Re: [T3] It's not a Volvo...

[Scott Taylor <scottbtaylor@earthlink.net>]

<x-flowed>On Sunday, February 15, 2004, at 08:02  AM, Jim Adney wrote:

> I think we've been down THIS road before. In certain views I think 
> there is a
> LOT of resemblence between a Type 34 and a Volvo P1800.
>
> I love Corvairs, too, and there are certainly similarities, but the 
> only people
> who would confuse a T 34 with a Corvair would be US types whose 
> horizons
> stopped at our coastlines and really didn't know Corvairs at all well. 
>   ;-)
>
> Didn't Ghia design all of these, and at about the same time?

Kind of. The P1800 was styled by Swedish designer Pelle Pettersson in 
collaboration with the Italian coachbuilder Frua, but at the time Ghia 
owned Frua. There were some conflict of interest issues concerning 
Ghia's relationship with VW surrounding the project. It would have been 
in design development at the same time as the Type 34. Also, Karmann 
was originally going to supply the bodies to Volvo but apparently VW 
objected, so Jensen in the UK was contracted to do it for the first few 
years of production. I guess that makes the P1800 an 
almost-Karmann/almost-Ghia.

I don't think Ghia had anything to with designing the Corvair but they 
were certainly inspired by it, as were many other European designers at 
the time.

Scott
62 343

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