Volvo Tundra

Concept car manufactured by Bertone

Motor vehicle

Volvo Tundra
Volvo Tundra in Bertone Collection
Overview
Manufacturer	Bertone Volvo
Also called	Bertone Tundra
Production	1979 (1 concept car)
Designer	Marcello Gandini at Bertone^[1]
Body and chassis
Class	Concept car
Body style	2-door hatchback coupé
Related	Volvo 343
Powertrain
Engine	1,397 cc (1.4 L; 85.3 cu in) inline-4
Dimensions
Length	4,023 mm (158.4 in)
Width	1,710 mm (67.3 in)
Height	1,277 mm (50.3 in)

The Volvo Tundra is a concept car built and designed by Bertone in 1979. Bertone's design prompt was to do "something delicious" based on the Volvo 343.^[2] The angular design was by Marcello Gandini, and continued the themes developed for the Lamborghini Silhouette and the Reliant (Anadol) FW11.^[3] It was rejected by Volvo, who considered the design too modern and deemed it difficult to market.

It is often misreported that Bertone instead sold a very similar design to Citroën, where it was produced as the Citroën BX from 1982 to 1994.^[4] However, this would have meant Citroën turned a concept into a series production model in less than 18 months.^[5] The relationship is simply that the two designs appeared from the same design house.^[6]^[7]

The Tundra's rear-side window had a pulled-down top edge, an idea that was also seen on the BX C-pillar. The effect was of a floating roof, a design idea that would become popular in the 2010s.^[4]

The car featured a digital speedometer and was powered by a 1.4-litre, four-cylinder engine, giving 70 PS (51 kW).

References

^ "Volvo Tundra". carrozzieri-italiani.com. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
^ Padeanu, Adrian (2016-08-03). "Concept We Forgot: 1979 Volvo Tundra". Motor1.
^ Perini, Giancarlo (1979-10-18). "Muotoilun kaunokkeja" [Design beauties]. Tekniikan Maailma (in Finnish). Vol. 35, no. 17/79. Helsinki: TM-Julkaisu. p. 62. ISSN 0355-4287.
^ ^a ^b Söderholm, Erik (2014-07-05). "Volvos konstiga konceptbil – som blev en Citroën" [Volvo's strange concept car – which became a Citroën]. Auto Motor & Sport (in Swedish). Egmont Publishing AB. Archived from the original on 2020-02-15.
^ "Le projet BX".
^ "Citroën BX prototypes Projet XB".
^ van der Zanden, Thijs (2021), BX: A new generation of Citroën, ISBN 978-90-828147-9-8