Uncle Tom rates the new Swedish importwith the best in small European sedans.

THE Volvo was virtually unknownon American roads two years ago.

Today it is considered just about thehottest connoisseur's bucket in sedanshape. Sweden, famous for its smorgas-bord and the chest expansion of itsbeautiful gals, is still relatively un-known in American car circles. But itis the birthplace of two of the greatestautomobiles in the world, for theirprice. The SAAB, which we tested inJan. '58 MI, and the Volvo just abouttop any small European sedans thiswriter can think of.

Naturally, we aren't referring to 3.4Jags but to the popular-priced Europeaneconomy cars delivered on these shoresfor under $2,500. The Volvo, selling for$2,238, is undisputed king. This four-cylinder, 1.6-liter bucket can tickle 100mph, get from 0-60 mph in under 13seconds (with the four-speed box) anddrill through a corner like waterthrough a hose.

Up until this test all Volvos deliveredover here have had the underprivi-leged three-speed transmission. Ourtest job was the first four-speed Volvoin America and the difference was liketurning on the lights in a tunnel. Thecar with the three-speed box was great

in fact, great enough to walk awaywith the first five places in the interna-tional endurance race for small sedansheld on John Fitch's Lime Rock, Conn.race course last year. In addition, theVolvo has won a number of rallies andin the International Safety and Per-formance Trials at Daytona this winter,your beloved trunk-tester Jim Mc-Michael drove a three-speed Volvo andbeat a factory-owned 3.4 Jaguar byover 70 yards! He also beat many top-flight American cars of many times theengine size and power claim.

Though Jim won the Over-All Cham-

HINGED WINDOWS are a novelty, althoughthat blind corner isn't to motorists whodate back ten years or more. Front end isnot pretty but it is virtualy gunk-free.

By Tom McCahill

CONNOISSEUR McCahill says a Volvo isfor the connoisseur-small, gutty, fast, andoff-beat enough in the looks department soyou can tell it from the others at a glance.

pionship while driving a Pontiac, he'swondering now if he couldn't have madeeven better time with this new four-speed Volvo. This job would havegiven the Pontiac one helluva pushand it has 215 less claimed horsepower!Naturally, the Pontiac could drag theVolvo's ears off in any straightawayrunning but in a passing test, which in-cludes whipping out and in, the superbhandling qualities of the Volvo (totallywithout the aid of power steering)would out-maneuver the bigger carslike a Gold Cup boat racing a battleshipof the line over a short triangularcourse.

As we've pointed out on these pagesmany times, quite a few Americans buythe small imports because they are

priced right in line with many of ournot-too-good used cars. And the pur-chase of an import allows the buyer notonly to own something brand-new but toenjoy a connoisseur's strut as well. Withsome' imports this connoisseur pitchreaches Walter Mitty proportions. How-ever, with the Volvo there is no dream-ing required as this Swedish Nightin-gale is a true connoisseur's car. It issmall, gutty and fast. And it's off-beatenough in the looks department so thatyou know at a glance no attempt hasbeen made to simulate General Motor'sbody styling.

In Europe, Volvo offers another bodystyle called the Amazon for someweird reason unknown to us. Thoughthere are certain lines reminiscent of

August, 1958

the '47 Ford in the American importVolvo, the Amazon is pure Continentalsex and as smooth as a wet bottle ofbeer. A call to the Volvo importers dis-closed that there would be no shipmentto this country of the Volvo Amazon asthere are only a few being turned out,at a taffy-pull rate.

By now, if I have any readers left,they may be asking, "Doesn't thisScandinavian smelt have any faults?"The answer is, "Yes, it has." So let'sroll them out on the table and see whatthey are. As I'm slightly on the largeside, I find that about two to four moreinches of interior width between thedoors would make this car twice as de-sirable to me. With the windows closed,I get a feeling when sitting alongsidebig Jim McMichael that if we bothbreathed in heartily at the same time,the doors would pop out and go intoorbit before you could count to seven.

However, by staggering the seats(and the passenger seat goes back al-most into the trunk), two big guys canride without too much discomfort. Thebig, high floor tunnel sometimes has atendency to give your feet claustro-phobia. It doesn't allow them too much

"THIS BUCKET." says Tom, "can drillthrough a corner like water through a hose."And that's no hearsay, as you can see above.

ENGINE is a 4-cylinder 1.6liter job with nothing but guts.With this in front of you,you're a contender when theold traffic light turns green.

left-to-right movement,though there is amplestraight-out legroom. Theshape of the rear deck andthe slant-eye rear windowsomewhat retard rear-ward vision. But this is asuperbly put-togetherpiece of machinery andthe only thing I found tobe on the sleazy side wasthe glove compartmentdoor and latch. Unlikemany small imports, thiscar has a good-size trunk,very similar in capacity toAmerican sedans throughthe years 1945-1950.

In the glove compart-ment of the Volvo there's

a neat little leatherette case contain-ing two books. One is an excellentinstruction manual something that'sbeen missing from Detroit cars sincethey forgot how to write. The secondis a book called Travel, Study And Re-search In Sweden and is a real jim-dandy. It tells you How To Get Mar-

ried In Sweden, How To Get A Job andHow To Perform If You're A Musicianor an "Etcetera." The chapter I likedbest was How To Find Your Fore-fathers. It starts off, "If you know theParish in Sweden where your relativeslived, etc." That sentence alone isenough to cause one of my forefathersto rise from his grave and part my baldskull with a well-seasoned shillelagh.However, as my great-grandfather wasquite a swimmer, I just might have a rel-ative or two in Sweden.

I have one other beef against this carand that is the gas capacity. Thoughthe Volvo will give a solid 25 mpg (andat times a fraction more), its nine-and-one-fourth U. S. gallon capacity gastank is a definite black mark. A Chrys-ler Imperial with its 23-gallon tank isgood for 350 miles or better betweenfuel stops. And the Rambler with its 20-gallon tank can push hell out of 600miles on one filling. The Volvo's less-than-250-mile-cruising range would be-come as annoying as bugs in yournightshirt on a long turnpike trip, oreven on a run to Florida. This isa fault many small imports have.Fuel stops aren't always easy to comeby and the Volvo owner on a long tripmight find himself out of gas somedark and stormy night, cursing the en-

tire Swedish nation.In the comfort department, aside from

the closed-in feeling due to lack of bodybeam, the seats are excellent and ex-tremely comfortable. Incidentally, theycan be converted into a bed, a laRambler. The ride is tops and whiletesting this car over potholes and third-class country roads, its all-around coilspringing left no shock discomfortwhich you might expect from such aneat 2,140-pound package.

My test car was the first Volvo withrear windows that open and the veryfirst with a [Continued on page 164]

TRUNK TEST shows cargo hold will takea compacted jinn McMichael with goatee.

REAR WINDOW allows poor rear vision-one of the Volvo's faults. Who's perfect?

August, 1958 75

TEST CAR SPECSMODEL TESTED: Volvo PV 444ENGINE: OHV 4 cyls; 97 cubic ins; 85 brakehp; 87 ft-lbs max torque; 8.2 to 1 compres-sion ratio. Bore 3.125 ins; stroke 3.150 ins;Fuel required: Regular. Standard axle ratio:4.56. Wheelbase 102.5 ins; length 177 ins;height 60.25 ins; width 62.5 ins; front tread51 ins; rear tread 51.75 ins. Weight 2.140lbs. Gas tank capacity 9.4 gals. Turningcircle diameter 35.50 ft. Tire size 5.90 X 15.

PRICE (without optionals): $2,238.PERFORMANCE: 0-30 mph, 3.7 secs; 0-50mph, 8.7 secs; 0-60 mph, 12.7 secs; 40-60mph, 6.5 secs. Top speed 100 mph. Alltimes recorded on corrected speedometer.

McCahill Tests Volvo[Continued from page 75]

four-speed box on these shores. Despitethe few drawbacks I've outlined, it's beena long time since I've seen a car that cre-ated such a desire in me to own one. Inthis small import you won't have to grinand bear it when the light turns green andthat parade of monsters whips by. Ifyou're real sharp in your stick work you'llstay ahead of most of them. Once under-way, if the road is winding, you'll stayahead of just about all of them. The carcan go and, thanks to its self-adjustingbrakes, can stop on that proverbial dime.In case you're wondering how the nameVolvo originated it means "I Roll" inLatin. On these shores that could meanmore than the Swedes ever figured. Ifyou're tired of being a Civilian Plain Joewith a Civilian Plain Car, look this Volvoup. It has a lot to recommend it. In fact,no import offers more.

August, 1958