Photo: Bo Zolland on Behance
Pioneered by Fiat in the 1950s thanks to legendary automotive designer Giovanni Michelotti and coachbuilder Carrozzeria Vignale, the removable roof section we refer to as the targa top was adopted by Triumph in 1961 and Saab in 1964. One year later, Porsche made Targa a household name at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt with the 911's help.
Care to guess why the German automaker went to such great lengths to reimagine the convertible? At the time, industry experts feared that soft tops would be outlawed by the Department of Transportation in the United States due to safety concerns. The federal cabinet didn’t take such a drastic measure, but Porsche decided to stick with it because the stainless-steel rollover protection element gave the 911 a fresh, fancy look.
Named after the Targa Florio road race in Sicily, Targa is written on the sides of the rollover protection structure of the Volvo P1800 imagined by Bo Zolland. The pixel artist is onto something with his mashup, which gives the Swedish coupe a different character from the original notchback design.
Volvo, however, wasn’t exactly interested in cool cars or even sporty cars back then. Volvo is synonymous with automotive safety innovations, starting with the laminated windshield in 1944 and the three-point seatbelt in 1959. The 1960s and 1970s gave us the rear-facing child seat, child booster cushion, Lambda probe (a.k.a. oxygen sensor), and the wide-angle mirror.
Marketed as a touring car, the P1800 numbers 39,407 examples in total, produced between 1969 and 1973. Brought to worldwide fame by Roger Moore in the hit television series The Saint, the rear-driven coupe derives its mechanicals from the ultra-reliable Amazon. Overengineering is the secret to the P1800 owned by a certain Irv Gordon, who racked up more than 3.23 million miles (5.23 million kilometers) on the original engine.
Volvo revisited the impeccable design of the P1800 a few times over the years with the 480, C30, and the plug-in hybrid Polestar 1. As for Porsche, the Targa never left the 911 family since its introduction in 1965.
Named after the Targa Florio road race in Sicily, Targa is written on the sides of the rollover protection structure of the Volvo P1800 imagined by Bo Zolland. The pixel artist is onto something with his mashup, which gives the Swedish coupe a different character from the original notchback design.
Volvo, however, wasn’t exactly interested in cool cars or even sporty cars back then. Volvo is synonymous with automotive safety innovations, starting with the laminated windshield in 1944 and the three-point seatbelt in 1959. The 1960s and 1970s gave us the rear-facing child seat, child booster cushion, Lambda probe (a.k.a. oxygen sensor), and the wide-angle mirror.
Marketed as a touring car, the P1800 numbers 39,407 examples in total, produced between 1969 and 1973. Brought to worldwide fame by Roger Moore in the hit television series The Saint, the rear-driven coupe derives its mechanicals from the ultra-reliable Amazon. Overengineering is the secret to the P1800 owned by a certain Irv Gordon, who racked up more than 3.23 million miles (5.23 million kilometers) on the original engine.
Volvo revisited the impeccable design of the P1800 a few times over the years with the 480, C30, and the plug-in hybrid Polestar 1. As for Porsche, the Targa never left the 911 family since its introduction in 1965.
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