About Tough to Crack Puzzle #171: Volvo 1800 ESC by Coggiola

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Yes, the wheels may have given it away, as several of you noted on last’s week’s car puzzle. The car is the Volvo 1800 ESC Prototype by carrozzeria Coggiola, sometimes also named Volvo Viking. Coggiola changed just about anything on the car’s looks, except for those wheels! Miguel Llorente: “Lots of Jarama/Lele cues in the design. The wheels were a dead giveaway!” Some of you saw other designs in it, too, and in your comments we also saw the Maserati Merak, Ferrari’s 308GTC4 and ‘a modern Lexus’.

Several of you mentioned the hydraulically, pedal-operated, pop-up headlights and the fact that the car was originally white in colour and that it is currently for sale. We had four real strong answers, all by regular players, and it was not easy to pick out the best of them. We liked Don Siemers’: “In retrospect one has to ask which design aged more gracefully? The 1971 Volvo 1800 ESC Viking by Coggiola or Pelle Petterson's 1800ES ‘sports estate’?” and Gerd Klioba’s: “Coggiola already had sketched a 1800 Hunter and a 1800 Beach Car, which were rejected in favour of Volvo's in-house 1800 ES design. The 1800 ESC wasn't his last Volvo design. Quite famous is his 1976 Volvo New York Taxi, less known is his 1988 Volvo Van concept car.”

But this week’s winner is Henk Visscher, who focussed on the durability of the design and who’s 100 words reply is fully quoted here: “Based on an 1800ES chassis, Carrozzeria Coggiola of Torino introduced the pictured prototype of the Volvo 1800ESC 2+2 coupe at the 1971 Paris Motor Show. Also known as Volvo Viking, the car reappeared at some other shows, but was not selected for production. Even in 1976, the 1800ESC was still displayed as a show car on the Coggiola stand at the International Trade Fair in Barcelona. Later that year, it was sold through Sánchez-Ferrero, car dealers in Madrid. Although originally painted white, successive Spanish owners have kept the Volvo prototype in remarkably good condition; it is currently offered for sale.”

That produces the following line-up:

1. Gerd Klioba
2. Henk Visscher
3. Alan Spencer / Fritz Hegeman
4. Luc Ryckaert
5. Robbie Marenzi

Picture Historic Auto Pro

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