1968 Volvo Amazon Estate Goes for a drive

hello if you're a fan of safe swedish estates then you're in the right place because today we're driving an amazon estate come along for the ride if you're liking this kind of thing then do hit the subscribe button because that makes a massive difference to the channel thank you hello welcome to furious driving and today we are once again driving an interstate car now when you hear the word estate or the word volvo you tend to think of one and the other they're kind of interchangeable these days but that doesn't actually go back to the 200 or even the 100 series that volvo estateiness really started with this the amazon now known to the public as the one two one there's even a badge on the front wing saying so internally it was based on the p120 series which given the big old lump on the back of the car it became the p220 series now as a saloon the amazon have been around since 1956. it took a while for them to bolt a big old box on the back and it became an estate in 1962 when it was launched the stockholm motor show now styling wise the amazon moved volvo cars on quite significantly in the way the cars looked and the appeal they had around europe and the rest of the world you've probably heard the name jan wilsgaard before he was volvo's designer from around 1700 until the year 3000 i believe he was responsible for everything really the 200 the 100 series the 700 series the 900 series right up until the millennium pretty much everything had his hand in it now looking at this car this has got italian british and very strong american influences in the styling you can look at this and see the chrysler 300 series and new york series from the 50s very strongly young wilsgaard actually said he saw a kaiser in gothenburg docks and that gave him a strong influence as well personally i can see a fair bit of studebaker in there too but this new global design influence did give the car much stronger international appeal so it became one of volvo's first big international sellers and then as you look at some of the details the shape of these lights on the top of this wing these wrap around indicators even little spotlights you can see these moving into the square or later cars from the 60s into the 70s this car's design language did transfer and evolve into the later volvos now as we are talking today about the estate rather than the saloon let's come around the back and talk about this area now first of all the side styling is much the same we've got the same lovely curvy looks volvo is thought of as a very square looking car but these things are curves all over the place they were rivaling things like the rovers p4 and p5 which are all curves all over the place in american style as well the saabs of the time were all very much jelly mold looking things so this was also that same look of curves everywhere this long lateral curving line does carry on all right an abrupt end here are these little sticky out lights which i think are the same lamp units as you would find on the saloon just slightly further forward now this is a really clever back end on this car this tailgate is all over the place and ingenious if you've watched much nordic noir then you'll know how ingenious those clever swedes can be and if they want to dispose of a body they are well sorted because not only does this open like this so you can open just the top half so if you need something quickly disposed off quickly in the back you can just throw it in there and then shut the top or if you need to do a big load you can open that as well and so you can bundle things easily into the back should you need to it can also this doesn't latch down i should say but it will close down so if you need long very long loads because the swedes are tall people this is quite a long boot nonetheless we've got someone like an eight-footer it's stretched out yeah and rick and mortis and so forth it's sticking all the way out the back you can close the top half and call it a christmas tree there are a couple other clever items as well if you are not the bundler but the bundley there's a button to get out of the boot on the inside of the tailgate so if your unwilling victim does come too they can get out so maybe not the best kidnappers car also underneath here like the early minis and the original range rovers do you remember when the range rover was a practical car for farmers to use as more comfortable than the basic land rover and not a fashion statement they had a fold down number plate so another plate could still be seen when you're driving with big heavy loads in the back now the load space in here is absolutely enormous hello oh oh echo oh i think i can see a yeti in the distance it goes on forever and the rear seats fold down as well so if you're a late 50s or 1960s antique dealer this would be the perfect car for you now the amazon estate was actually built alongside the p210 duet but according to volvo themselves that was more of a car drive van than an estate car this is where volvo really stepped into the wagon market oh that's heavy another really clever useful thing in the back of here not only do you have this great tailgate for you know load lugging long loads sitting on the having a picnic on you've also if you have a roof rack on here got the option to stand on these big useful treads and put things up on the roof this thing is brilliant so practical right so let's look at the engine now and check this out spring-loaded cantilevery clever hinges so no messing around the bonnet prop this thing goes straight up and stays there brilliant now across the saloon and the state p120 and p220 ranges the basically three engines used or four at a push there's the b16 which is a 1.6 the b18 which is a 1.8 or 1778 cc and finally the legendary b-20 with power outputs ranging between 70 90 and 95 horsepower now this particular car has a b18a and it's a 1968 car this is quite a late one which i think made 90 horsepower on 95 when it was new however that's no longer relevant this car has been very heavily breathed over by the previous owner who's had it the last 16 years and has clearly spent a lot of time and effort making it the best they can looking at the suspension underneath it's got the fattest anti-roll bar you've ever seen so this rolls far less in corners than you'd expect now looking under this engine okay there's a few obvious things like the big air filters are a bit of a giveaway but those are attached to a pair of hs6 1.75 inch carburetors it's got a lightened flywheel it's got a simonized sports 4 branch exhaust manifold going into a sports exhaust it's got an operated camshaft and there's a gas flowed stage 2 cylinder head with new valves and springs in it there are lightened push rods and lightened cam followers so it's much less rotating mass or moving mass and there are steel timing gears so it won't slip out of time like a plastic one would and you might also notice just here is a brake servo that wasn't standard one new that's a bit of an upgrade too so this thing actually stops as well as it goes it turned out about 3000 miles since it was all upgraded it's the perfect daily driver for someone who wants a practical useful easy running daily classic fantastic and in terms of maintenance and stuff so easy to work on you can get around this big old red block no problem there's tons of space in here lots of room for activities now climbing in is actually a little harder than you might think because a roof line is quite low and this huge steering wheel does really come close to the seat squad so trying to squeeze your legs underneath the rim of the wheel is surprisingly tricky but once you're in it's really quite comfortable and uh you can get yourself really well sorted in the nice driving position we'll talk about that on the road more but first of all let's talk about all of the interior and just look at these amazing seats this this kind of orangey caramel color is just astonishing i love it i've recently i was looking at a volvo v70 a fairly new one for sale and if it wasn't for the tax bracket it was in i'd have had it like a shot and it had leather in virtually this exactly the same color and it was fantastic right let's get you off your tripod and show you around the interior now first of all before you even climb in you notice these beautiful embossed aluminium kick plates with the volvo uh logo here in them and secondly you'll notice the outboard uh handbrake this is because a bench seat was an option that was talked about in some of the early cars and finally you'll see this little switch here this is the uh little movement toggle for moving the seat back and forth on the outside interestingly rather than in front and being a volvo safety and comfort is important so you can recline the seat as well let's climb in properly now oh one more thing down in the carpet we've got the amazon emblazoned foot pad by the pedals i don't have that standard i think it's had new carpets in this car that may be in an aftermarket thing but i don't know it looks good nonetheless now let's look at this door as we shut it first of all this door top is a metal door cap as they often were in the 1950s and into the 60s but look how it just curves around so this shape marries up to the shape of the dashboard that's quite an interesting little bit of door architecture just there i'm very impressed with that i've got big door handles pulled down to open this huge easy to find window winder there as well i love this same orangey caramelly i don't know what hell you call it color vinyl door card and a useful door pocket as well someone has put some speakers in here which are not necessary to my taste i mean if it's with my car i think i might i thought maybe get some paint mixed up that was kind of a mash to this and then take the grills off and paint them to disguise it maybe leave the black plastic trim and then paint the metal grille so it hides it a bit more and there's a useful just above the speaker slightly squishy rubbery plasticky grip to yank it shut now as well as the keep fit windows here in the door we also have these little quarter lights i do miss having quartzites and cars this is something that air conditioning has really killed in modern cars because you just don't really need quarter lights with aircon but that's such a cool thing now moving into the dashboard a couple of features to talk about first of all there's body color metal door trim carries on in the lower half of the entire width of the dashboard i'm kind of surprised in a such a safety conscious vehicle um you've still got a metal lower dash the top half is padded this is uh padded and ribbed for your safety and on top of it the previous owner has added a rev counter as well because that was uh not included by volvo originally the main instrument we do have is this wonderful strip type speedo we'll be able to see that moving in a moment when we're on the road but check out that font that is absolutely glorious that lovely kind of 50s i don't know space ag very swedish font and by that we just have a little small temperature gauge a trip meter overall distance covered and fuel gauge that's really our limit of our instruments and a couple of warning lights headlights ignition that kind of thing and of course choke and below that then we have uh half dozen also little switches and dials they're kind of symmetrical down there unmarked toggle switch for something down here one of these is the overdrive apparently this car has got four speed plus overdrive uh we've got our wipers and our lights and the ignition on the right and on the left hand side a choke we should put the debris in now because it's quite warm cigar lighter and the fan and another mystery toggle switch one of those two toggle switches is the overdrive and moving on into the center we have got our fan controls so we've got floor and if you don't floor it's flora not i suppose um this one is temperature hot and cold run on there and uh deferral so if you want to think about temperature later on you slide that switch down and you can consider it at another time a little wow creaky out ashtray for sweetie wrappers and someone has added this radio i think there was a radio in this position on the dashboard to start with but obviously something far more period correct this one looks like it joined the party in the 1980s going by the styling of it radio cassette was called auto stop so it's not all bad and stereo i'm not sure no it's not fm it's just medium wave and long wave so this is clearly a fairly old elderly device and a grab handle so if you're cornering hard because those swedes like to drive hard uh your passenger can cling on there but they don't necessarily need to cling on because this is quite an exciting thing in this car down here between the seats first we've got our four speed manual thank you very much indeed we like that um we've got these little tools here which may not seem exciting or unusual but this is your seat belt there's only static belts in this car here hanging from the uh b posts these but as volvo will tell you at infinitum they were the first people to fit seat belts as standard so in 1959 volvo were the first company to fit seat belts as standard to any car and this is quite a big deal to have these things here in the car at all so 1968 this is nearly a decade on from that when they were becoming standard and mandatory in some places but but this car not only volvo but this actual model of car is the one that started it all when i talk about safe cars and estate cars you're in the right place anyway back to the look around the interior not much else to talk about on the passenger side they have their seats they have their seat belt and they have their grab handle there's not much else for the passenger to do they can man the audio controls we do have visors for both people in the front which is uh not necessarily a given in a car of this period uh original headlining with that lovely kind of perforated stuff and uh just one little lamp for illuminating the entire car at night let's take a look in the back now someone has added rear static seat belts to this car we're adding a bit more safety and we've got the door cards which are much the same as the front ones but no speakers this time and there is the addition of little ash trays in the door cards getting in is much the same as it is in the front and we've got just frankly amazing headroom and really good leg room as well this is tons of space i mean comparing this by the late 60s this was a rival for the rover p6 and i've got to say i think it's far better a leg room in the back of this car than it there is in the p6 and something else i've just noticed on the front seats which the p6 lacks as well is both front seats have this uh firmness softness adjuster dial so you can really kind of fine tune your level of comfort although there is something the p6 has which these two front seats don't and again i'm surprised for a safety orientated car these aren't there there's no headrests here now glancing back we have the seat which falls forward making this a massive load space area and then the load space area itself is pretty voluminous so you can stick a lot of stuff in there you're going for a camping trip or an antiquing expedition or murdering spree or whatever you want to do um then you are sorted this will take pretty much anything right and away we go tiny bit of choke has caught that sat for a while now we have our original 1959 spec seat belt clicking into this unusual thing on the floor which does hinge a little bit so you've got a bit of flex and plate it's a static seat belt as i mentioned before we've got our outboard of the seat hand brake and that was because there was i believe a bench seat if not actually put in production they were considering a bench seat being a 1950s and american inspired so yeah they had two different gearbox options as well one was the four speed manual which had an overdrive as an option this car does have it and then there was the uh three-speed auto which had the option of a column shift very american nice bracelet sharp now when i reviewed the fit dino looks a bit cold when i reviewed the fit dino i turned left out that car park and the lanes were horribly tiny so i'm going to go right this time indicator on the right hand stalk now i mentioned the engine's been fairly well upgraded naught to 60 and a standard 1.8 b18 and naughto 16 a standard b18 1.8 was 14 and a half seconds that's not rapid this car does feel a fair bit brisker i gotta be honest with all the engine modifications and thanks to the uh under body things you can't see it's also quite a nice riding thing when the stance of this car is absolutely perfect it's got uh upgraded bilstein suspension it's got operated anti-roll bars i don't know if it's been lowered at all [Music] but it certainly has a nice stance on the road it looks good in the car park there's nothing behind us and i can say originally these cars came with four unassisted drums as standard later on they got front discs this has now got power front discs so i hit the brakes hard wow that uh that comes up in a hurry now can you see this speedometer rolling across the numbers isn't that cool this does actually feel quite lively on the road apparently they're also considering a straight six and even a small v8 for this car that didn't come to pass obviously they stuck with the four cylinders and this car is currently for sale at percival motors and their maidstone in kent and it's something i've got to be honest i'm kind of tempted by myself if you're trying to beat me to it head to the link in the description and check out their website now this roof line is surprisingly low it looks very hot roddish with this low uh low what you call it a little roof rail it's something a lot of other cars even things like the jaguar xf still do today so you get in it feels a little bit tighter on top of your head but it's not something that really causes too much problems i can see out pretty well the a post b posts are all small there's a ton of glass behind me so visibility is absolutely fine there we go overdrive and off again because going to corners overdrive works of course it does it's a volvo feels like a proper little rally car it's got a steering box rather than the later type but even so even without that assistance you're still feeling fairly connected to the road and you can happily chuck it through a bunch of corners and it but the modified suspension certainly helps i mentioned previously this is the first internationally successful volvo and they sold about 73 000 of them around the world and they built them around the world as well as you may be surprised to learn that this is not a truly solo swedish operation building these things originally they first came out of gothenburg and later on the tours lander factory also in sweden but to get around or to get up to the production they wanted they also assembled them and built them in durban in south africa in chile and later on in halifax in canada in fact for the north american market initially they weren't building them there they were importing them and doing final assembly and finishing touches and they were coming over with radial tires but radial tires hadn't been approved for use in north america so they were having to put the old-fashioned cross-flies on brand new cars i don't know if they're throwing the old uh unused radials away or shipping them back to the factory or what but that's just a mad retrograde step now this gear shift is another thing which is a bit early range rover like it's a massively long wand vanishing under the dashboard somewhere but for rights of long unwieldiness it's actually not hard to navigate your way through the four speed at all i'm really also enjoying the fact it's got those twin air filters on it that give it a real lovely rorty sound do you drop a gear hang on i'm gonna go into the back of a renault capture if i do it too quickly doesn't that sound good now as you might be able to see i am hoofing along this back road and having a whale of a time this car is so involving so much fun and so sure footed i'm not doing massive speed i'm doing between 40 and 50 most of the way but it feels like i'm absolutely barreling along the brakes are sharp it turns in well it grips its rear wheel drives it pushes out of the corner 45 miles an hour fills like if we're in a mclaren we need to be doing 120 to get the same kind of grin factor and i could have a labrador and a chest of drawers in the boot at the same time i gotta say this car is a big piece of me i only really got into volvos a year ago when i bought my 740 but this is you can see where it's all come from in a funny sort of way this is replaced by the 140 and the 140 was right by 200 the 200 was replaced not really by the 700 but this drives just so lively this really does feel like a rally car it's just so willing and engaging it's a brilliant car to drive way more of a driver's car than you would ever expect to look at the thing this really does have everything going for it it's in this modified form it's fairly rapid it handles well it's got good space and it's comfortable what what's not to love well thanks for joining me on the road with this fantastic volvo p220 yeah the amazon estate it's not a car you see that often even though they've built an awful lot of them and that's a shame because it's a great looking car which is so practical so useful and as we've seen today with these a few small upgrades so drivable a real genuine everyday driver classic if you've enjoyed this video please do hit like and subscribe as always hit the bell notification and join me again next time when i'll be driving something completely different

Channel: furiousdriving

Views: 25,236

Rating: 4.9451265 out of 5

Keywords: car, cars, blog, vlog, retro, classic, classic car, retro car, motoring, vovlo, amazon, amazon estate, volvo amazon, volvo estate, estate car, long roof, wagon, station wagon, swede, swedish car, swedish, sweden, modified volvo, test drive, road test, car review

Id: i5nzcJpQKa0

Length: 23min 35sec (1415 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021