We’re not sure exactly what the copy means.

Our knowledge of Swedish is far from accurate, and even google’s translation service seems to be a little knocked out of whack by the copy line.

But we think we get it.

There is, basically, a Volvo for you ; whether you’re a whacked out psychedelic sort of chap or a card carrying granny out on a day trip.

But no matter: the visual communication says it all: and we’ll be damned if everything from the boxed out wagon to the Amazon doesn’t here look to have that precise sort of character that the Swedish brand has always been known for.

And while you’re here: check out the air on these 740s in a Japanese TV commercial…

Click here to view the embedded video.

In a little reprise of our recent Scandinavian theme, we felt the need to share with you an incredible picture of a rare moment of Volvo Air.

Imagine the momentum the driver of this 240 would have had to carry to release all four wheels to such a great height!

Makes that hump I traverse on the school run every morning in my 740 Estate look all the more interesting!

I’ve always liked the classic three box profile of the 240 saloon. This makes me want one even more.

Swedes: outdoor types. Your Swede is not intimidated by a bit of inclement weather. While the majority of British motorcyclists hibernate (some, it has to be said, to save their bikes from being eaten by road salt), Anders Nordén and his friends are sump-deep in fresh powder on three generations of lairy motorcycles.

Anders is the founding member of the Forest Fighters, a loose-knit, ten-strong bike club who get their two-wheeled kicks in the most extreme conditions.

As soon as Anders and his mates discovered their fellow countrymen had campaigned hard to ensure Sweden’s lakes remained free of speed limits, they realised this lack of restriction applied when the lake was frozen too.

Sweden has Draconian speed enforcement. Therefore the liberation of nailing a bike in a winter wonderland was too much to ignore. And it wasn’t long before Anders had fitted his first generation Suzuki GSX-R750 with studded knobbly tyres and learnt how to drift his sportsbike on ice.

‘The thing is when you ride on the lake,’ Anders explains, ‘especially if you have black ice — which is very seldom because you normally have snow on the ice, you have consistent grip. So you can do what the big guys do in MotoGP. And you can gear up in the middle of a turn when you are going sideways. A quick gear change and the rear keeps spinning. Try to do that on tarmac and you are in orbit.’

And accuracy isn’t an issue. ‘On the lake you can miss the apex by 50m, so what? You end up somewhere else.’

The Scandinavians, Russians and North Americans regularly hold motorcycle races on frozen lakes, but Anders is pretty sure he’s the first to choose to ride GSX-Rs on ice rather than more specific race bikes, or more sensible motocrossers. But even the GSX-R’s lunacy pales next to what some of the Forest Fighters choose to ride. How would you fancy throwing 300-plus kilogrammes of six-cylinder Kawasaki Z1300 into an 80mph powerslide? Nope, me neither. Perhaps a Gold Wing GL1100 then?

The club do not exclusively use old muscle bikes. A brand new Ducati Hypermotard made it onto the lakes this winter, but cutting edge machinery isn’t ideal for frozen lake frivolity.

‘Most sportbike rims are too wide for the tyres we use,’ says Anders. These are Trelleborg knobblies with over 100 short metal studs to grip the ice. The Forest Fighters know that the tyres disintegrate at 130mph… ‘The old GSX-R750 rim is narrow, it’s perfect. The Hypermotard is running a 5.5in rear rim. Fit a motocross tyre and the profile is very flat. And the more modern bikes don’t have enough clearance between the tyres we need to use and the radiators, swingarm and bodywork.’
Still, there are very few barriers to pen the Forest Fighters’ insanity. The point is illustrated clearly by their next plan.

‘I also scuba dive,’ says Anders. ‘I have been training to do ice diving. Next winter we are going to put up some cones to make a track, then dive under the circuit with a video camera to film from below as the bike is going sideways above us. I think the sound would be awesome.’

Anders rides in summer too, touring to motorcycle Meccas like the Nürburgring and the Isle of Man, but winter riding is what he loves the most.

‘My absolute favourite kind of riding is up a ski slope. You can’t have any more fun than that. You need to know the guys who prepare the slope, though. If you hit a skier…’

Photography by Anders Norden

love this rendering of the humble, but subtly phat and menacing Volvo Amazon.

Volvo must be one of the most misunderstood automotive brands ever created. Tarnished with decades of middle-of-the-road, family focussed earnestness, I’ve always thought there has been something innately stylish about most of the cars the company has marketed.

The 240s, 740s, 850s and V70s had the boxy utilitarianism that was a template for getting the job done. The P1800s meanwhile were rakishly dashing, and many were produced with Jenson DNA here in England.  The C30 remains an interesting little hatchback with a stamp of individuality amongst the cookie cutter mass.

The Amazon may have reminded the world of the stolid end of the Scandinavian identity, but as the creator of the bad-looking Amazon above drew out, there was an element of that clichéd cool sexiness there too. Watch this space for more Scandinavian adventures.