You know how most people, when confronted by an angry or aroused mob scream-asking about what the first concept car was, will usually answer “The Y-Job! The Buick Y-Job of 1938!” And, generally, this is the accepted answer. I mean, it’s wrong, but we’ll get to that in a moment when I can stick an image in here, since I have to wait three paragraphs for some algorithm crap. But I want to talk about what may be the second concept car, from a company that we don’t really think of when it comes to daring concept cars.
The company I’m talking about is Volvo, and they had an interesting concept car as early as 1933. That’s a full five years before Buick’s Y-Job, and only six years after the company started in 1927. The car was called the Venus Bilo – a play on Venus d’Milo, but with the Swedish word for car, bil, portmanteau’d into Milo. I would have made it Venus d’Bilo, but no one asked me, as I was still currently unborn. And I don’t speak Swedish.
We could consider this to be the first concept car, maybe, because the one I usually think of as first, from a French contest in 1895, only resulted in a sub-scale model of the car, not a full car. I think of it still as a concept car, because that’s what it was: an advanced styling exercise that attempted to imagine what car design could be like in the near future, and that’s essentially what concept cars do. It looked like this:
But it wasn’t an actual, driving car. The Volvo Venus Bilo, on the other hand, definitely was. Designed by Gustaf Ericsson and built by Nordbergs Vagnafabrik out of Stockholm, it wasn’t exactly born from Volvo itself physically, but it was built under contract from Volvo with the intent of testing the public’s response to upcoming cars, which is essentially what concept cars are still used for today. It was definitely a concept car, and, again, it was five years before the Y-Job.
The Venus Bilo wasn’t just a styling exercise; a number of other novel ideas were incorporated into the car. Look at that picture above there: that’s the designer himself, Gustaf, and he’s pictured with nine (specially designed) suitcases because the Venus Bilar had some genuinely impressive luggage room, which included a storage area in the right front fender – you can see the access door in the picture.
The car also carried two spare tires, one of which was in a compartment in the left front fender, while the other very cleverly formed the bumper at the rear, a concept I really like:
The Venus Bilo was a striking aerodynamic design, and it wasn’t all just for aesthetics: the underbody was designed with attention to airflow so that the car allegedly kicked up less dust when driving. The body panels were also designed for easy removal and replacement in case of damage, which was a remarkably forward-thinking concept for the era.
I think the Venus Bilo is quite an elegant and attractive machine, but most Swedes of the era seemed to disagree with me, finding it a bit too radical for their tastes. The car was finished in blue with beige on the upper body and those stripe-like styling elements that drape down the front like a sash of sorts.
Volvo eventually sold the prototype/concept to a Danish man sometime after 1945, and the car was last seen in 1956, in a film of cars exiting a ferry:
The front bumper has been changed and the car repainted in one color, but that’s definitely the car. No one knows where it is today, which seems a shame, considering how important this car is.
If you see it behind some Danish barn, let Volvo know, I’d think.
Spare tyre reminds me of my Vanagon where the spare wheel is part of the crash structure.
That looks like a 2-bean vajeen. Sorry, I had to.
Why does that front end look like a vagina with piercings? eww
Hmmm… you’re right. Maybe that’s why I like it?
Okay time to help my good buddies out at the Autopian and build up that readership from the algorithm. I have no idea what a y job is. I know what a blow job is, I know what a hand job is. Is the y job like a hand job or a blow job? Or is it like a union job or a no show job? Perhaps a nose job or a roofing job? What can a Y job be? Is it a lube job? A menial job or a corporate job. Is it a job that makes you mop a floor or spin a record. Possible you crochet or knit a project job? Is it a hard job or an easy job perhaps a hit job? Perhaps a rim job?
Pretty sure this will show up on a lot of searches people weren’t looking for. And remember a shit show is better than a shit job.
Thank you, be sure to tip your waitress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Y-Job
Then again it is your screen name…
Yes, he makes sure to live up to his name. I asked him if Mr Sarcastic Asshole was already being used as a user name because it would fit better! Truth be known, I get a kick and a giggle out of his sarcastic comments. I like how he made a call out to tip your server when you eat at a restaurant. I’m pretty sure his comments are done in the spirit of fun. I’m kind of making an educated guess based on his comment above that he hasn’t been laid in a very, very long time.
That 1895 concept looks like “if Antonio Gaudi designed a car”
Or like “if Dr. Seuss designed a car”
Looks like the cat in the hat vehicles
It does. Also like some of the Dr. Seuss buildings.
Did you mean Gaudy?
That’s the best headline I’ve seen in a while. Neat car too!
Front bumper smiley face
Rear bumper poopy face
It’s like a Swedish Chrysler Airflow. I like it!
Never heard of it before, so thanks Jason.
I only saw a PV444 for the first time earlier this year, and sort of fell in love with it. No idea at all what it’s like to drive today, but part of me thinks it’d make a fine daily.
They drive surprisingly well. Especially when compared to the wet noodles coming out of Detroit in those days. But don’t expect a lot of power.
After spending a few months with my new (to me) Volvo 240, I know not to expect a lot of power. 🙂 Also, I had an ’84 GTI and a ’00 TDI, both of which had 90 HP (the Volvo had 100 when it was new 36 years ago) and I gotta be honest: it’s always been enough power (for me).
Strategically insert an “i”into Nordbergs Vagnafabrik and you might have an explanation for that front end.
That’s probably what they were alluding to with the Venus naming?
Fortunately or unfortunately, translate says it means “carriage factory.”
I don’t know why the spare-tyre-bumper didn’t catch on. Imagine how much more fun the highways would be if we all had those front and rear!
The Healey Silverstone did it, too, but that might be the only other one
Wow, thanks for sharing, I had no idea the Healey Silverstone existed. My fantasy garage keeps getting bigger.
(Though if they all had spare-tyre bumpers, I could really cram them in tight…)
Seconding @Amberturnsignalsarebetter, and thank you for leading me to this on the Wikipedia Healey Silverstone page:
Healey Duncan Drone and The Spiv are both Car Name Hall of Fame shoo-ins.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/1947_Healey_Duncan_Drone_Kop_Hill_2013.jpg
There’s also the Fiat-Abarth OT 2000 Coupe America (derived from the Fiat 850 Sport Coupe)
Works for boat docks, so why not?
Fiat Abarth 850 Sport Coupes with engines over 1000cc had a spare tire sticking out of the center of the front bumper in the 1960s. Looked like the car was sticking its tongue out.
If I had fender flares like that I would be sticking my tongue out too!
It looks like someone pushed too hard on the grille badge and mushed its face in.
Ok, it’s official. Nobody’s wheels will ever be as cool as these.
Wow! That grille is giving off some heavy-duty Dali-esque vibes. The Persistence of Thermodynamics?
It’s pretty striking for the time; the double-duty spare tire/bumper is just genius. Okay, we have to have something back here and it takes up space and weight, what if we could make it be two things and save space and weight? Just genius.
See, Ford, this is how you scrimp on expenses.
No, we will just not move the Pinto Gas tank location and save say a nickel per car.
Well, THAT’S rather … “inviting”
The VAG group is intrigued.
Wonder if they had to tell the designer, “Volvo. VOlvO. Not… that.” but went with it anyway.
Curious what the interior/trunk configuration of this was like. Typically in cars of this era, the rear seat would be more or less at the back of the cabin, often well behind the rear door openings, over the rear axle, but the claims of impressive cargo storage and the rather elongated, squared-off rear end with no external trunk make this look…pretty wagon-esque. I’d say that was on-brand for Volvo, but this predates their first wagon by 20 years!
That’s quite a looker. It almost seems French.
Like cuisine, often the French do it best.
I do enjoy a wide swath of French cuisine, especially accompanied by a curated selection of their wine. I’ll draw the line at escargot, though.
I LOVE me some escargot. I’ll have to pick up a can and do up some garlic butter, mushroom caps, and cheese. It’s been a hot minute.
Well, I hope you enjoy!
I like the garlic butter and cheese part. But I also feel about escargot the way I do about lobster: it’s not so much the flavor of the meat, but its function as a vessel for yummy warm/hot butter – and maybe salt and pepper – that has appeal, not the item itself. Lobster and snails and such (like caviar) were the food of the poorest peasants who were basically forced to eat nature’s bottom feeders, then the rich decided that they were delicacies (especially with butter and exotic spices and herbs). So now they’re seen as aspirational treats.
The reality no one wants to accept:
Bugs is delicious. Snails? Slimy bugs. Lobster/shrimp/scampi? Sea bugs.
One day I’ll try fried ants.
Counterpoint: I have eaten fried cockroach and it is not an experience I care to repeat.
Fair enough. But I’ll try anything twice.
Crickets are pretty good. Everything I’ve tried in the beetle family is a hard pass ever again.
There’s an apropos line in the musical, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” Molly has been living in Paris for most of the second act and is being interviewed for a newspaper article. The reporter asked her opinion of escargot. “Honey,” she says, “with that sauce you could eat erasers!”
Escargot is delicious. Therefore I ban you to Corsica
I like mountains and the Mediterranean, so as long as the political unrest is resolved then that’s not too bad.
What about a Nissan S-Cargo though?
Those are charming as hell, at least on the outside. Could be worse.
with garlic and butter and baguette? Mais oui!
I’d daily that thing, for sure. Also, thanks for the history lesson, I guess.
I had no idea it was still around in 1956.
That really gives hope it somehow, somewhere survived with maybe eight people in the world knowing about it.
Given all the weird stuff at Egeskov Castle, I’d bet a few kroner it’s squirreled away in the attic there. But then there’s lots of car collections in Denmark, I once met a farmer in Reersø with a pole barn full of government limousines.
I wonder if this ended up inspiring the Peugeot 402. The grille area in particular has a striking resemblance.
I’m sure it may have had some influence upon the 1934 Chrysler Airflows and 1939 Bentley Corniche.
It’s amazing to see how it took them 42 years to go from this inefficient design to the pinnacle of everything automotive, the 200 series Volvo.
The era of bricks and blockiness.
Brick is the answer. It’s why my bungalow still has it’s original siding 70 years after being built.
We can make Volvo great once again. But we gotta build them back up, brick by brick.
Repairs via proper Scandinavian Lego sounds horrendously expensive.
Only if you’re importing the bricks to the US under current administration. The rest of us are all “bricked up”, as the kids say. That IS what that means, right?
70 years is barely getting started for a brick building