• At the moment’s choose from the Convey a Trailer public sale web site is that this Volvo 244DL, a tribute to highway biking’s best hero.
• This period of Volvo sedan is a design icon: easy, boxy, trustworthy.
• It was notably sturdy, if not precisely swift, one cause that the 240-series Volvo has an enormous fan base. This one’s biking assist automobile livery simply provides to the allure.
The attraction of a boxy Volvo is simple to know. They’re easy, immensely pragmatic, sturdy, and secure. Due to a complete lack of pretentiousness and a two-decade manufacturing run, the 240 is acquainted and beloved. It is the automotive that makes being sq. and nerdy really sort of cool. And the instance up for public sale this week at Convey a Trailer—which, like Automobile and Driver, is a part of Hearst Autos—is a machine that mixes the worlds of automotive geeks and biking nerds.
Completed within the orange livery of a Group Molteni assist automobile, this 1977 240DL comes full with a roof-mounted bicycle rack bearing a road-racing bike arrange like that of Tour de France legend Eddy Merckx. The entire package deal is a enjoyable tribute to a little bit of Swedish-Belgian-Italian biking historical past.
The Biggest Street Rider
Édouard “The Cannibal” Merckx was the kind of champion bicycle owner to make anybody with multiple pair of clip-in biking footwear swoon. Born in Belgium only a month after the tip of World Warfare II, he began driving at an early age and located success virtually instantly. By the tip of his profession within the late Seventies, Merckx had received 5 Excursions de France, 5 Giros d’Italia, and Spain’s grand tour, La Vuelta. He additionally received three biking World Championships and adopted up a double grand-tour win in 1974 with a win on the UCI Street World Championships, thus making him the primary rider to win biking’s triple crown. Mainly, we’re speaking Mario Andretti in Spandex.
The “Cannibal” nickname was bestowed by the daughter of a teammate and referred to his tenacious refusal to let anybody else win. This laser focus made him a family identify on the time, a minimum of amongst biking lovers, and Merckx remains to be considered the best highway rider of all time.
A lot of his wins got here whereas driving as an expert for the Italian workforce Molteni. The workforce favored a hanging orange racing livery on its jerseys, and the assist autos have been likewise painted shiny orange. Within the membership’s early days, Simcas and the like carried the bikes to race day. When Merckx was on the peak of his profession, Molteni was principally Volvos.
This 1977 Volvo DL is a pair model years too new for an actual match, but it surely nonetheless wears the Group Molteni colours with delight. Powered by a 2.1-liter four-cylinder engine punching out just a little over 100 horsepower and fitted with the four-speed-plus-overdrive guide transmission, that is very a lot a Volvo of the “world’s quickest tractor” selection.
Some beauty points with peeling clear-coat are talked about within the itemizing, and there is some corrosion famous. At coronary heart, this 244 is a Volvo with 237,000 miles on the odometer, and it has its justifiable share of damage. Then once more, Volvos from this period are likely to have the sturdiness of granite. This factor will nonetheless be on the highway when the final gallon of gasoline is produced or till the warmth loss of life of the universe. Whichever comes first.
Full with the Eddy Merckx tribute steel-frame highway bike on the roof rack, this automotive cannot be beat for charisma-per-dollar attraction. All of the Vehicles and Espresso people’ll adore it and so will the Sunday-morning pack biking crowd. And so will the Volvo geeks. Anticipate thumbs up from everybody.
With 4 days to go till the public sale ends on Sunday, October 30, bidding sits at $4444. Do not miss out in your likelihood to snap it up. The Cannibal would by no means forgive you.
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