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They must have saved just about everything. The very first exhibit in the Volvo Museum is the table that Assar Gabrielson sat across from Gustaf Larson to run Volvo in the early days of the company. It's a plain wooden table, not a desk, and a little scarred up from day to day life in an office. There's a telephone of course, but placard says that for interoffice communication Volvo's two founders simply stamp their feet on the floor. Later came high tech: a broomstick replaced the boot heel.
Cars are the main attraction, however, and the museum starts at the beginning with a 1927 Volvo OV4, an open version of first model that was also offered as a closed sedan. Swedes inexplicably, even to Gabrielson and Larson, chose al fresco motoring…or considering Swedish winters, al frigid motoring.
Swedes took this homegrown product immediately. They were rugged and strong, built for the mostly unimproved roads (and although the museum doesn't give credit, based on the American model, designed for the same conditions). The museum traces the history of Volvo through its pre-war models, (names), noticeably not straying far from American styling or layout.
The museum is well laid out, clustering models from each era in its own room. The cars-and trucks and even a bus-from the late twenties and early thirties progress almost divided from the cars from the later thirties.
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The interruption caused by World War II presents a natural break, so to does the museum, taking up with the humpbacked Volvo 444, the one that looks-perhaps not surprisingly considering Volvo's history-like a 1940 Ford. It's grouped with the car that superseded it, the 544 and the "high performance" export model of that car that was soon the standard model for the home market as well. The 120-series from the Sixties and the 140-series that gave Volvo the reputation of boxy, stolid and safe in the Seventies are also detailed.
Did we mention that Volvo's invention of the three-point seat belt and pioneering crash test dummies was also explored?
There are far too many cars in Volvo's comprehensive display to be described here, though there are enough of certain types for the obsessive car enthusiast to wish for a peek into the back room to see what else might be there. Even with the wide array of competition models, from rally to rallycross even to an unlikely champion of the British Touring Car Championship (a reminder to never sell your competition short), the car nut is left wishing for even more. Perhaps that's the museum equivalent of the comedian's advice to "always leave 'em laughing."
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Yet there's too much, despite the table to show absolutely everything. Still, the exhibits cover the Volvos resulting from the acquisition of the Dutch car maker DAF, a parade of concept cars and a cross section of a jet fighter-with no mention that the plane is a product of another Swedish car company-shows off the license-built jet engine made by Volvo's aeronautical division.
Volvo trucks are parked side by side, including a bright red fully-equipped fire engine from the Fifties up to the latest cab-over semi-tractor. A trio of Volvo military vehicles is grouped in one corner and another area is given to Volvo Penta marine engines.
Naturally the current models are displayed-one couldn't expect to escape without a sales pitch-as are displays of Volvo's Biopower alternative fuel vehicles.
Fortunately, the museum's placards describe the exhibited vehicles in English as well as Swedish (not always the case in museums in Sweden), but again, for the truly obsessive car nut, the descriptions of the cars is too brief. We'd suggest an "executive summary" for the casual visitor and a deep dive for those with a compulsive need to know more. For example, Americans might not know that "rallycross" is a mix of pro rally cars and motocross—even a photograph of the cars in action would help—but the technically inclined are left wondering why the rallycross car displayed has those huge vents in the side if the radiator is up front.
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We'd also like to see more memorabilia, the trinkets of more than eighty years of automaking. We know that they're back in the museum. They saved just about everything else.
The Volvo Museum is located in Gothenburg, where the company is headquartered. To get there, from the E6, E20, rv 40 or rv 45, drive towards Hisingen and then road 155 Öckerö/Torslanda. Follow the signs to Volvo Arendal and Volvo Museum. Or for those using GPS, it's "Volvo Museum." Admission is 60 Swedish kroner (about $10 US at the current exchange rate, half that for children. The museum's website http://www.volvomuseum.com includes more information, plus films from Volvo's history.
For the casual tourist, the Volvo museum is a slice of Swedish history. For anyone with an interest in cars, it's a must see. For the Volvo enthusiast, it's time to pack for the pilgrimage.
Illustrations, top to bottom: Table used by Volvo founders Assar Gabrielson and Gustaf Larson; 1927 Volvo ÖV4 (foreground) and LV28 truck; 1952 Volvo Philip concept vehicle; Volvo rallycross racer. Photos by John Matras.
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