Volvo Tundra (2018)

The Volvo Tundra was a concept car built and designed by Bertone in 1979. Bertone's design prompt was to do "something delicious" based on the Volvo 343.[1] The angular design was by Marcello Gandini, and continued the themes developed for the Lamborghini Silhouette and the Reliant (Anadol) FW11.[2] It was rejected by Volvo, who considered the design too modern and deemed it difficult to market.

It is often misreported that Bertone instead sold a very similar design to Citroën, where it was produced as the Citroën BX from 1982 to 1994.[3] However, this would have meant Citroën turned a concept into a series production model in less than 18 months.[4] The relationship is simply that the two designs appeared from the same design house.[5][6]

The Tundra's rear-side window had a pulled-down top edge, an idea that was also seen on the BX C-pillar. The effect was of a floating roof, a design idea that would become popular in the 2010s.[3]

The car featured a digital speedometer and was powered by a 1.4-litre, four-cylinder engine, giving 70 PS (51 kW).

References

  1. ^ Padeanu, Adrian (2016-08-03). "Concept We Forgot: 1979 Volvo Tundra". Motor1.
  2. ^ Perini, Giancarlo (1979-10-18). "Muotoilun kaunokkeja" [Design beauties]. Tekniikan Maailma (in Finnish). Vol. 35, no. 17/79. Helsinki: TM-Julkaisu. p. 62. ISSN 0355-4287.
  3. ^ a b Söderholm, Erik (2014-07-05). "Volvos konstiga konceptbil – som blev en Citroën" [Volvo's strange concept car – which became a Citroën]. Auto Motor & Sport (in Swedish). Egmont Publishing AB. Archived from the original on 2020-02-15.
  4. ^ "Le projet BX".
  5. ^ "Citroën BX prototypes Projet XB".
  6. ^ van der Zanden, Thijs (2021), BX: A new generation of Citroën, ISBN 978-90-828147-9-8


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