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Sábado, 19 de octubre 2024, 08:35
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The first novelty from the then Swedish firm Volvo after World War II was the PV444: PV for "Personwagn" or sedan in Swedish. In reality, the conflict had not yet ended as the presentation of the new model took place in September 1944, although it entered production three years later.
It would later evolve into the PV544, which looked practically the same, and remained in production until 1965. But before that, in 1956, it was joined by a new Volvo model, the Amazon. Everything seemed set in the Swedish house, known for renewing its models infrequently, but something was changing.
Thus, three and a half years later, the engineers of the Swedish house bent over their drawing boards to tackle a new assignment, the successor to the PV Series, which had to be larger than the Amazon but had to weigh the same and fall within the same price category.
Within the walls of Gothenburg, the brand's headquarters, it was known as P660, then 1400, and finally 140. The platform was that of the Amazon, maintaining the same wheelbase (2.60 meters) and suspensions, but the track width increased from 1.31 to 1.35 meters. The brief included, in addition to the four-door sedan body, a station wagon, and, as for engines, they would be four and six cylinders.
The first sketches were unattractive, with very heavy lines. Thus, Jan Wilsgaard, head of style, decided to develop a second prototype in parallel with a more angular and spacious body. Against all odds, in December 1961, the company's management rejected the original drawing and chose the second prototype's design, although it required changes, such as shortening the overhangs, to avoid an increase in production costs.
In January 1964, the final shape of the body was fixed, except for the grille. Another discussion was about the position of the gear lever: the trend at that time was for it to be on the steering wheel, but in the Amazon, where the lever was on the floor, only 6.5% of customers paid for the option of it being on the steering column. A middle ground was chosen: with the manual transmission, it was on the floor, and on the steering column with the option of a front bench instead of two seats, with overdrive in automatic gearbox models.
The prototype was spotted on the snowy roads of northern Europe with an unknown monogram and the initials "ZT92": some thought it was a new Japanese brand....
But the mystery was solved in August 1966, when the new Volvo was presented to the press.
On August 17 of that year, nearly four hundred journalists gathered in the halls of the Lorensberg hotel in Gothenburg to attend the presentation of the Volvo 144. Amidst the anticipation, a panel was lifted that concealed three pre-series models of the new Swedish vehicle. For several years, all kinds of rumors had circulated about it, but what was finally revealed to the press was a sober and modern vehicle. At the same time as in Gothenburg, the new model was also presented in Oslo, Copenhagen, and Helsinki.
The vehicles used in the Gothenburg presentation had been brought into the venue the night before, with the help of a crane, hidden in large wooden boxes. Naturally, the process was supposed to proceed with utmost discretion, but this proved very difficult because it coincided with the deployment of a major operation following the murder of some police officers. Amidst a national alert situation, as soon as the wooden boxes were brought into the halls, the police received a tip that the fugitives might have hidden among the audience of a nearby cinema, which had to be evacuated.
But let's return to the car and its name 144. The new model introduced a very simple identification system in the Swedish house: the first digit indicates the series, the second the number of cylinders, and the third the number of doors. Thus, there would be a 142 with two doors, the 144 with four, and a 145 or station wagon.
As for engines, two were planned, from the B18 family that equipped other models of the brand: the Amazon sedans and station wagons and the 1800S coupe. The B18A, with a Zenith-Stromberg carburetor, produced 85 HP, and the B18B, equipped with two SUs, 115 HP.
And the car's architecture was very classic: front engine, propulsion, and a rigid axle with a Panhard rod.
But a lot of work had been done on safety, especially in the braking system. In addition to adopting four discs, it incorporated two circuits that acted jointly on all four wheels and were not limited to acting only on the front, rear, or diagonally. And a special valve was responsible for reducing pressure on the rear wheels to limit the risk of locking: a basic ancestor of the ABS, limited to a single axle. At the level of passive safety, to better protect its occupants in the event of an impact, it offered a body with deformable zones, the steering column was articulated in two pieces, in case of collision. It also had seat belts with a novel fastening system, a dashboard with soft materials and no sharp elements, recessed interior door openers, and a roof covered in soft material.
To defog the rear window, it had a hot air system independent of the heating.
Volvo's novelty was very well received to the point that one had to wait eight months to receive the car. And most opted for the 115 HP engine.
Throughout its commercial career, it evolved with new variants: the station wagon appeared in 1968, with reinforced rear suspension, as well as a taxi variant. There was an increase in engine power, and in 1969, the six-cylinder named 164 appeared. It shared many chassis components with the 140 series, although it had 10 cm more wheelbase and its front was larger to accommodate the B30 six-cylinder inline engine.
At the same time, the four-cylinder engines changed the B18 block for a new one, the B20, with 128 cc more displacement and two variants, one with 82 HP with a single carburetor, and a 100 HP with a special system for the American market, to reduce emissions, which preheated the air/fuel mixture in the intake manifold. And the dynamo gave way to the alternator.
In 1971, the wheelbase was extended by 2 millimeters, as were the tracks and tires, a modification that involved widening the fenders. At the same time, the radiator size was increased by 25%. In 1974, it adopted large and striking bumpers in the style of those already used in the American market. The front ones were mounted on elastic supports that withstood impacts of up to 5 km/h.
When in the summer of 1974 the production of the 142, 144, and 145 models came to an end (although the 164 was still on sale in the United States), 1,251,371 units had already left the plant. This series, the first from which Volvo sold more than a million units, contributed significantly to the brand's introduction to the international market.
However, the legacy of the 140 series is much greater and extends until 1993. Its successor, the Volvo 240, borrowed many elements from the 140 series chassis and became Volvo's best-selling mass-produced model: about 2.8 million units in its 19 years of existence.
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