Paul Jolly: The brilliant car designer you've never heard of

Jan Wilsgaard is the US/Norwegian car designer you have never heard of, yet his famous designs you will have seen on a daily basis for over fifty years.

Most famously working for Volvo, he started out, as so often is the case, as a young team designer only in his early twenties. My cousin Tim Fry, who designed the Hillman Imp, among other cars, was similarly only in his twenties at the time the Imp was revealed in 1963 and became Senior Advanced Stylist for the Rootes Group.

Wilsgaard drew inspiration from the 1950s American sedans when he penned the Volvo Amazon saloon car, which ran from 1957 to 1970. A sturdy, solid car with a reputation for durability, reliability and, above all, the ability to cope with Scandinavian winters. For practicality reasons, he foresaw the need for estate car variants and so created the first of a line of Volvo station waggons for which the company has since become so famous. His credo was ‘Simple is Beautiful’.

Perhaps his most significant design was the 1966 Volvo 140 series that spawned the capacious 145 Estate version, which no self-respecting antiques dealer would be seen without during the 1970s and 1980s. Offering safety, style, comfort and reliability, they led the way against a limited competition in this field. Similarly priced to the Triumph 2000 and more capable than Ford’s Cortina and Corsair estate car offerings, while Citroen’s DS Safari was far pricier and did not come with the reliability of a Volvo.

Jan Wilsgaard was nominated into the top 25 of the last century’s car designers along with the likes of Giorgetto Giugiaro, Paul Bracq and Bertone, but he turned Volvo into the leading Swedish enterprise it is today through his craft during his tenure.

Interestingly, when visiting Tim Fry at the Rootes factory in 1966, he was belting around in a Volvo 144, as was customary practice for car designers, who would test out the competition. He went on to say: "We felt it our duty to thrash it to within an inch of its life," all for research purposes, of course!