A pair of Volvo 122Ss at SEMA 2018

The 2018 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas featured two very different takes on the same canvas – the early-nineteen sixties Volvo "Amazon" 122S two-door sedan. The Volvo Amazon, named after the legendary female mythological warriors for the world market, was sold as the Volvo 122S in the United States. 

Over 300,000 two-door Volvo 122S coupes were built during the marque’s twelve-year production run, but with 14.4 second 0-60 MPH performance, American hot rodders never considered the 122S a basis for a build - until this year.

The outdoor Shell Oil/Pennzoil display featured a 1963 Volvo 122S modified by Jeff Allen’s Flat Twelve Gallery. Allen and his team substituted the chassis from a 2013 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport equipped with a 630-horsepower Lingenfelter Performance Corvette Z06 crate engine for the Volvo’s original running gear and 85-horsepower overhead valve four-cylinder engine. Known as the “V06,” Allen will use it on a cross-country tour of Optima Ultimate Street Car Autocross competitions then the car that Allen affectionately calls “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” will be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund.

The 1964 Amazon 122S shown in the Cummins Diesel booth built by Heritage Driven went a different direction, using a Mustang II front clip stiffened factory frame and custom-built four link rear suspended 9-inch Ford rear end powered by a Cummins turbocharged 2.8 liter (171 cubic inch) four-cylinder crate engine connected to a Tremec 6-spped transmission. The diesel crate engine provides 161 horsepower and 310 foot-pounds feet of torque to the rear Method 17-inch rally wheels.   

All photos by the author