by Mike –
Below is an email message I received in April 2013.
Hello Mike,
I am sending you some pictures of an interesting car, which you might like to post.
I took the pictures at the 2013 Techno Classica in Essen last week.
The “Swedish Ferrari” – a Ockelbo-Volvo Sport Racer built in 1953 was displayed on the Volvo stand. It was not for sale.
It has an Austin-Healy 100 Chassis, 2-liter Volvo B18B engine, 4-speed manual transmission with overdrive. It produces 140 hp.
Best regards and greetings from Austria,
Otto
The sign on the car said this,
In the late 1950s Swedish racing driver Erik “Ockelbo” Lundgren borrowed his friend’s Ferrari 500 Mondial, made a cast of the body and produced some 50 fiberglass bodies as do-it-yourself kits.
The Ockelbo bodies were fitted to different cars like Alfa Romeo, Frazer Nash, Healey and Volvo and many were raced in Scandinavia.
What a beautiful kit car this is! I wonder if Enzo Ferrari liked this idea?
This is yet another car that I have never heard of before. I am beginning to suspect I may never know all the car models produced.
My thanks to Otto in Austria for sharing this with My Car Quest.
I would love to see your photos of interesting classic cars. Send an email to me – click here.
Let us know what you think of this kit car in the Comments.
Every time Michael does an article on a beautiful car like this one, or the Bizzarrini Europa, I wonder where the molds for their fiberglass bodies are hiding.
Let’s see… hmmmmm… Who can I borrow a car from… I’ve got a 3-D printer…. Boy, those guys had it tough in those days!!! To me, this car makes a lot of sense. For a racer, perhaps Mr. Lundgren might have been unhappy with the 140 hp., but for the others these projects might have come to, that car would have been fast, but reasonably so. I have always wondered what it would be like to have a car of huge reputation and potential, but with a more sedate powerplant — one that would last like those in contemporary cars, and deliver better economy as well. Speed limits still can’t approach what a racer craves…
Dan – maybe you should search for one of these? There were 50 made and I’ll bet there is at least one garage or barn in Sweden with an Ockelbo sitting there.
In fact you can still build you own Ockelbo Ferrari, its pretty much the same car, this time vith Alfa power.http://www.pagano.se/
Maybe someone will find the molds and make a kit to be used on my Mazda MX5/Miata. 😉
Also, check this out:
http://exomotive.com/dbr1/
We do quite a few interesting things for the Miata platform check us out
http://www.simpsondesign.net
Ferrari has a history of not taking kindly to ripoffs of their designs or logo. We’ll see. . .
Actually, it was the Swedish Ferrari importer who made this possible in1956! But it does not come as a surprise,since Erik Lundgren raced for him in 1956 at the Grand Prix.
Do not forget also that the design was not from Ferrari, but came from Scaglietti… Every other Ferrari was hand-made and looked slightly different…no two Ferrari’s were the same… Those were completely different times!
Not unlike my Factory built Devin C type , Bill Devin was a Ferrari racer importer in the US and took the buck of a Scaglietti for his cars , , similar dash layout etc , Bill made cars from 53 to 65 , check out his 2 coupes , beautiful cars very much like Muras ! wonder who copied who there ?
This one has Belgian Plates
Mera, Mcburnie, Cal Modena, Renucci, all beauties in my book–and parts at Auto Zone.
Beatutiful body, but can she cook?
Bill Devin’s first mold came from an etceterino (singular for etceterini); the name escapes me. From that first mold he expanded to various sizes. And yes, at one time he had a Ferrari 250MM PF berlinetta, white with blue stripe if I recall.
HI mike, Dirty Dave Here, screw the kit car I want to know about the 444/544 Volvo rag top? and the aluminum track “T” looking in the back ground of the third photo
I know it hs been a few yers, but the 444/544 rag top is actually a 445 commercial chassis with a custom built body. Several small independent manufacturers used these chassis for small trucks, delivery vans, hearses, ambulances, convertibles and at least one sedan. Someone mentioned Valbo and Nordbergs but Nordbergs only built one convertible and nothing else on these chassis.
More info here: https://www.pvchassi.com/index_e.html
Hi Mike,
Please inform David that he can read about “T” on http://www.caresto.se/. As to the Volvo 444/544 convertible, they were built by independent firms – Valbo and Nordbergs – who made bespoke bodies
Also, it was Ulf Norinder´s car that was used as a mould in making the Ockelbo. They borrowed the car but didn´t tell Ulf that they were making a copy of his car. Before returning the Ferrari it had to be repainted as the copy didn´t release properly from the original.