Caresto P1800 GT: A New Spin on Celebrating 50 Years of Volvo’s Classic “Sports”

Swedish firm Caresto, led by former Volvo engineer and specialist builder Leif Tufvesson, chose to mark the 50th anniversary of the debut of Volvo’s P1800 sports coupe with an exciting resto-mod show car that they dubbed the P1800 GT.

Based on the 1800 ES, the P1800 GT was designed to combine classic P1800 elements like the original aluminum egg-crate grille, “horn” bumpers and small taillamps with the late “sport wagon” ES body style. The Caresto team worked feverishly to prepare the GT for its April 21 debut at the Elmia Auto Sport Performance and Custom Motor Show, where it drew much attention.

Volvo started its year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the P1800′s debut with its impressive Volvo Cars Heritage display at the TechnoClassica Motor Show in Essen, Germany, earlier this spring; the display was a hit with showgoers, and our friend Irv Gordon was one of the stars.

Caresto has a history of creating incredible Volvo-based show cars, including the Jakob, T6 Roadster and V8 Speedster hot rods and the customized, Speedster-matching C70 that were shown to great acclaim at the 2005, 2006 and 2007 SEMA shows.

You can view a video of the P1800 GT and follow the build process here.