300, the series, of Volvo. Blonde in nature, builds cars for tall people. Huge Northern European monsters of humans, here to set sail across the oceans, raping and pillaging those in their way. This is very similar to the safety boxes provided from this Swedish company, gigantic ships used solely plow semi-directionless through it's obstacles. Rare is an exception to this when left over bits of failed persian plans come in contact with this brute force of a paper weight with wheels.
DAF a company known for their massive things, I guess you could call them trucks? Imagine this, 8 wheels, all driven and 4 of them steer, coming at you carrying a load of ungodly weight. These guys tried their hand at making small cars and gave up pretty quickly. Volvo was at the door in loin cloth and unpolitely pushed the door off the hinges, ducking to clear the ceiling, and began raping the DAF parts bin.
Thus began the life of the Volvo 300 series cars, more commonly known as the 340, this viking Persian half breed was the spartan you never heard of. Imagine this, a small agile Volvo. For those of you who had a thick enough skull to survive that cranial explosion can continue reading about the extra coolness. You see, this car was never really popular, until recently. The 340 is Surprisingly small, cheap and well....rear wheel drive.
With the influx of fun driving, drifting has squeezed a new lime on a long forgotten chassis. Some cool-neato factor is all the non-volvo-esque features of the car, all having a rear transaxle transmission, and some equipped with a belt driven CVT! Plus the mixture of common volvo coolities, like headlight wipers and latter style headrests, and finally oddly under proportioned, but rather cute wheel weels, leaves you with a car that is whole heartedly unique and obscure.
I love the 340 more than it's ugly son...no...daughter, it looks more feminine to me. Lots of people name their cars girls names and refer to them as 'her', but much like the hideous American Ford Capri from the early 90's, the volvo 480 coupe made the flip cheese wedge work well...ish.
So, your the daughter of a half caste and obscure vehicle, like any mixed race child they embrace the roots of one parent more of the other, no matter their under pinnings. The 480 pictured above tried it's best to be Scandinavian, by having a mix of looks between that of a Volvo P1800 and s Saab Sonnet. Underneath all that make up though, is still a DAF left over bone structure.
Now there's a bodyline you could set your watch too. That's a REAL volvo, none of this...wait....that looks too small.
The 440 was the fraternal brother of the 480, very traditionally Volvo, it too was just DAF in disguise, with proportions that just quite can't fool you. However, there was a rather cool version of the 440....
The 440 Estate was just plain plastic fantastic! You see, it's just a regular 440 sedan with a plastic canopy extension on the back where the truck and rear window would go, and yes....
It flips up. :D This post is to dedicated to an avid reader of the blog, and fellow obscure car love, Shelby Lancer. Let it frustrate you that these cars never came to our shores. (there's a 480 running around Langford.)
Share this post
Back to SPEED HERO Blog
Rad
whoa! thats wild. Is it a hatch back? is it a wagon? Jesus himself does not know and his pops created everything. Wicked find Quinn and proof that Victoria has all the cool cars once again!
i like that hatch, lets you put in big things :)