Cyan Racing turns out a righteous restomod in this Volvo P1800

There are good restomods and questionable ones. This, friends, is a good one. Imagine if Singer decided to tackle the Volvo P1800. This could be the result. But this isn’t built by Singer. Instead, the Volvo experts at Cyan Racing have crafted this love letter to a Swedish icon. The Volvo P1800 Cyan is the perfect blend of vintage made modern. It loses none of the appeal and amplifies all of the emotion.

The engineers at Cyan Racing are responsible for churning out world championship-winning race cars. They know how to build. So instead of starting with a tube chassis and a Volvo S60 body, the Cyan team turned to the past. A donor P1800 now runs on a bespoke chassis. The body is built using high-strength steel and carbon fiber. And the motivation to run hard is provided by the same 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine used on the Volvo S60 TC1 race car. It produces 420 horsepower and 336 lb-ft of torque. That power is routed to the rear axle through a Hollinger five-speed gearbox. Quite the power package considering this car weighs just under 2,200 lbs.

The suspension is adjustable. Those brakes are large four-piston units front and rear. And the center-lock 18-inch wheels run 235 series tires up front and 265 meaty boys out back. This entire setup is built around making for an enjoyable driving experience. Per development driver and racer Thed Björk,

“We are really satisfied with the level of grip and precision that we have achieved from the chassis in combination with a responsive steering. The car goes where you point it. You can be brutal going into a corner and still find your apex and exit within millimetres. The settings of the car are not aimed at fast lap times but rather to deliver an enjoyable and exciting driving experience. I feel my smile widening each time that I control the drift angle of the car through a long turn.”

We have no idea how much one of these will cost. Cyan Racing will build you one though if you reach out. Based on the bespoke nature of the chassis and body, however, it won’t be cheap. For those with the dough, however, this is far more interesting than any supercar on sale today. Be a hero. Buy this wonderful machine.

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10 responses to “Cyan Racing turns out a righteous restomod in this Volvo P1800”

  1. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    It looks wonderful, and no ABS or power steering is added to the mix. The P1800 has its 60th birthday coming up, which is the reason this one was made.

    Someone in a Volvo-forum said it would cost 500k $, but I don’t know where the number is from. Expect to see it on BaT for double the price in 2035.

    1. nanoop Avatar

      A coarse estimate:

      Sound donor car: 20k
      Hot drivetrain parts 20k
      Wheels, brakes, and rubber: 20k
      Other racing bits here and there (cage, seats, tow hooks), paint 20k
      Material for body/tub 10k

      A spot in a top-notch workshop for a year (capable of CF/molding, tools, heating etc.) 35k

      Three well-qualified Swedes working on it full-time for a year (i.e. 3 man-years) 300k

      Yepp, sounds about right, with a modest margin.

      1. outback_ute Avatar
        outback_ute

        May as well skip the donor car and save 10k, doesn’t look to be many original parts involved here

        1. nanoop Avatar

          Good point! -You still need the VIN for registration, I guess, so you still have to reserve ~$500 for a hopeless example and the same amount to get the VIN-less debris off your white-tiled driveway.

          1. outback_ute Avatar
            outback_ute

            Many jurisdictions would not allow straight out identity swapping, jjust ask Boyd Coddington

  2. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    Now that I’ve wiped the drool off of my keyboard…

    This is the most appealing sports car I’ve seen in over a decade. As a big Volvo 1800 fan, I absolutely love this. I think I’m buying a lottery ticket this evening.

    (My inner Volvo nerd questions, though, whether this is actually an 1800S rather than a P1800. Cyan supposedly started with a 1964 model, and I thought production moved to Sweden in 1963.)

    1. Batshitbox Avatar
      Batshitbox

      Well, if the chassis is a one-off, and the body is carbon fiber, and the drivetrain is from another car, and (I’m guessing) the seats aren’t even made by Volvo, then you’d have to look at the one remaining part of the 1964 car, the VIN.

    2. 0A5599 Avatar
      0A5599

      Let’s call it a P1800ES. I know there’s no such thing, but that’s a good way to draw mdharrell into a discussion. It’s like a Bat-signal to him.

      https://www.librarieshawaii.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ta67372-geology-rocks-13pic.jpg

      1. mdharrell Avatar

        It would also work to call it a Sonnet.

  3. MattC Avatar
    MattC

    The car that got my attention as a young boy was a tan/brownish P1800 that my neighborhood friend’s father owned. I came from a non-car family that bought decidedly awful 1970’s American sedans/wagon during that time (1975 Impala SW/ 1977 Malibu Classic : both well on their long slow death spirals). I remember riding in the back seat of the P1800 as my friend’s father drove us to various activities. The combination of the smell/feel of the leather/pleather seats mixed with the sweet tobacco smell coming from my friends father’s pipe is seared into my memory. If money is no object this would be my first lust worthy purchase…