Volvo Cars will showcase the 1967 Volvo 1800 S once owned by Sir Roger Moore and featured in television’s The Saint at the Volvo Cars Heritage stand at Techno-Classica Essen, Germany, 21-25 March.
It will be the first time the car is displayed at a classic car show in Europe.
Moore’s car was built at the Volvo Torslanda plant in Sweden in November 1966. The 1800 S in Pearl White is equipped with Mini-Lite wheels with the rare original ‘truncated’ spoke design, Hella fog lamps and a Volvo wooden steering wheel. Inside, the car still has details from the filming of The Saint, such as a thermometer on the dashboard and a separate interior fan, used to cool the actors during studio filming.
Moore is the documented first registered owner of this famous 1800 S. The London registration plates, NUV 648E, were issued on 20 January 1967. Moore signed the registration papers two weeks later and they have followed the car since.
At Techno-Classica, Moore’s car will park alongside another Volvo 1800, an immaculate 1967 model belonging to Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Cars. Samuelsson’s classic is painted in the unusual Light Green colour and is arguably one of the finest 1800s in Europe.
“The Saint with Roger Moore was my favourite TV show in the sixties and since then I always wanted a P1800,” said Samuelsson. “It is the most legendary Volvo model of all time and a great example of Scandinavian design.”
In The Saint, the car sported the famous ‘ST 1’ plates and made its debut in the episode ‘A Double in Diamonds’, filmed in February 1967. It was then lead character Simon Templar’s transport until the series ended in 1969.
Moore later sold the car to actor Martin Benson, who played Mr Solo in the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964). Several owners followed, and in the early 2000s the car was carefully restored to near-original condition.
“Volvo Cars proudly purchased this car a few years ago and we are very excited to be able to show it at Techno-Classica. It is a unique car with a remarkable history,” said Per-Åke Fröberg, head of Volvo Cars Heritage.
Volvo Cars will also show a one-off 1968 1800 ES prototype built by Italian coachbuilder Pietro Frua; an unrestored 1973 1800 ES in Orange that has never been driven on the road; an extremely rare 1966 1800 Volvoville convertible, of which only 30 were built; and an early 1961 P1800 barn-find.
The future will also be on show in the form of the new XC40, Volvo’s historic first entry in the small premium SUV segment. The XC40 was launched in September 2017 and is proving popular among car buyers, with global XC40 orders already exceeding 20,000 units.
The Saint was the alias of Simon Templar, a character created by author Leslie Charteris in the 1920s. The Saint series of books spawned a series of films and later the popular ITC television show.
The show aired 118 episodes from October 1962 until February 1969 and enjoyed great success in the UK and the USA. The series was later syndicated in more than 80 countries. The Saint, always portrayed by Roger Moore, drove a white Volvo P1800 coupe.
