Volvo 544

Cars

All images Michael Fordham/Influx

Without wanting to become Volvo bores, it’s amazing the amount of cool little Swedes we have stumbled upon since we’ve been in California. This little beauty appeared to us on a side street in Santa Cruz, just when we were getting to end of our day’s work. For those of you who aren’t initiates of the strange cult of Volvo-sm – it’s a PV544 Sport.

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544s were phased in, in the early sixties to replace the 444 (funny that eh?) and you might have seen the very pretty wagon version doing the rounds on the internet in the Duett. While it’s not quite as pristine as this one, there is a creaky charm to this coupé version, all subtle nods to the Americana to which it was marketed, rusty, matte-primer eggshell and a body that is almost, but not quite as utilitarian as the Beetle: which provided the design sketch.

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We’re not positive, but it’s our guess that this particular example would be one from the later series that were produced in the early to mid 1960s at the Volvo plant in Nova Scotia – which was the first ever Volvo production facility outside of Sweden. With that cool mid-century looking house (we knocked, but no one was in, we can tell these guys know a thing about style and design.

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