autoevolution
 

Modern Day Volvo 66 Rendered with Skoda Fabia as Base

Not many people know that right after Volvo bought a brand called DAF, it made its smallest car ever, the 66.
Modern Day Volvo 66 Rendered with Skoda Fabia as Base 3 photos
Photo: Theophilus Chin
Modern Day Volvo 66 Rendered with Skoda Fabia as BaseModern Day Volvo 66 Rendered with Skoda Fabia as Base
It was assembled at the DAF factory in the Netherlands. Volvo produced roughly 106,000 units of both the sedan and estate/wagon 66 and sold them between 1975 and early 1981. Not only are they pretty rare, but only a few survived the test of time. Of the 14,000 units that were sold in Britain, only eight are known to have survived.

At the time, the 66 was described as a compact car, but at 3.9 meters long (153 inches), it was smaller than most superminis of today.

Just because Volvo didn't win fans over with its first make-shift attempt at making a small car doesn't mean the Swedes shouldn't try again. Of course, the smaller the car is, the less the chance of making a profit becomes. For example, the Escalade SUV is probably the only profitable Cadillac, while the Cayenne is Porsche's bread earner.

But from a pure volume point of view, things sit differently. Europe is dominated by small cars, as there are five of them in the Top 10 sales chart for September 2015: Fiesta (#2), Corsa (#3), Polo (#4), Clio (#7) and 208 (#8).

If Volvo wants to become a household name, the supermini segment is a great place to start. Even though it looks kind of dorky, we suspect many people would buy the car in the rendering above. Theophilus Chin made a modern day version of the 66 by combining the body of a Skoda Fabia with bits from the all-new XC90. It's not as sexy as the C30 or the S60 Polestar, but the tall roof makes it very practical.

As luck would have it, the company is currently developing a compact platform that will underpin the next V40 and XC40. Also in the pipeline is a 1.5-liter 3-cylinder from the Drive-E family. Despite its small size, it produces up to 180 horsepower, company sources say.

With that much grunt, the baby Volvo would be a lot faster and more exciting than its parent from the 70s. Remember, the 66 came with a 1.1-liter engine producing just 47 horsepower and reached 100 km/h (62 mph) in a pedestrian 23.6 seconds.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Mihnea Radu
Mihnea Radu profile photo

Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories