Amazon beauties

Volvo Amazon: World most beautiful car

"En av världens genom tiderna vackraste bilar"

 
 

Picture at left, my current Volvo Amazon, a 122 with B-20 engine, model 1969 [see description down below], strong and able to pull the boat trailer with the old Hallberg-Rassy 1972 [see it in my sailing boats page].

 

The 123 GT - model 

Vintage 1967

In old times I had this Volvo GT 123 in which we traveled - our three kids at that time - all the way from Stockholm to Genoa and the Liguria coast in Italy in 1983. In the picture below, taken near San Remo, Italy, the Amazon has a 'custom-look', but the only items which are not-original are the Wolfrace wheels, the equipage racket and the rear fog light.

Winter in Stockholm with the 123GT and my dear son José-Miguel

 

The Volvo Amazon 122 Sport 

Vintage 1965

 The above Amazon 123 GT ended slightly customized, and I wished instead to have a full classical, original version. I first tried a standard 121 which I bought in Stockholm, 1986 (see picture far down below) but I found it dull. Then, in 1988, I found this very pearl: a 122-S ("S" stand for sport; the model is originally equipped with overdrive and double SU carburetors). I kept it for several years. Some pictures here below:

This is the same Amazon. Here in Arlanda, with my dearest son, the late Christopher Ringskog Ferrada-Noli

Vintage 1966

Later, by 1999, I found this red Volvo Amazon 122-S (see pictures below), and which I fully restored and I also kept in Sweden during many years. It is a 1966 model. Besides a full original-restoring work, I also added a 2'' sport exhausting system, Koni stabilisers, and assisted-driven brakes. I sold my dearest Amazon ever in 2008 - with pain in my heart - when I moved definitely from Mirandas Gård to my house in Italy, after retirement.

My Amazon, and my beloved cat Miranda

Handling a newly restored Selco sport boat (Norwegian built, vintage 1962) for a cruising test in Uppsala. Restoring job done entirely in Miranda's Gård

This is a B18 Volvo engine (Not form this car, but from the Amazon 1964 shown further below):

This is the B18 engine of this Amazon 1966 after my restoring:

Miranda och Amazonen

The 122 model

Here bellow - other Amazon cars I've restored in later years.   

Vintage 1965

One of the last Volvo in the series which I restored. It is a standard 121 model of year 1962. It has a simple three advance-positions gearbox, four cylinders engine and one carburettor. I also re-painted the roof trying to capture the feeling of my old Amazon 122-Sport of 1965. 

 Above, full restored Summer 2011

My much beloved cat Oliver. Here he's supervising the restoring progress. Oliver was Miranda's son. He left me in complete sadness when he departed from this world on July 2012

Here parked at the summer house in Northern Sweden

 And here by the Baltic Sea, at the boat club in Rundvik

Restoring at Miranda's Gård 1910

An Amazon 121, model 1964

This is another Amazon - 121 (standard), model 1964, and that I rescued from disassemble - in Björklinge, Uppsala. I bought it as a birthday present to myself 2006. Unfortunately, I never got the possibility of finding the time for a major restoring but I fixed brakes, new clutch, & basic mechanic stuff. It was during a time of tight travelling both to Italy and elsewhere, for my research work. After two years I finally exchanged it for some chassis reparation of another Amazon (the light green showed further above).

Vintage 1969; B-20 engine

My current Volvo Amazon is a 121, model 1969, which I found in Luleå (Northern Sweden) in the summer 2015. I did trade the Amazon for a red Alfa Romeo GTV - seen in the picture – which I drove from to Luleå. Of course I drove the Amazon back home. On the way back I did a stopover in my summer house in Rundvik and changed the engine-oil, checked the oil levels in the rear-axe and gearbox (looking fine), and fixed new cables to the spark-plugs; That was all. Here below a picture of the Volvo as it did look in Luleå when I got it. And further below after the restoring beginning, in the Autumn of the same year.

 

 

 

 

 

 - to be continued