Volvo's Jakob hot rod

This month Volvo will be unveiling a hand-built hot-rod at the Volvo Museum in Göteborg before the car makes its way to the home of the hot-rods, the USA, on a tour. While most hot-rods are built off old Fords or other American makes, this one is based on the first ever Volvo to roll off the production line in 1927, the ÖV4.

The car is built by Leif Tufvesson, whose company Caresto began work on the project in 2005 and 2006. The original ÖV4 was documented in detail before work was begun and the car was bashed, molded and caressed into Leif's own interpretation of that very first Volvo.

The car's reveal times perfectly with Volvo's 80th anniversary celebrations, and together the original ÖV4 and the hot-rod ÖV4 (nicknamed Jakob by its creator) look remarkably similar. The bonnet, windscreen pillar and radiator grille are all almost identical to the original, and the body is built by hand from aluminum panels in the same way that it would have been in the 1920's - with a hammer and English wheel.

But where there are similarities there are also prominent differences, with Jakob being much smaller than the old ÖV4. Rather than 4 seats it can only take two passengers and it also has enormous hot-rod wheels and a large rear. Modern technology has also lent a hand in its production, with the chassis being crafted from carbon-fibre and the hot-rod gets massive tires with milled tread in the shape of Volvo's corporate logo. The heart of any hot-rod, its engine, is a Volvo piece as well. Jakob gets a Volvo T5 converted to run on ethanol to make the car more economical to run but is no slug on the drag strip.

Volvo management was so pleased with the final product that they endorsed it wholeheartedly even though the idea of a Volvo hot-rod is far from Volvo's corporate image of safety and quality - just don't expect to see it at your Volvo dealership any time soon.

You can take a look at the previous concept car made by Volvo and Caresto here.