Frua of Italy are recognised as the designers of the P1800 coupe, although Pelle Petterson, son of the Volvo Engineer Helmer Petterson, was the actual designer. Pelle designed the original P1800 body style while working for Frua, a subsidiary of Ghia design studio.

The classic lines have some similarity to the 50’s style Ferrari’s. In fact it has often been suggested that the P1800 was in fact based on the Ferrari 250GT. The 1800 was built primarily as a Grand Tourer car, the 1778cc and the later 1998cc engines are almost indestructible and cars with 200,000 miles plus on their Speedo’s is not unusual, my 1962 P1800 has done in the region of ½ million miles on its original engine and member Irv Gordon’s car, a 1965 1800S, in the U.S.A. has done nearly 2 million miles with only one major re-build to the engine in all that time.

Even on today’s crowded roads, the 1800 is still a pleasure to drive or travel in, it eats up miles effortlessly, giving you a good feeling of security and comfort, the low lines of the coupe reduce the sensation of being thrown about or of the car wallowing, which is common on some more modern cars.

The earliest and rarest cars of the 1800 range are the first 6000 known as the Jensen built P1800’s, because Jensen Motors assembled them in West Bromwich, England. Of the original 6000 cars, 75% were built as left hand drive versions and went mainly to America, and the remaining 1000 were for the home market here in Britain and other RHD markets. The P1800 were produced in only three colours, dark grey metallic, red and white. The red and the white being very bright shades and all three not being normal Volvo paint colours. White and grey cars were supplied with red interior and the red model with white interior. Sadly, of the approximately 1000 cars built for the UK only about 50 in total have survived and of those only some 15 are actually on the road and being used, the remainder being in various states of restoration or too far gone to restore. Interestingly nearly all the P1800’s that survive today were built with Dark Grey metallic paint work but many have over the years been repainted in other colours.

The only model correctly known, as the P1800 is this early model, if you choose to try and buy one of these cars either to restore or already restored, you are without doubt choosing the crème-de-la-crème of the 1800s. The Jensen is in a class of its own, having many parts that are unique to this model, the badge on the C-post, the interior was different and mechanically, some parts were only used on these cars, in particular the large roulette wheel type wheel trims. The P1800 was selectively assembled by hand and therefore no two cars are the same. Jensen doors will not fit the later cars, as the doors were in fact deeper than the later ones, the glass too was of a much thicker gauge, both in the screens and the doors, window winder mechanism and window guides are also different, and not interchangeable. These cars are therefore the most expensive of the 1800's, their rarity and uniqueness enable them to hold their price, and they will cost anywhere from £500 for the basis for a total restoration to £10,000+ for a good on the road example of the marque.