Volvo 480 Club Europe

Sorry to say, we had so much to talk about I clean forgot to take any photos !
Anyway, I was collecting parts from a lovely man in Kent, some for us and a door card for James' launch car. I was expecting it to be someone who wasn't an enthusiast but just breaking a 480. However, it turned out he came from a family of 480 owners and currently he has 4 Celebrations. One in poor condition is being broken to provide parts for another being restored. After a very welcome cup of coffee he showed us his current love - a beautiful storm grey Celeb about to come out of storage after the winter, and when we turned around we saw his last beauty, a red automatic Celeb. This one has done 40 something k, no sign of any rust on the body and never had any paint jobs. He now wants to sell it, looking for £3500 if anyone is interested.
He is a club member, doesn't use the forum but promises he will, and he may be joining us on 12th May.

well, you learn something new every day! I only thought celebrations came in red!

Be good to see another Storm gray on the run in may!

Apparently they came in 3 colours, I think he said red white or grey, perhaps someone can verify that ?

According to the brochure the Celebration was available in: -

white satin 239
storm grey metallic 323
burgundy red metallic 322

I love the storm grey but most seem to be burgundy!!

The GT was only available in Burgundy Pearl Metallic and Racing Green Metallic (321??), but the brochure doesn't list colour codes.
Does anyone know if the burgundy is the same between the GT and Celebration?

Not quite a full answer but these are the colours according to our own site:

http://www.volvo-480-europe.org/volvo480/colours.php


We'd need to see a GT's ID plate for conclusive proof.

The GT has green burgundy and beige patterned leather interior by some famous designer, but only on the UK GTs and although they were limited to 250 they weren't numbered. Celebrations have plain leather interiors and were numbered. There are small differences on the upgrade items they had - rear roller covers on celebs but not GTs for instance.

According to 'howmanyleft.co.uk" there were more GT's registered than manufacturered!

Records show there were 353 GTs on the road in 1995.

The data comes form the DVLA, so is as accurate as the databse that its taken from (make of that what you will!).

One explaination is that dealers registered cars incorrectly at first registration.
quote "Errors occured when vehicles didn't have exactly the correct model variant recorded on their V5 registration document, especially since quite a lot of the data for older vehicles is based on paper records that were originally maintained by local authorities".

Guessing, I would hazard that Volvo made 125 of each colour and when they were gone that was it.

Additionally, there were less Celebrations registered than 480.

389 Celebration Manual registered in 1996
81 Celebration Auto in registered 1997
A grand total of of 470 Celebrations at the peak.

That means there must be 10 Celebrations out there somewhere never registered. Might pop into Lookers and see if they have one!!

I have wondered if there was an earlier 'issue' of GTs - I once bought a set of wheels from a black GT being broken - the owner said it was black and a GT on the original reg doc. If I'd known about the colour code on the plate I'd have looked to see what the code on that was. Maybe it didn't start life as a GT. I didn't think to ask what year it was. dcwalker, do you have any info in your sales brochure collection ?

This one is a bit of an old chestnut.

In the UK the GT model was a special edition. Only made in 1993, 250 cars only. Special leather interior, Veda wheels and Aircon marked them out.

Only in BRG and burgundy pearl metallic: AFAIK there were more reds than greens, and yes, it was the same red as the later Celebration.

However, GT was a "standard" model in mainland Europe. So not to be confused. But a number of V5s gave ES models as GTs. It was an error, like the occasional reference to the totally mythical "SE". But hence the DVLA based figures for how many left is unreliable.

The Celebration did indeed come only in the three colours mentioned. Can't comment on the apparent numbers registered but may well just be further errors.

I believe the real reason for the GT and the Celebration, apart from trying to generate a last flurry of interest, was to use up the stock of body shells that did not have the moon roof fitted...

Vesa wheels were available as an accessory for many years but only the UK GT had them as standard. Hence you may find the on other models, maybe even fitted from brand new.

Hope that helps!

David

Interestingly, the man with 4 Celebrations used to have an SE. I asked him if it was badged as SE on the back and he thought so but he couldn't remember for definite. Someone told him ES stood for ensuite due to the bath in back so I rather think he would have noticed if it had an ES badge. Perhaps it was just badged as 480 the same as the celebrations.

Honest - the SE is a myth, a misrecollection, or a DVLA error. The only 400 series cars to carry a SE badge were very late 440 & 460.

I am not at home right now but the best proof of this is if you check the relevant page of the Parts List for the bootlid badges. You will find 480, 480S, 480ES, 480 TURBO, and 480GT.

If the Celebration man is of an era to remember the "ensuite" reference (like me) then he had a 480ES...

David

zapcity wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 25, 2018 9:19 am

The GT was only available in Burgundy Pearl Metallic and Racing Green Metallic (321??), but the brochure doesn't list colour codes.

321 is correct for the green cars according to my ID plate. Judging from the colour codes on the main site as James posted, I'd wager that the red GTs and Celebs are 'Flame Red Metallic', code 322, based on the years of manufacture and the number being next after 321 for the GT green, which makes sense given that the numbers seem to be in roughly ascending order as they were introduced (the the exception being the two-tone, in whose case I'd guess that the code refers to whichever of the two colours hadn't been used before, or possibly used on another model?).

dcwalker wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 25, 2018 7:23 pm

I am not at home right now but the best proof of this is if you check the relevant page of the Parts List for the bootlid badges. You will find 480, 480S, 480ES, 480 TURBO, and 480GT.

That checks out:

If the Celebration man is of an era to remember the "ensuite" reference (like me) then he had a 480ES...

It was his brother in law that had an ES (mother had a turbo, someone else had a GT, the list was endless !)

I think to conundrum of the SE may finally be solved. Watching Flipping Bangers last night, Leigh referred to his two tone as an SE or Special Edition. They are actually badged Limited Edition on the left and just 480 on the right, but why Limited becomes Special is a mystery. I have always wondered why there is nothing on howmanyleft for the twotones and thought perhaps they were included with the ES. Also never been aware how many two tones were made, so maybe they were a Special rather than Limited and Volvo just had Limited badges to get rid of. I believe the two tones were to generate more interest in the remaining stock of 1700 engines which weren't selling well.
I shall have to ask Leigh, he's very knowledgeable about Volvo in general and the 480s in particular.
I will also ask the man with the 4 Celebrations what colour his supposed SE was. We might even find the SE figures included the Paris edition.
Jaster, will you ask Oli what his registration doc says the model is ?

Cracked it !
SE = Special Edition = Limited Edition
If the figures on howmanyleft were accurate, SE numbers would be the two tones and the Paris Edition.

o, and they were Special Editions of the ES so strictly speaking ESSE.....

Thanks Sylvia - that makes sense!

As you say the two special editions that did not carry completely different model names (as in Celebration and GT) were the Paris and the Two-Tone. As far as I remember the Paris carried no extra badges, and as you say the Two-Tone said "limited edition" below the lights (RHS on the original 1.7, LHS on the later 2.0 when it was displaced by the "2.0i" badge).

On the boot-lid both cars simply said "480 ES".

So yes, "SE" referring to the fact that certain cars were special/limited editions of the ES sounds sensible while also explaining why there are no "480 SE" boot-lid badges.

Regards

David