One morning I was drinking coffee and casually browsing obscure car blogs when suddenly, this!
This long longroof was spotted by the readers of a Polish website called Stado Baranow. It is obviously some kind of one-off creation, but damn, it looks good enough to be factory.
So many questions.
Did it start off as a long wheel base 240 sedan? Or is it an extended wagon? Is factor or a work of a mad man? Doesn’t it need a third cross bar on the roof? What does that plastic spoiler actually do? Does it have three rows of seats?
Those are Swedish plates and the car is in Warsaw, Poalnd, which answers a lot of questions.
By Kamil Kaluski
East Coast Editor. Races crappy cars and has an unhealthy obsession with Eastern Bloc cars. Current fleet: Ford Bronco, Lexus GX 470, and a Buick Regal crapcan racecar.
Jeff Glucker
The Swedish ambassador to Poland enjoys copious legroom, but does not feel he needs the added conspicuity that typically accompanies it.
That’s actually a factory model. 245T to be exact (T for Transfer).
Aw shucks, you beat me to it. I spent too much time looking up some facts and tidbits.
Anyway, it was apparently used for school transport and taxi duty. Remember, in 1970’s and 1980’s Europe everyone made their own things. Volvo didn’t have a people carrier, so what you got was a stretched 240. The German equivalent of this is probably a Mercedes T1 van.
The little spoiler thing is to keep the rear window clean.
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Volvo-245T-640×480.jpg
There is a third row BTW.
You could fit a lot of Poles in there.
That’s why you don’t need the third crossbar – the longer ones go on the roof.
And the revised design got rid of the rear door “droop” leftover from the sedans. Win win win!
I looked up the number plate and it leads to a scooter… Maybe those aren’t really Swedish plates? Because I don’t want to think of this beauty being scrapped.
Those are definitely old Swedish plates. It was most likely a taxi when new and those travel stickers on the rear side window tell a tale of million kilometers. But it’s possible that it simply has been exported out of Sweden for good.
Reminds me of a story an expatriate Swede told on BaT today that is just fantastic…look for “Beyfon” talking about a Starlet:
“The bodywork looks good enough to be factory.”
Nevermind that it apparently actually is factory; bodywork this simple is fairly easy to replicate. That’s the beauty of rectangles.