Gothenburg-a-Go-Go: Touring the Volvo Museum in Sweden

This author spent much of his childhood strapped in the back of a Volvo 245DL station wagon with missing hubcaps and torn vinyl seats—it could have been a Peugeot 505 wagon, but that purchase thankfully was never made. By 1991, Peugeot was on the boat back to France, child seats were a thing of my past, and my parents were on their second—soon to be third, and then fourth—Volvo 240. I've spent half my life buckling into these boxy Swedes, so stopping at the Volvo Museum in Gothenburg wasn't so much a visit as a pilgrimage. It also was a perfect way to celebrate the company's 85th anniversary: Its first car left the factory on April 14, 1927. The company-owned museum, open since 1995, is a bright, modern glass structure on the city's harbor, almost hidden among blocks of dull, industrial warehouses. It's only miles from the factory. Inside are Volvo's most treasured models, which span from the automaker's founding in 1927 to 1999, the year Ford took ownership. About 100 vehicles call the building home, and most, save for some glued-together concept cars, are in running condition. If it has ever worn the Volvo iron mark, you'll probably see it here: The collection includes Amazon rally cars, one-off concepts, buses, tractor cabs, fire trucks, bulldozers, marine engines, and mock sailboats from the Volvo Ocean Race. 1965 Volvo Amazon 122S Rally You can see and read more about the Volvonian awesomeness in the photo gallery, but to whet your appetite, here are some historical brand tidbits picked up from Sten-Åke Lyngstam, the museum's director, and Claes Rydholm, senior manager for Volvo Cars Heritage: The word "Volvo" in Latin means "I roll." Volvo was named after a ball bearing. The word "Volvo" in Latin means "I roll." Swedish bearing manufacturer SKF, which is still based in Gothenburg, patented the self-aligning radial ball bearing in 1907. When Assar Gabrielsson, an SKF employee, had the bright idea to start a Swedish car company, he asked SKF for a loan and branded it using the same name he found on the bearings. The company founders shared a desk. Gabrielsson teamed up with engineer Gustaf Larson to create Volvo; the duo then sat across from one another for the next three decades. During meetings, the pair had clients sit in soft chairs they would sink into on order to tilt the playing field during negotiations. The diagonal grille bar wasn't a stylistic choice. The Volvo circle and arrow logo—it's the astronomical symbol for Mars, the iron planet, and was chosen to represent Sweden's iron industry—kept falling off the grilles of early prototypes. So engineers attached it to a metal bar that was part of the radiator trim. Problem solved, brand hallmark created. Volvo built the same boxes for years in part because the CEO got pissed. Then-25-year-old Pelle Petterson, a budding designer who studied under Pietro Frua in Italy, penned the gorgeous P1800 in 1957 with virtually no real-world experience. His father, Helmer, who designed the more pedestrian PV444, snuck in his son's unsigned sketches to board meetings, which unsurprisingly garnered unanimous approval. When president Gunnar Engellau found out the mystery vanguard was simply Helmer's son, he was furious and refused to give the young Petterson any credit (Volvo fessed up some 50 years later). Jan Wilsgaard, then a junior designer who created the conservative 1956 Amazon, was promoted to chief designer in 1966, five years after the P1800 debuted. Pelle Petterson, a contractor, never again submitted a Volvo design. Wilsgaard was responsible for every square Volvo from the 144 to the 850. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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