This year the Bristol Classic Car Show was once again held over the May Bank Holiday weekend at the Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet.
Our stand this year followed the theme of ’Volvo’s Somewhere over the Rainbow’ and featured a backdrop of a scene from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ complete with a yellow brick road and Dorothy’s red shoes.
Cars forming the display were:
Volvo P445 Convertible 1952 – Owned by Kevin Price
Imported from Sweden by the late Mike Lawrence of Volvo Specialists ‘Cumbers Garage’ of Brixham, Devon in early 1991. This very rare Volvo Convertible built by Swedish Coachbuilders Valbo under licence on a Volvo PV445 Chassis. The car has been in store since 1999 and has only recently been returned to the road.
FSK 532 is the only example of this model in the UK, and very few of these cars survive in Sweden.  The Valbo Builders Plate on the front outer bulkhead identifies that the vehicle is No: 52 -Volvo Convertible.
A number of Swedish Coachbuilders built specialist Vehicles on the popular PV445 Chassis, Other builders of Convertibles were Nordbergs of Stockholm and Ringborgs Karossfabrik of Norrkoping

Valbo Karosserifabrik Coachbuilders – Sweden
Valbo Karosserifabrik started serious coachbuilding in 1923 in a former brickworks and tar producing factory in Valbo on the outskirts of Gavle, Sweden. On the outbreak of  World War II there were about 80 employees with Gunnar Ahlenius, son of the founder as Managing Director. Customers at that time included the Swedish Army, the Swedish Mail, Swedish Tele Communications and Vattenfall, the Swedish electric supply company. Following the war the company prospered with the need for a growing requirement for vehicles. In the early 1950’s production changed to a production line conveyor belt system and at this stage 1½  cars were built per shift.
In 1960 it was confirmed that Valero had to date produced 10,000 vehicles, of which 4,000 were, vans, Foreignness, ambulances and other larger units. After 40 years the company went into liquidation. New owners AB Galvle Motorfabrik was founded in 1962 and in 1985 following the company restructuring, vehicles were produced for Swedish Television, Prison Service and other Specialist Vehicles.

Volvo 740GL Hearse 1990 – Owned by Colin & Robert Hughes
This Hearse is still “in service” in the South and East Midlands and the Home Counties. Originally used in Northern Ireland, it came to England in 2005 where it was sprayed White, having been finished in Masons Black for 15 years.
Why White you may ask? White is the mourning colour for many religions and cultures.
Earlier this year it was used for the funeral of a Volvo fan, whose family had insisted the sign in the back window remained in situ.
It has the 1986 cc B200E engine matched to an automatic gearbox.  The vehicle has an unladen weight of over 2 tonnes which means that it is not very fuel efficient, and averages just 22 mpg. It has covered 96,000 miles.
Unlike our other vehicles, this one does not have a name; it is simple referred to as “The White Hearse”.
Volvo 740 Rally Car 1990 – Owned by Colin & Robert Hughes

History: Purchased in September 2007 for £350 in preparation for the ‘Coyote Rally’ in April 2008.
The maximum you can spend on a car entering this rally is £500.00 but you can then spend whatever you want getting it prepared.
The Volvo was sprayed to replicate an American Yellow Cab and the 2.3lt engine has been slightly “tuned” to increase its output from 165bhp to 216bhp. It allegedly will reach 130mph.
It completed the ‘Coyote Rally’ around Northern Europe covering 5,000 miles in 4 days and in doing so raised £2826.21 for Cancer Research.
Visitors were encouraged to look and touch and advised It won’t bite…but beware of the coyote inside!!!!

Thanks to all those members who attended the show and to Colin, Robert and Kevin for manning and building the stand
SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR at the Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet