Too modern? Volvo prototypes of the fifties
04/12/2018
The Volvo PV 444was introduced in 1944 and built (ultimately as the PV 544) for over two decades. Naturally, Volvo thought about how to replace or supplement the rounded car with a more elegant model. This resulted in two designs at the beginning of the fifties.
One was the two-seater Volvo "Elisabeth", built by Vignale and designed by Giovanni Michelotti. However, Volvo decided that the car, which was very elegant in itself, should also be able to carry passengers in the rear. A second prototype (Elizabeth II) with rear seats was built, but it was realized that the production costs would have been far too high. After all, a few of the design elements were found on the later Amazon.
One alternative was the Volvo 179 "Margarete Rose" (pictured above). It had a completely new rear axle but, like the "Elisabeth" prototype, was based on the technology of the PV 444, whose designer Petterson criticized the excessive weight of the potential PV 444 successor. In the end, the car was destroyed in an accident, which was the end of this story.
However, the Volvo PV 444 went from success to success, as our report describes in detail .
