A VOLVO HOT ROD!??! Why?
2007 SEMA Show, Las Vegas
At last year's SEMA Show, Volvo shocked the crowd with some outlandish and wild takes on their own staid and conservative cars ... Exhibiting that, perhaps due to Ford's ownership of the company, some of Ford's racing and sporting heritage is "leaking through" from Dearborn to Sweden. Last year was the 50th anniversary of the "Little Duece Coupe", the 1932 Ford V8 engine mounted in what we now call a "hot rod" body, made from the original Ford coupe bodywork. Ford's 2006 SEMA display was a tribute to that epochal car and engine. Now, perhaps a year late and maybe less than a dollar short, Volvo hit the SEMA Show with their own take on that crucial car, and they did a good job of it, again taking the SEMA crowd a bit by surprise. But one must wonder why Volvo is displaying at SEMA in the first place --- It's nice to show-of your company's divisions, but how many Volvo buyers/owners are going to want to outfit their little baby-haulers with anything from SEMA? We think if Ford ownership was not part of the Volvo story, the company would (and could) just as well stay home.