Ain't No Saint: How a scrapyard-bound Volvo drove the fast lane to Hot Wheels fame

[Hagerty]

Many Hot Wheels fans say that playing with the 1/64-scale models as kids sparked a lifelong love of cars and, for some, an automotive career. In Somerset, England, Lee Johnstone took the opposite route.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/aint-no-saint-how-a-scrapyard-bound-volvo-drove-the-fast-...

[DUB6]

Cool car and good backstory. And the Bugeye gasser ain't too shabby, either! Doubt I'll ever buy my first Hot Wheel because of this, but as a guy who appreciates old-school style drag cars, I give this one 2 thumbs up. 👍👍

[mx5_7]

Wow. Incredibly cool looking car. Will be interesting to see how Hot Wheels designs their model around the front axle. Hopefully it doesn't lose the extreme feeling of all that open air between the axle and the body.

[FMB]

Got my Silver-Blue 1971 1800e (Fuel Injected) brand new while stationed in Germany. Great Autobahn car; cruised at 90mph all day, with a top end just over 120. Four-speed with a column switch for electric overdrive mode. Brought it back to the states in 1974, just in time for the gas crisis and the 55 mph speed limit; Trust me - that car “can’t drive 55”…. Too fast for 4th gear; too slow for overdrive. Had to let it go, and I STILL regret that decision.

[wjones1954]

Great article. Only nit is the Corgi Volvo was 1/43, not 1/64. My dad had a friend who owned an early Volvo franchise and he gave me one as a gift. Wish I’d kept it.

[Snowman53]

My first reaction was, "oh no, another classic goes under the knife." Always admired the 1800. But this car turned out really cool! Nicely done. The pic of the Bugeye and the 1800 launching down the strip is great.

[OHCOddball]

When I saw the intro photo, I thought, "Oh, no. Some stupid builder has wrecked another original car. But the before photo looks like a pretty poor piece to start with--not total garbage, but like the article said, too much to restore to original. Better to use a poor body than to cut up a very nice original. So many times you see some high $ builder take a perfect original car that may have been a base price six cylinder car and turn it into someones 'show car'. Yes, its takes more effort and $ to turn a rust bucket shell into something, but destroying an original is not the way to further the hobby.

[GomBoo]

A bit of a downer here...my first car after the Service in '68 was a white '68 P1800s.
It is nice that it's still alive though...keep on ROCK'n.
Bob
https://i.imgur.com/B5F6pTx.jpg

[Gus]

Anyone know the details on the engine and trans? Looks like a big block Chevy in one of the pics.

[cdkrek]

Story indicates it has a big block Chevy.

[coop]

Always loved the 1800ES and should have acted on that, as they didn't get any love for the longest time and their prices reflected it. No longer. A Frogeye gasser (after all the photo is in England). Brilliant!

[zmega]

What an abomination.

[Huntz-Hall]

Well some of you people just don't get it.
This car was scrape when he started this build & look @ the finished product, just brilliant!!
Well done Mr. Johnstone!!!