Like Vincent Van Gogh, as we speak’s Good Value or No Cube Volvo was much less appreciated throughout its manufacturing run than in later years. Let’s see how appreciative we is perhaps about this tidy instance’s worth.
With an estimated 48 million gamers and counting, Pickleball is the fastest-growing participation sport in America. I believe most of us, nonetheless, would quite spend our off-hours on the autocross or on a observe day. Motorsports, in any case, is much much less taxing on the Achilles tendons and rotator cuffs. The 1985 Porsche 944 we checked out yesterday was touted in its advert as being a turn-key observe automotive. Questions abounded about simply how a lot observe time—and therefore put on—it had already seen, and that made its $12,500 price ticket a bit an excessive amount of to swallow for a lot of. The consequence was a 57 % No Cube loss.
Porsche and sports activities vehicles go collectively like COVID and a cough, however once you consider Volvo and sporty coupes, there’s just about just one place you’re thoughts can go: the P1800 and its later iteration, the 1800ES.
In-built each swoopy coupe and remarkably good-looking two-door wagon types, the sportiest Volvo hit the market in 1961 and solely went out of manufacturing in 1973 as a consequence of impending security and emissions rules in its largest market, America. In complete, Volvo constructed about 48,000 of the vehicles, with solely slightly over 8,000 of these being the Swan Track 1800ES wagons. Since then, collectors and Volvo followers alike have coveted these long-roof fashions.
This 1972 1800ES appears to be like nice within the pictures, though its vendor describes it as an excellent 5-10-foot automotive as a consequence of some imperfections in its cherry-red paint. From the manufacturing facility, the two-liter B20 4 below the hood made 125 horsepower with its Bosch D-Jetronic gas injection. Based on the advert, on this automotive, that old-school injection has been supplanted by a extra fashionable Megasquirt system. That ought to enhance each the reliability and driveability so long as it’s dialed in appropriately.
Behind that upgraded engine sits Volvo’s M41 four-speed handbook with the fascinating Laycock de Normanville overdrive. Varied suspension and supporting {hardware} have additionally been changed or upgraded, and the automotive purrs by an IPD exhaust. Curiously, the advert touts the set up of recent Michelin tires in 2022 and claims the automotive has solely carried out 800 miles since.
In complete, there are 147,500 miles on the automotive, and the inside exhibits none of these. The black vinyl upholstery is paired with dusty-red carpet and manufacturing facility fake woodgrain on the sprint. This can be a automotive of a sure age, so every thing in it’s handbook, and people searching for the sweat-reducing joys of A/C ought to look elsewhere. On the plus facet, there are vent wings in each doorways.
The 1800ES’s chef’s kiss, although, is its all-glass rear hatch. Bracketed by chrome-topped fender fins, that’s simply as dramatic as we speak as when it first debuted. On this automotive, that hatch appears to be like to be in nice form, though the carpet beneath it seems to have pale as a consequence of an extra of solar.
That’s only a minor quibble and one which’s acceptable if the vendor’s objective of constructing the automotive “the last word driver, not a concours winner” is to be believed. A clear title rounds out the automotive’s bona fides, though the vendor notes that it’s being offered with a invoice of sale since Maine, the place the automotive is positioned, exempts vehicles 25 years or older from needing a title for switch.
With that out of the best way, let’s now take into account this Volvo’s $21,500 asking worth. That will get a brand new proprietor a stable driver and one which might be loved with out requiring any rapid aesthetic updates.
However is {that a} honest worth for the automotive because it sits? What’s your tackle this Volvo and that $21,500 asking? Is that an on-target worth for this capturing brake? Or is that an excessive amount of for this wagon to haul?
You determine!
Portland, Maine, Craigslist, or go right here if the advert disappears.
H/T to FauxShizzle for the hookup!
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