Museum Masterpieces

Classic Truck visits the Volvo Museum, Gothenburg

- Kieron Fennelly

Volvo has been in the automotive business since 1927, so it is perhaps surprising its museum is barely 20-years old. Naturally enough it covers the range of Volvo’s output over the years from the cars (since 2009 owned by Geely of China, though still built in Gothenburg) to construction vehicles, buses, Volvo Penta (marine engines) and of course the trucks.

Before the war, the truck division was much more important than the car side, where only modest quantities were made.

But in the 1950s demand for cars increased everywhere and cars took over as Volvo’s main product. Development resources went into the PV and Amazon models rather than the trucks and as a result, Sweden’s other lorry maker the then Scania Vabis dominated the important long haul market. Volvo’s strength was confined to the much smaller arena of construction trucks.

SYSTEM EIGHT

“Volvo Trucks had reached a crossroads,” says former Volvo engineer Jon Jonsson. “We could either sell off our lorry interests and focus on the cars, or invest in the trucks and make internationally competitive vehicles like Scania.”

This of course was the route Volvo would take. Jon Jonsson explains how in 1965, the firm devised ‘System Eight,’ a comprehensive re-engineering programme which included new engines, drive lines, gearboxes, suspensions, brakes and and even chassis frames.