Jump inside the beautifully reimagined Volvo P1800 Cyan
Stoked about a gorgeous ’60s Volvo with the 7700-rpm heart of a modern-day race car? Cyan Racing’s road-legal restomod, first revealed in September, may cost more than half a million dollars, but that won’t stop us from dreaming about this remixed P1800—especially not when the Swedish racing team has just revealed additional details and interior photos.
We knew that Cyan team stripped the P1800 down to 2182 pounds. We also knew that it dropped in a 420-hp, 2.0-liter turbo four plucked from the team’s 2017 Volvo S60 TCI entry. (To make things more confusing, Cyan now competes in the World Touring Car Championship with Lynk & Co, not Volvo.) And though Cyan did mention that the live rear axle was replaced with a bespoke independent suspension setup, the extent of the chassis modifications is impressive. Cyan engineered an entirely new chassis to keep “the analogue direct unfiltered connection with the road, but with much more control and predictiveness,” according to Mattias Evensson, project manager and head of engineering for Cyan Racing.
You might be wondering how much this P1800 really has in common with the 1960s original. The interior tells the same story as the original: styling, not tech, appears to be the main nostalgic carry-over.
The leather-clad roll hoop is titanium. The bespoke instrument panel, though inspired by the ’60s dash, is digital. Cyan sums it up as “a delicate interpretation of the original.”
It’s worth mentioning, especially with respect to historical authenticity, that the classic car community is swelling with an increased number of reimaginations, reinterpretations, and continuations. Builds such as Cyan’s P1800 shouldn’t be mistaken for a restoration in which the engineers got hopelessly carried away. There’s oodles of creativity and engineering (not to mention investment) that goes into this breed of vintage rejuvenation, but there’s little danger of them replacing historically authentic restorations.
Evensson explains that his extensive modernization of the P1800 was actually rooted in nostalgia. “As with most cars from the past, they tend to be less rewarding to drive than we might want to remember them,” he says. Cyan’s P1800, then, seeks to update the driving experience to satisfy a modern enthusiast’s demands.
At first glance, Cyan’s creation looks like a P1800 with a wider track, “but when you start driving, it delivers at a completely different level,” Evensson says. “The suspension is fully adjustable and can be set up to whichever way the customer wants, be it a more track-focused car, or a one that will be predominantly used for enjoying your favorite canyon roads, or for just visiting your local barista.”
Had we a cool $507,000 lying around, we’d have a go at all three of those venues in one weekend. Just staring at the P1800 Cyan sounds like a well-spent afternoon activity.
