The Volvo GTZ and GTZ 3000 are Swedish concept cars built for

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

. Both were designed by

Zagato Zagato is an independent coachbuilding company and total design centre located northwest of Milan in Terrazzano, a small village near Rho, Lombardy, Italy. The company's premises occupies an area of 23,000 square metres (250,000 sq ft)- 11,000 ...

, with the GTZ debuting at the 1969 Turin Auto Show on the Zagato stand and the GTZ 3000 debuting the following year at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show.

History

Motauto, the Italian importer for Volvo, commissioned the design for the GTZ in 1969 from Italian design house Zagato. Motauto had previously tried to influence Volvo to add another sports car offering to their lineup alongside the P1800, having already debuted an updated design by

Carrozzeria Fissore Carrozzeria Fissore was an Italian coachbuilder located in Savigliano, near Turin (Piedmont). History The firm was founded in by the brothers Antonio, Bernardo, Giovanni, and Costanzo Fissore. Originally they built horsecarts and only later ...

for that car at the 1965 Turin Auto Show, as sports cars were very popular at that time in Italy. Volvo had, however, refused saying that they wanted to put more resources into the family cars they were known for and that the P1800 was selling well already so there was no need to update or replace it. The GTZ concept did find a private buyer at the Turin show but Volvo said they were not interested in producing it but hinted that they may be if the car were to be fitted with a different engine. The current whereabouts of the GTZ are unclear.

Specifications

The GTZ is based on the underpinnings from the 140 Series, using an evolved version of that car's 2.0-litre ''B20''

inline-four engine A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...

with two double-barrel Solex carburetors.

GTZ 3000

The GTZ 3000 was introduced at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show as a refined version of the original GTZ concept. The GTZ 3000 was now based on the

Volvo 164 The Volvo 164 is a 4-door, 6-cylinder luxury sedan unveiled by Volvo at the Paris Motor Show early in October 1968 and first sold as a 1969 model. 46,008 164s were built before the car was succeeded by the 264 in 1975. The 164 was Volvo's first ...

, powered by a 3.0 L B30

I6 engine The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine bal ...

. The engine produces and could propel the concept to a top speed of . The design for the GTZ 3000 was made using a wind tunnel for better aerodynamics, and was shorter, wider and lower than the 164, as well as lighter. The design also featured pop up headlight panels similar to those used on the Alfa Romeo Montreal. The concept was received well at the Geneva show but Volvo decided not to move forward with production and after that Motauto stopped proposing new Volvo sports cars. Like the previous concept, the GTZ 3000 did find a private buyer at the Geneva show who drove it regularly in Italy, and today the car is known to still exist and as of 2008 was awaiting restoration in Sweden.

References

GTZ Cars introduced in 1969 Cars introduced in 1970 {{Volvo cars