Photo Galleries: 2010 Volvo Club of America National Show Heads to Michigan

by Stu Fowle, Photos by the Author

Aug 18, 2010 - 8:24:05 AM

Each year the Volvo Club of America picks a new locale and leaves it up to the regional chapter to organize a national gathering of loyalists. In the hands of the Great Lakes Chapter, the 2010 meet was planned for the lawn between the priceless barns of the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan, just northeast of Kalamazoo. While it holds no Volvos, Gilmore is a great museum to visit if you're in the area, made up of a series of barns filled with cars mostly of the prewar era and overwhelmingly American. There's an entire barn dedicated to Cadillacs, and a room in a larger barn dedicated to the automotive history of the city of Kalamazoo (What do you know about Dorts?) On the way in, each Volvo was photographed in front of a recreated old-timey gas station.

Out on the lawn, the Volvo turnout was impressive and covered the entire span from PV544s to a few 2010 models including our own XC60 project car. Since part of the festivities includes a little birthday party for the P1800, the show field was dominated by both coupes and 1800ES shooting brakes. A few Duetts on the field boasted some fantastic wood work in their cargo areas, and there was a fantastic 142 GT present as well. Perhaps the coolest car, though, was a 1981 242 Turbo brought by Randy Keller, owner of Swedish Car Specialist, Inc. in Schaumburg, Illinois. His black example was like a time capsule with fewer than 10,000 miles on the clock.



The modern offerings were a bit slimmer and, for the most part, pretty much stock. Sure, some guy showed off his XC70 being used properly with decoys and rifle cases in the rear, and there were a few excellent 850s, but overall there wasn't much there to really excite the modern Volvo enthusiast.

That problem might have been due to the fact that some younger enthusiasts felt excluded because of the hefty entry fee (it did include a lot of things, but a $20 budget pass could have been offered.) A few even decided to protest by paying the Gilmore entry fee of $10 and setting up in a second lawn with "NOT@VCOA 2010" stickers on their windows. A few fantastic 850s and V70s were among them, along with a Saffron C70 and a great black S60R.

Overall, there was a good turnout at the show and while the humidity was brutal and a few drops of rain in the afternoon momentarily broke up the action, the VCOA Nationals are always a great opportunity to see a great selection of sheetmetal. The Great Lakes Chapter's chance at it didn't disappoint. Check out the full gallery of over 300 photos by clicking on one of the pictures below.