifications to production convenience. There was however one small problem. Volvo had no production capacity for the new P1800. For that reason they searched for other company's. Karmann in Germany was interested, but Volkswagen put some pressure on, making it impossible for them to produce the Volvo. Pressed Steel Co. Ltd was found to build the bodywork, while Jensen would build them together. A contract of 10.000 cars was signed. A contract volvo wasn't happy about soon after. The English had a complete different view in quality. The plan was to inspect only the first 250 cars in Sweden. But the swedish were so unhappy about the english work. All cars were rebuild in Sweden to match Volvo's standards. When finally after 2 years a new volvo factory was opened, they quickly moved production to Sweden. Until then only 6000 cars were build (May 1961 - March 1963). The Car was renamed 1800S, where the S stands for 'Sweden'. The body shells were still made by Pressed Steel, but now quality was better to control. In the meantime Volvo was still paying for the 4000 'missed' cars at Jensen.

The new 1800S was barely different from its predecessor. Small modifications where made throughout the years for increasing power output, quality or changing the styling. In 1968 they introduced a 2 liter engine. One year later they fitted it with a Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection system, which increased power to 130 (SAE) Bhp. The car was now named 1800E.

In 1968 All tools for production of the bodywork was shipped to Sweden. By now the car was a bit dated, so the Italian Coggiola was asked to change the looks of it. Though they never produced his designs, elements of it can be seen in the 1800 ES, introduced in 1971. This was a car you can hardly call conservative. The 2+2 coupe was transformed into a 2 door estate, with an all glass rear-door. This car was called a sports wagon. Unfortunately the concept of the car was dated and production of the sports wagon ceased in 1973, two years after the last coupe was build.

Last revision: Dec. 13, 1997. (C) P.A. de Joode, the Netherlands.