The Ad

English translation of the story "Annonsen" on the P1900-sidan on pages 36-37 in PV-Entusisten # 2 1999.

By Dan Jansson
This is the story of what might turn out of an old ad with a little help from modern technology.
In early 1997 I received a copied page from a 1965 issue of the American motor journal Road and Track. It was sent to me by a Swedish Volvo collector named Jan Nyrén. The ad was about a Volvo P1900 for sale.
Although it was interesting reading, not even in my wildest did I imagine that this eventually would lead to information about both the car and its owner. So the page ended up in a drawer. But when I after a while discovered the possibility of looking up people in the Internet, the idea to give the sellers name a try struck me. Could this be an opening?
Words were converted to action. I typed Patrick F. Koughan, the man in the P1900-ad and believe it or not, there was a hit-count. In the entire USA, only one person by this name was found. This looked promising.
I wrote him a letter, and explained that I was editor for the Svenska Volvo PV-klubbens magazine and that I was eager to find out whether he was the man who had put in the ad in Road & Track, way back in '65, or not. And a copy of the ad was attached to the letter, which was sent in February 1997 and since I neither received any answer, nor saw any "Return to Sender" stamped envelope in my mailbox, I assumed that it had all been a mistake and I forgot about it.
But eventually a reply turned up in July:
"Dear Mr Janson,
I was very happy to receive your unusual letter earlier this year. I'm sorry it took me so long to reply regarding my Volvo P1900, which I advertised for sale in Road & Track in 1965, and sold early 1996 to an architect in San Francisco.
The ad drew international attention and interested people flew in from both USA and Canada - one from Edmonton and another from New York. The latter was a brother to the architect who finally bought the car. He asked me to meet him at a wealthy architect's office in Pasadena, an architect who was collecting boat-tailed Rolls Royces of all odd things. After having taken my 4-speed car with manual gearbox for a ride, he said:
- I'll buy it as soon as my brother in New York flies over to 'celebrate the deal' in a special ceremony, with a bottle of exquisite brandy.
I drove back to my hillside residence to give the Volvo a last polish and to get it in order for the ceremony which was about to take place later that afternoon. While working on the interior from the outside, an accident occurred on the hill.
Suddenly the parking break let go and the car started rolling backwards slowly, with me and my wife Virginia running desperately after. Eventually we caught up with it and were able to pull the parking break to a stop.
Several sighs of relief were audible. Somewhere in one of my numerous photo albums, a snapshot of the famous drink to seal the deal, exists. We are joining our brandy glasses to a toast, over the bonnet of the P1900 and everyone is smiling.
Six months later, the architect invited us to a recreational area close to San Francisco in order to attend an exhibition, which included my former P1900. What an invitation! We took several pictures and they simply turned out better than any of those we took of my wife, myself and the car during the time we possessed it.
I was surprised to learn that my name is on the Internet and byt the way, yes, I am the right person. I think by now I have answered most of your questions but here are some additional comments:
This 1958 (? Editors remark) was bought second hand in 1961 or '62. If I can find any good pictures, I will bring them when me and my wife visit Stockholm during a cruise in August.
The cruiser is MS Maasdam and it takes us to Russia and Scandinavia. Hopefully we can get together in Stockholm on the 9th of August. With kind regards, Patrick F. Koughan."
I think you can guess who immediately called the Stockholm harbor in order to find out the exact time of arrival for MS Maasdam. At 8 o clock in the evening of August the 9th, she was expected at Stadsgården.
Through a ship broker I got hold of the number to a fax machine on board the ship, which was equipped with a satellite phone, and thus I could announce my intention to meet them at the waterfront.
Early in the morning of the 9th, I prepared a picnic basket and left for Stockholm in dusk. I found a spot with an excellent view at the Fåfängan hill, where I could overlook the passage where all ships have to enter, right through the Stockholm archipelago. However, it was a foggy morning. Just after 8 o clock, the fog disappeared and at just that moment, the huge ship entered the harbor.
After docking, more than 2000 American tourists flooded the quay, heading for the by-standing sightseeing buses. To me, all of them looked more or less the same. So in order to attract the Koughan's attention, I displayed a sign which I had prepared.
And then they came.
Wow!
Thanks to a photocopied, 30+ years old American auto journal, containing an ad which should long have been forgotten, now stood the seller - in person - in Stockholm. That truly defied all logic!
The Koughan's had booked sightseeing tours for their entire time in Stockholm and would therefore not have any time left for seeing me. But I just h a d to have a chat. Now what on earth were we supposed to do? The first stop in their programme was planned for the Vasa museum and I went there in my old Volvo Duett. During the hour-long visit, I was able to learn more from our visitors and of course about the car which was the basis for our relation.
And when it finally was time for the visitors to go back to their bus, we were once more separated. Patrick Koughan promised to look for any documents and pictures connected to the car that he might still have in his possession, upon his return back home.
Time went by, and nothing came from California. After a while I called them to find out if they had forgotten about me, and I learned that Patrick was in hospital due to cardiac problems. Thus the delay. He was deceased in February 1998. Regretfully, I never received any more info about the car, and therefore I have no clues to which of the 67 cars it actually was, whether it still is around and if so, where. But perhaps someone out there knows?

Original text by Dan Jansson ,
translation by John Boija