UPDATED - Volvo VESC by Griffin Models

The Bulgarian company Griffin Models which is well known for her excellent Saab scale models has released the first photos of their very first Volvo scale model - the Volvo VESC.

The Volvo VESC has never been offered before as scale model. The Volvo VESC – Volvo Experimental Safety Car was a safety vehicle which was built back in 1972. Many features of that car served as base for the 200 series.

The 1:43 scale model will be made of resin. The model will be offered as kit. It is not yet clear if a rtr model will also be available. My guess is that a very small run of rtr models will be offered. Prices are not yet given since this depends largely on the final number of parts needed for making this model. But the final retail price should be close those found on other models by Griffin Models.

The photos below show you the casting of the first resin bodies. Another 59 of each are almost ready as well. The smaller black models are used as negatives and will serve as a master for a vacuum-formed window canopy. The remaining detail parts - windows, decals, stickers and photo-etched details - will be made in the upcoming weeks. Both models shown on the photos will be released in February 2015.

Courtesy of griffinmodels.com

_Some may remember that I announced this release back in 2013 see here. Well slight delay don't happen just to big manufacturers somewhere in Asia but also to craftsmen working as one man team in their workshop. But be assured that you won't regret to have waited slightly longer as initially announced.

Close ups of the actual rim and wheel :

Close ups of some pre-production steps :

Please have also a look at Griffin Models FB page which shows you a large number of detailed views of so far produced Saab models and detail parts. Those photos give you an excellent overview of the given quality.

Quote from an article released by Volvo (2012-04-25) :

40 YEARS SINCE VESC WAS SHOWN – STARTED SAFETY FOCUS ERA AT VOLVO

The Volvo safety vehicle VESC – Volvo Experimental Safety Car – has played a major role in creating Volvo's safety image and it is now forty years since it was first shown. VESC was Volvo's contribution to a safety debate that was going on at the time and that had been initiated by the US Department of Transportation, DOT.

DOT commissioned four companies to develop and build a safety vehicle each, to specified properties and standards. Much higher than those that were the standard of the day. The project, in turn, was part of the international cooperation for better traffic safety that had been started in 1970 by the US authority NHTSA – National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Safety was nothing new to Volvo. The work on improving passenger safety when travelling in cars was part of the very original idea of the company. Volvo's biggest single contribution to world traffic safety, however,  was no doubt the introduction of the three-point safety belt, standard-fitted to Volvo cars from 1959 and a world first. This belt type and geometry is still the standard for every car in the world today.

ESV means Experimental Safety Vehicle and this programme was built up on the idea that selected car manufacturers worked together on different projects on vehicle safety. Authorities, legislators and the automotive business met once a year to exchange ideas and experiences around safety, to the benefit of world traffic safety situation.

Most safety vehciles that were the result of the ESV challenge were heavy, cumbersome and ugly-looking. Volvo, however, made a passenger car which deviated only slightly from what the cars of the early 1970s looked like.

Work on the safety vehicle had started already in 1969, before the ESV requirements were known, and the basis for that was the stillborn 1560-project – the planned next big car from Volvo, but killed off due to rising fuel prices and the risk of an acute shortage of oil. The VESC therefore weighed only half of its "safety vehicle competitors". Although large and heavy-looking today, it nevertheless featured the same level of passenger safety as the even bigger and more expensive contemporaries, and included a lot of new and innovative technology. Some of them were passed on to future production cars. When the Volvo 240 was lauched two years later, it carried a lot of the VESC contents, looks and heritage.

The list of VESC safety lots of new technology: airbags for all passengers, crash activated head restraints, anti-lock brakes, protective beams in doors, built-in roll-over bar, telescopic bumpers, headlamp washers/wipers, reversing camera, the latter a feature which the US authorities is about to make compulsory through legislation.

VESC was publicly shown for the first time in May 1972 when Volvo was invited to Transpo 72, a big transportation exhibition in Washington D.C. The VESC became the vehicle where all existing Volvo in-house safety features, ideas and concepts were brought together and used, plus some brand new ones. Three cars were built, and one of these can still be seen in Volvo Museum.

Another vital element that differed Volvo from the other makers was the work around active safety, not just passive i.e. crash safety. This meant thorough attention to vehicle dynamics such as brakes, suspension and steering; how the car behaved during evasive manoeuvres and in critical situations in order to avoid collisions. Here, weight is no advantage. This, among other things meant that the VESC got a lot of appreciation from the American authorities and Volvo's position as a leading manufacturer of safe vehicles was further strengthened.

If you want to read more about the ESV vehicles in general and the VESC in particular, Swedish motor journalist Fredrik Nyblad has recently published a book on the subject called "Krasch". It is currently only available in Swedish but an English version is in the planning. Visit the homepage of Trafik-Nostalgiska Förlaget www.tnf.se

Source & copyright : www.volvocars.com


Quote from an article which appeared on Model Auto Review :

Griffin Models by Iain Hodcroft

Andrei Iliev began, like many of us, as a collector of Saab paraphernalia. He specialised in 1:43 scale models, and again like so many of us he became frustrated at the paucity of good quality, or even any quality, models of so many of Trollhättan’s finest vehicles in his display cabinet. It cannot have been easy collecting mainly Western European produced models from his home in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria; but his patience over a 20 year plus collecting career eventually blossomed into the passion necessary to compensate for the gaps in the cabinet by launching a new range of artisan built, extremely high quality 1:43 replicas of some of the rarest and strangest Saabs ever made.

Not a single example from the Griffin Models range is based on that of any other manufacturer. Every component is produced by Andrei from scratch, and he appears to have mastered the production of both white metal and resin models in his own idiosyncratic manner. I am taken back to the early and mid 1980s, when Doug McHard of Somerville fame was ploughing his own individualistic furrow with exquisite Saabs, never before modelled. 30 years later we have another pioneer, creating unique, distinctive and characterful masterpieces. If only I could afford them.

The simple listing in MAR 278 and selection of accompanying photos did not do anywhere near adequate justice to this fast-developing model range, so I decided to submit a little more information to the Editor; initially on the six subjects that were illustrated, but if this is received well, I will cover the others in the range as well. This is totally unsolicited and unknown to Andrei in Bulgaria; just one Saab nut enthusing about another!
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Source & copyright : equilateralmedia.co.uk/zeteo/mar/index.php/griffin-models/