Blast from the past: The Saint’s Volvo P1800
Back in 1957, Volvo desperately wanted a sports car for the European and US markets, despite its previous attempt, the P1900, having been a spectacular failure, selling only 68 cars.
It started work on what would become the P1800, a thoroughly beautiful coupe designed by a young designer named Pelle Pettersson who went on to become a celebrated yacht designer. But the P1800 wouldn’t have an easy gestation and several times it looked like the project wouldn’t even reach production.
In the end, Volvo turned to British manufacturer Jensen to build the P1800, using Jensen’s under-utilised production line.
And so the P1800 was born, but while it was undeniably beautiful, it didn’t look like it was going to set the world on fire in terms of sales.
Both the Volvo and the Jaguar E-type were launched at the Geneva motor show in 1961 and while the Jaguar would overshadow the P1800, something happened there that would eventually change the Volvo’s fortunes dramatically.
The producers of a new television series were looking for a car for their dashing hero to drive and approached both Jaguar and Volvo to supply a car for filming.
Jaguar declined, but Volvo accepted.
That TV series was The Saint, the dashing hero was Simon Templar, played by Roger Moore, and the P1800 went on to become a legend.
Sales immediately increased when the series aired in 1962 and the P1800 was a great financial success for Volvo, helping to hugely raise the brand’s profile in the US market.
Not only did Moore drive the car in the series, he also owned one. One that was used in the series, in fact.
Moore’s car was built at the Volvo Torslanda plant in Sweden, in November 1966 and is an 1800 S in Pearl White, equipped with Mini-Lite wheels with the rare original ‘‘truncated’’ spoke design, Hella fog lamps and a Volvo wooden steering wheel.
Inside, the car still has details from the filming of The Saint, such as a thermometer on the dashboard and a separate interior fan, used to cool the actors during studio filming.
Moore is the documented first registered owner of this famous
1800 S. The London registration plates, NUV 648E, were issued on
20 January, 1967. Moore signed the registration papers two weeks later and they have followed the car since.
Moore later sold the car to fellow actor Martin Benson and, after several more owners, Volvo eventually bought the car back and owns it today.