1967 Volvo P1800 from The Saint - Jay Leno's Garage

was another episode of Jay Leno's Garage you know we've had a lot of fun doing TV and movie cars on this website we did the Batman car and a few of the others couple of the Dukes of Hazzard cars and this is one of the most iconic TV cars of all time this is a Volvo 1800 this was used in the movie and the TV show rather the saint's which is a hugely popular show when I was way younger than I am now I always like these and we're going to learn a little more about this car let's bring in Matt stone man how you doing that's been on this website before he's written a number of books Steve McQueen book a couple of those what was the last one you did the last one I have a new one coming out on James Garner Oh very very soon oh good be back here talking to me we'll talk about that let's talk about this right now this is if you don't remember this ain't these were I guess there were books and a hugely popular TV show a TV show those popular worldwide it was filmed in England correct mm-hmm and same with me as you Jay I was a little younger back then when this show was on in primetime and watched it religiously along with I spy and Mission Impossible in all those of those other great spy and cop show TV shows you know we need to explain to young people when we were there was no internet so if you wanted to see cool cars on TV you just watch certain show when you live in a little town in Wingull got like I did anything less than four doors was a sports car so to see something like this this this might as well have been a Ferrari when I was a kid because it was rare it was cool-looking there was one in my town and you know you'd kind of stand on Main Street and it went by would be the talk of the school the next day I know that's how it's terribly not you but that's the way it was back in the day but this this car also has more star power because this was this was the Roger Moore's actual car when it indeed it was and pretty rare that that the star of the show actually owned the car that was the star of the show well let you know talk about low-budget we have to use your own car in the show and I just love the okay so tell us some more about the history of this car well Volvo sports car as it was born in the 1950s and and you talk about positively exotic just look at the lines on it I mean this absolutely could have been a Ferrari or a Maserati based on the package size and the lines front engine 4-cylinder with dual carbs we'll talk a little more about it this of course an English version you'll notice it's a right hook up right right and and and just a positively exotic and elegant it looks it looks almost like it was Fuhrer one of those companies that did the design that's what I thought a very Italian at for a Volvo front engine nothing is exotic is a mid-engine or anything like that but nice airy glass line reminds me a little bit of a Karmann Ghia right right yeah and it's not really a sports car some of a grand touring car isn't it that's a fair statement yes yeah it's zippy it handles nice it's it's it the engines very robust and kind of R or D but yeah you wouldn't call it a pure sports you see that's the way my mom would review a car its zippy I haven't heard that word used to describe a car in a while because I'm almost as old as you G I know is gonna say boy it's zippy we'll take some goofballs get in the car and get zippy yeah Wow but you know you know my biggest problem with this car when I was a kid i sat in one once you couldn't put your elbow on the window so the elbow was way up here now all cars have the sill up here but I'm ever riding in my friend's car once and he had to go back but trying to meet girls and you couldn't be cool with your elbow way up on that sill that was sort of the only problem well you know George our mechanic here I think George is one of our master mechanics he did the double steam car I'm here and he's pretty excited what he's a big eating that he wears his Volvo shirt every day George come on in come on is George thirty years working on this that's right yeah yeah now this is basically a 120 to an Amazon underneath is this pension wise yes suspension and and wheelbase and everything the wheelbase is longer on this okay think okay well we'll find out okay now you you worked on these you did made your career working on these how they're pretty dependable weren't they yeah they're very dependable it's basically a tractor right I still work on them I still have a lot of Bobo's but they've gone up in the last couple years they become collector cars right after I sold mine yeah right that's when you want to do it you want to sell it before it Peaks that way I get the guys working here this way they can't retire and those are the factory wheels as well no these had an aluminum and steel wheel optional or an all steel wheel with a small hubcap in the center okay well let's uh let's take a look under the hood judge open it up as she said nothing exotic just the basic now this didn't have any more horsepower than the 122 did it actually when it came out it did it had 115 horsepower but you know you could take the head off this put it on a 122 there you have it right okay they're all basically the same but it's a it's a bomb-proof engine yeah these things you know or if Gordon is what three million miles now yeah we had herb garden on The Tonight Show and they did Gordon is the man who's driven an original car more miles than anybody else in the world he has three million miles on on his Volvo and he drove it from Long Island to The Tonight Show to put another four thousand course she did so that was kind of fun that shows you the durability he's got now this car was pretty rough wasn't it no it's it it's gone through an extensive expensive and very authentic restoration well documented by the owner a lot of Swiss cheese on the bottom of this car yeah and who can tell you the whole story is you're on our bill clastic the bill come on in let's meet pill guys thanks a lot George thank you hey Bill how you doing I'm fine thank you mr. Leno how are you so nice to see you and thanks for bringing your car I think it's safe to say just looking at all the documentation and stuff you're a Volvo nerd would you say to a degree a car nerd and press a car nerd long-suffering wife the whole deal exactly she loved me to refinance the house in order to buy this thing really yes well if you find a girl like that Mary as Lee Iacocca would say wow that's pretty good thanks to you we mortgage the house to finance it yes sir okay that is a smart move yeah yeah well obviously this is the love you were you a huge fan of the TV show yes when I was younger I lived in San Jose California originally from New Jersey the show used to be shown at 11:30 at night on Sunday so when my parents were asleep I turned on the TV set and watch Roger Moore and it was just a fantastic show and then my father caught me one night and he said well he says what are you watching so he started watching as well it became both of our kind of bonding parent now I'm guessing you have all the DVDs of the show three times over and you have the st. shirt of course you have the whole is there a club of saint people yes it was started in the 40s actually it still goes on to this day it was done as a charity and it still exists so yes I guess it has an old character isn't it yes sir the book storage we start in 1928 by Leslie Charteris and continued writing into the 70s so very popular first movies with George Sanders and then the fit of the version is really Roger right because you know a lot of people don't know this because I know this when they started the same they originally went to Jaguar and they said hey we'd like to use the new XKE and this TV show we're doing but the XK was so well-received jag was like oh no so we don't need fine we need to find we don't need to do that Aston Martin we kind of did the same thing they kind of with James Bond they weren't going to give him a car when they did you so what happened and of course this car really made Volvo was sort of under the radar until it got on the saint and that it was seen as this sexy kind of cool sports car definitely it was shown in over 80 countries including behind the Iron Curtain which is extremely rare in a day so the C hero zipping in his white sports car week after week was tremendous publicity from Volvo that's the second time we've done zipping here when you had it with Matt there seems to be something in the what we we've done six years a show about everything zipping once and here we are twice using the same word now I am a dad do you play the theme song while you drive the car oh my god my wife's smiling over there okay yes I do have a there's a four CD CD set so yes sir okay okay you have to understand there's a certain type of car people know exactly what this is I have a frame of the db5 the only thing on the radio and just plays it all day long that's the only thing you play either get it or you don't really so how many miles on this could you drive it quite regularly is it a showpiece pride of in the living room that kind of deal no actually I Drive it it has one hundred sixteen thousand miles it had five owners after Sir Roger Moore one being the actor Martin Benson who was in Goldfinger and then when we had it restored I do drive at the shows headed up in New Jersey actually and drove the 400 miles to Virginia it does excellent on the motorway or highway 75 and overdrive it's smoothly running now you're a schoolteacher yes sir now do your students even know what the saint is do they just think it's an old Volvo hey just think it's an old Volvo yeah yeah so it's time for a new st. I'm afraid yeah so if you want to impress chicks over 60 this is the car to add we have another car for that yeah yeah yeah well well alright so let's let's take us over the what's the word anorak fax over this car week we mentioned the wheels before but I think we were incorrect those tell me about the wheel certainly these wheels were reproductions done by mini light when we did the restoration of the car as Matt mentioned previously this car needed a lot of work done the original wheels were still on it they were made out of magnesium original mini light wheels magnesium after 40 years tends to deteriorate and unfortunately if you have them tested and they're cracked they will not give you back the wheel so many light made us specifically for this car especially machine set okay so that's what I think of the margin outside probably sounds like the bathroom and the kitchen that is correct all right bathroom in the kitchen do the wheel we still have this force the set of four as a matter of fact ones actually in the trunk now something that I know just because I there's a little fan back here yes and that was put in to cool the driver or the actor during filming rather than the spring for air conditions in the car they put a little fan back there yes there so that was not obviously a Volvo that was just put in the in the TV version of the car by the studio they this car was used in the studio a lot and so in order to keep cool under the lights as we are right now they would have that fan on they also added a little gauge on the dash is a thermometer there that will let you know how warm it was okay so that was out we've done movie Cars and I mean every General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard just beat to crap I mean movie cars are just treated horribly was this treated bad well it was Roger Moore his own car so I imagine it got a little more care and it was it very rough when you got it it was it had gone through since Sir Roger and Martin Benson it went through several owners had one hundred sixteen thousand miles and as your mechanic mentioned earlier Volvo's do tend to rust in certain areas and this was no exception so now was it when you got it was it the st. car and that made it really valuable or was it just an old Volvo that just happened to be used on a TV show this thing this one was known as the st. car everyone who owned it knew what it was in the provenance the original English logbook actually has his name on it and that travelled with the car but nobody really else took care of it until you got it that's correct it was sitting languishing actually in a weary motion oh man hey I've added the zippy yeah and it was literally sort of rotting away at that point the owner knew what it was but he had so many other vehicles he didn't put any time into it right right well it's nice it's gone to a caretaker who cares about it as much as you do I imagine you've tried to do everything exactly as it was or there any modern updates there's no disc brakes or anything of that name no sir I have everything as original as much as could be done the metalwork we did have to replace some panels however the interior when you sit in these seats which you will a little bit later maybe we go for a ride those are the original seats that Roger Moore sat in me my buttocks will sit where Rogers buttocks were not only that but Shirley Eaton actually sat in both as well from Goldfinger that's a nice car Wow yeah so that's even better well very cool very cool well I am but a cleat challenge and that'll be fun to uh to give it a shot uh let's see what else who we got here oh did this have just brakes in the front yes sir yes it did have just brakes in the front yeah and it has a safety Volvo was always big on safety and it has the 3-point seatbelts Volvo had put those in the car since the late 50s oh they were ahead of their time so it's very modern in that respect well let's take a look at some pictures of the restoration this will show you how rough the car was was it down here or in England it was done in England it was done by an Barry st. Edmund by restorer who actually I heard of from Irv Gordon whom you mentioned earlier for the three million mile Volvo may I please have a place embarrassing it really over on Connors Road yeah that's interesting okay so how long did the restoration take it took about nine months and fairly quick we have sell source parts from Canada from the US we're looking for only nós parts and we did find them but they're all over so we shipped everything over to England you were in New Jersey I mean rather Virginia Virginia just writing checks off to England a patient taking pieces of the house and an exchange my wife still sitting over there but yeah yeah I sold a lot of stuff on eBay okay so you bought it in England that wasn't okay I'm surprised no English and thighs iasts didn't go crazy and take it away from you I'm totally surprised of that as well on the show was much bigger than here it was a TV show over there it was oh my god it was like a lifestyle thing was he was like James Bond on TV basically exactly he only had two channels in England also so it was very very popular yes okay well I am anxious to put my buttocks where Roger Moore's buttocks were and take this thing for ride can we do it we sure can cool nice will throw be bored yeah Musti as they say zippy has met says so you are actually sitting in the very seats that Sir Roger Moore and Shirley Eaton sat in as well.we Shirley Eaton Goldfinger Shirley Eaton was a girl who's painted gold oh okay Wow you're feeling acceleration you've got quite a bit of power it feels pretty strong from 15 horsepower yeah white car is that what are these weigh weight about twenty-four twenty-five hundred pound us out that man and it's steel and in 1967 they actually increase the power by three so it has 118 you can feel that okay thank you three come today you probably noticed earrings available Heaviside though no staring gun seem happy to me because I'm used to driving non power steering cars huh I don't find it heavy at all and this is basically a new car isn't you've only got a few thousand miles on it since the restoration correct about two thousand miles did you do the engine or no yes Oh the engine was completely redone on the UK and inside the car you really don't hear no it's really a timeless sort of design it's still a very pretty car certain cars look dated you know Lincoln's from the 50s and early 60s really look dated you know with all the angles the goofy headlights and all it was this thing you could make some version of this today and it would still look reasonably contemporary this is probably the 1800 the greatest Volvo ever built would you say I would say so it's the most popular as far as enthusiasts yeah you know a lot of people think they want a sports car what they really want is a grand touring car yes because it can't get the best elements of both we got a nice comfortable ride we've got really good weather sealing you don't hear a lot of wind noise and heat errors are incredible because it's Swedish and they're very dependable and it's reasonably sporty and you save on insurance because this is technically a four seater car right even though with nobody with lakes could fit in there Roger Morris children used to ride in the back of the yeah when he drove at home let have bill show us the dashboard now and go over all the gauges and it's a pretty dashboard let's take a look now that's C is that the original radio well actually it was but it was removed for a number of years yeah well we were restoring the car we located the third owner who at that time was about 87 years old that mr. Douglas Coles and he came over to the restoration while the car is being done he says I still have the radio on my shelf so he gave it back to us free of charge and we installed it back it's a radio 'mobile radio and we have here cigarette lighter which was used by Roger more thoroughly because he was heavy smoker or a matter of fact there's a melted place right above the ashtray the second owner Martin Benson said nope that was sir Rogers work okay that's right yes sir and this was the temperature gage was added by the studio that's good for these standard or cysts and Volvo's or was just added later these were added for the spotlights that were used for the on the bumper and the other one was used for the the fan and this one and that is the actual heater fan that's Excel and this one here that's the wiper switch wiper switch and the choke is underneath joke is underneath yeah they hid it underneath there and here we have a clock clock which is correct twice a day right and oil pressure oil pressure fuel gauge and applause speedometer water oil temperature which is very European Americans never did oil temperature tachometer is not working corner course in the middle right here is y pz your headlights you have your headlights there's another switch down here what is that one oh look a question oh well that's the electronic antenna okay oh of course and your vision and right here which is kind of cool this is your your overdrive switch you'll see the light right here when I go like this it kicks in you feel the car shifts to essentially a fifth gear well this is what it seems to do batch and get it up on the highway and you put it in overdrive and boom you feel it kick in and he just saw the cruise and now you're getting about 30 miles to the gallon believe it or not in 1967 ya ran touring car you know I have somebody cars out a lot of people get really screwed up a good right-hand drive doesn't bother me at all bother you I hope thatís really any big difference no it doesn't matter of fact when I was working my way through school I was a rural delivery mail carrier in New Jersey and we had right-hand-drive Scouts international drivers fish down those things are pretty slow and back in the day they would make this specifically for mail carriers so that's how I learned to shift with the left hand and drive on that side of the road well that's pretty cool I want to thank George a mechanic Matt strolling across bill and his long-suffering family oh boy this is a real thrill I you know when you see a car in TV and everything I'll actually get to drive that one and these same seats that Roger Moore sat in so I hope you learned a little something about 1800s and this is an appreciating asset these cars are gonna go up so if you find one buy it now because they're not getting cheaper bill thank you very much thank you very much mr. Leno appreciate sweet

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,117,436

Rating: 4.9250603 out of 5

Keywords: jay leno's garage, nbc jay leno's garage, jay lenos garage, jay leno, matt stone, jay leno matt stone, bill krzastek, bill krzastek jay leno, george swift, jay leno george swift, 1967 p1800, 1967 volvo p1800, volvo p1800 the saint, jay leno 1967 p1800, jay leno volvo p1800, jay leno the saint, roger moore the saint, roger moore 1967 volvo p1800

Id: FwCjOakOMKE

Length: 20min 35sec (1235 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 15 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/dixiekoko]

That's a really nice presentation. Though, I'm rather surprised they didn't bother to fix or replace the tach.. they ain't expensive and it ain't rocket science to remove/replace.

I suppose it probably broke immediately before Jay took the wheel and they didn't see fit to have him give it a whack, which is usually all it takes :)