This Classic Is From The Time Volvo Went A Little Crazy

There was, however, one of those mid-century Volvo models that tried to find some style, something the brand wouldn't manage again until the C30. It's this car, the Volvo 262C. A luxury coupe that was built not in Sweden, but in Turin. By one of the best automotive design companies of all time.

In the mid-1970s, Volvo decided that it wanted to go after a new market. Instead of professors and accountants who drove its sedans and wagons, Volvo wanted to target a whole new buyer. The kind of buyer who wanted to drive something flashy.

The reason is as silly as you could imagine. In 1974, a team of Ford execs traveled to Sweden to check out a high-tech new Volvo factory. According to a former Volvo communications director (via Hemmings), they brought along some two-door Lincoln Mark IV coupes to drive. Ford learned about automated assembly, Volvo's CEO learned about cool.

Designer Jan Wilsgaard, who ran Volvo Cars design for 40 years, penned the 262C. It seems like the work of an evening and a glass of aquavit, but there was a purpose.

It used as much of the 260 sedan body as possible, altering only the doors, roof, and pillars. But still, it was not enough for Volvo to build the low-volume car.

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Enter design house Gruppo Bertone. Bertone has designed beautiful cars including countless Alfa Romeos and Fiats, the Lamborghini Miura, and more. Clearly, it didn't help with the design of the 262C.

Instead, the company built it for Volvo. Bertone constructed the new panels, including that four-inch lower roofline. Between 1978-1981, Bertone built about 6,600 of the cars. Initially, they were silver with a black vinyl roof, though other colors and bare-roof cars came later.

Modern Power Makes This Classic Better

This 1981 example is for sale on eBay and is located in Arizona. The car lived in California from new, leaving it in exceptional condition for a Volvo this old. That could have something to do with the 65,480 reported miles. It could also be due to the car's repaint, which has left some overspray on bits like the door handles.

1981 Volvo 262C (11)Canyon State Classics/eBay
When the 262C left Italy, it had the Peugeot-Renault-Volvo (PRV) V6 under the hood. The PRV is best known over here as the lump in the back of the DeLorean. In 1981, this unreliable engine made around 130 horsepower.

This classic Volvo, though, has something better. One of the Swedish company's famed Redblock four-cylinder engines. In this case, it's a B230F, signifying a 2.3-liter low compression engine. Low compression, in this case, is a still-solid-for-the-mid-90s at 9.1:1. The engine, says the seller, came from a 1994-95 car.

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It's not a turbo engine, so it only makes 116 horsepower. Yes, that's less than the V6, but - and this is important - the engine is far more reliable. It also came with a four-speed auto instead of the three-speed, so it should be just as quick. The seller says it'll do 90 mph, which is probably helped by that low roof.

So if you're tired of the regular Volvos you see every day, but you still want Swedish steel, this might be what you're looking for. It certainly will never look like anything else on the road. The auction ends June 9.