VOLVO 480 GHOST – The Volvo Original ‘Clinic’ Car

VIN: XLBEX1935KC502465
Eng No: B18FT 110 0000024
Gearbox No: M51 00000397

The present owner has chosen to not rebuild the car up to Concourse standard but to keep it in its original drivable condition, as rebuilding would ruin the character of the vehicle, which is believed to be the original “Clinic” car.
             Having owned it since 1997 it took 18months to get it roadworthy again as it was due to have been shredded at Nedcar in Holland, the day after he purchased it.
             The car is original except for some modifications required by Belgium Law, which have been adapted to blend into the car (e.g. side indicators and rear fog light).
              During its “restoration” it became quite clear how much effort was put into the removal of all Volvo recognizable items, as part numbers and logos were even removed from the body by the Volvo mechanics that built her.
Even though this car looks like a normal Volvo 480, no spares are available for it through Volvo and many of the specific items like e.g. gearbox, engine, electronics, wiring, lighting are still looked for as they differ from the ‘normal’ 480.
              Still to be changed is the front bumper; an original one was located late 2004 and is still
undergoing restoration.

Reprinted from Issue 62 of the Volvo Enthusiasts Club Magazine

THE U12 PROJECT – (Volvo 480 for the US Market)                           Robert Verra

Volvo originally started designing the 480 in 1978 as a replacement for the P1800ES. This project was originally named ‘Galaxy’ and headed by Roger Holtback and Dan Werbin. The ‘Galaxy’ project was to become a family of models including the ‘G15’ (Volvo 440), ‘G14’ (Volvo 460) and ‘G13’ (480). The first car destined for the launch would be the G13, a sports coupe and not a sports car, destined mainly for the North American market.
Four Design teams, Bertone, Coggiola, a Dutch team headed by Rob Koch and a Swedish team headed by Jan Wilsgaard were asked to come up with 4 designs each detailing a sportive, prestigious and luxurious elements. By 1982 only the Dutch design of John de Vries remained and got internally renamed by the Dutch to ‘U12’ for the American Specs version and ‘E12’ for the European version as the Galaxy name had become widely known. The Continued use of letter ‘G’ was out of the question because of its association with Gothenburg and 12 was taken as it was one less than 13. Later in 1985 the E12 and U12 projects would be joined by a third “subproject”; the A12 or the Convertible project.
             At the time of the European launch of the 480 in 1986, Volvo was still aiming on selling 25,000 480’s a year on the North American market and 10,000 480’s a year in the remainder of the world.
             To finalize the development of the U12 it was decided to send a batch of 10 “U12’s” to the USA for final trials and clinics, where brand-less cars incl. vehicles from direct competitors are present to an audience and questions are asked about the vehicles.
              The cars used were assembled by hand at Volvo Car BV’s Helmond Research & Development facility, using production bodies from the Born factory, starting in August of 1986 and finishing by March of 1987 (ahead of the proposed US-launch in August 1987). However because of the decreasing value of the U$ (US Dollar) by as much as 32% compared to rates in 1982 it meant that the cars were more expensive than the proposed selling price of 14,000 U$ for the 480ES and 17,000 U$ for the 480Turbo. The poor results of the clinics showing that the competition to be cheaper and better quality meant that the USA launch was postponed again.
               Late in 1987 J.L. Nicolato, CEO Volvo USA, decided to cancel the launch of the 480 on the North American market as he thought that the car would have aged too much by late 1988, for the 1989 model launch, having been in production for 3 years without any planned face-lift and also that the rate of the U$ would make it too expensive.
               The cars sent to the USA for the clinics were returned in the Autumn of 1988 to the Helmond Research & Development works so that these, together with a batch of 20 480’s already built for the proposed 1987 US-launch, could be destroyed, thus allowing Volvo to wipe out any and all details of the U12 project.
                Thanks to the Dutch common sense this did not completely happen. Of the 10 “U12’s” sent to the USA 8 got shredded but 2 ended up in the Volvo Car BV Company Car Pool, or which one got taken apart for Rust progress trials in 1996 as these project cars were originally only supposed to last 6 months!!
                Of the other 20, some got rebuilt into foreign market specifications and at least 3 ended up in the Company Car Pool. Of the other cars some parts have survived, as these were transplanted into other pool cars and private 480’s of the Volvo Car BV staff.
For as far as is presently known one ‘Clinic Car’ (Fully debadged), one respecificated car (rebuilt into Saudi Specs) and 2 others still survive.
                As many of the parts labeled for the Us market had already been ordered and these could not be cancelled by Volvo Car BV, parts labeled for the US Market were continued to be used in the assembly of ‘normal’ 480’s up to 1989.
                The U12 Project has in many ways influenced the design of the G13/E12 (480 in general) because of the strict US regulations (headlight height necessitating the pop-ups, side markers, and minimum survival impact speed for the bumpers).

Any additional information on the 480 in general is welcomed.

Reprinted from Issue 62 of the Volvo Enthusiasts Club Magazine