Hi Gang…

Bill Tritt and Glasspar were an amazing combination back in the 1950’s concerning sports cars.  For a (long) moment in time, Glasspar was the go-to company concerning so many things that were fiberglass – including automobiles.  Glasspar was making some body panels and parts for Kurtis race cars (1954 Manual of Building Plastic Cars),

consulted with GM in 1952 about the building of the Corvette, and was even on the way to developing their new Studebaker based sports car – the Ascot in the mid 1950’s.  For this and many other reasons, Volvo turned to Bill Tritt for help on designing and building their new mid 1950’s sports car – The Volvo P1900 (also known as the Volvo Sport).

Back in the summer of 2008, I helped coordinate a class of fiberglass cars at the Palo Alto Concours d’Elegance in California.  It was during that time that I met Lars Jansson and learned about the story of his Tritt designed Volvo.  The pictures I share below are from that event and Lars was most gracious in discussing the history of his car, and the marque as well.

Most recently, an excellent article was published in the New York Times (February 18th, 2010) and written by auto aficionado Nick Czap.  Nick did a great job reviewing the history of the car, and Lars’ pursuit of the last (67th) Volvo P1900 made.  Some of you may know where it is, so if you know of any P1900’s languishing out there….let me know so we can send Lars out to save it (and its history).  Here’s a link to Nick’s article in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/automobiles/collectibles/21volvo.html

Also of mention is an excellent article published in Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car in September 2006 and written by Karl Ludvigsen.  This article is shared below.  Karl’s attention to detail and accuracy is superb, and I’m happy to call both Nick Czap and Karl Ludvigsen friends of our Forgotten Fiberglass website.  Be sure to checkout Karl’s

article – presented below – for wonderfully historic pictures.   I’m particularly impressed by the dashboard on the car – mentioned in the article as a facet of the car worthy of recognition.  Both articles presented here are an excellent read.

Finally…for those of you attending the “Fantasties in Fiberglass” display at the Petersen Museum – you’ll have a special treat.  Lars’ Volvo P1900 is on display thru October 2010 – along with many other fantastic fiberglass cars, so load up your car and head to the Petersen before the exhibit is over.

Thanks to Karl Ludvigsen and Nick Czap for focusing on such neat cars and their history, and to Bill Tritt for designing such a great body for the Volvo team.  I hope you enjoy their articles (and the cars) as much as I do.

Glass on gang..

Geoff

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