© Vignale

P 445 Elisabeth I

This is not a coachwork from Volvo but the car was presented for the company in hope they would produce it. It was buisness man Gösta Wennberg who wanted Vignale in Torino to build a body on a 445 chassis. From the beginning it was ment to be Ghia Aigle in Schweiz that built the body from drawings made by Italy based Michelotti. The drawings together with a chassis from a 445 however was sent to Vignale in Turin, Italy. But in the end it was the coachbuilder Allemanno in the same town that finally built the car. When Gösta presented the car for Volvo, the director Assar Gabrielsson tried out the backseat. He came out again, laughing. He thought the roof was way to low and the car therefore wouldn't be able to sell. The frame made the backseat come to close to the roof. Gösta than made a new attempt with a PV 444 chassis. The car was named Elisabeth II but was no sucess at Volvo this time either. Not due to the design but due to the fact it would cost 20 000 kr to produce, more than double the price of a PV 444. Maybe there also was added to the decision that the P 1900 soon was to be announced. The design of both the Elisabeth:s remind of the in november 1956 introduced Volvo P 1200 ( an early P 120 ).
Elisabeth II still remain and is undergoing a slow and thorough restoration. Elisabeth I was crashed in the early sixties and was taken out of register. At present there's no knowledge about what commercial chassis seriel this car belongs to. In 1952 the drawings were handed over to Vignale so around 1953-54 should be a good guess according year of make.

Information about Elisabeth I & II is fetched from the book "Bilar vi minns" with ISBN 91-552-2618-3 written by Peter Haventon and from the Swedish Volvo PV Club calender 1997, February. Thanks also to Tomas Söderberg.

Published 2005-03-27