Neville Britto is a Volvo guy and, to be fair, he never had a chance. While thumbing through some old family photos at his Scarborough home he showed me one of his mother standing in front of a maroon 1975 244 DL.
“This was taken the day before I was born,” he said. The Volvo peers at the expecting woman like a protective dog would, a guardian.
In 1987, Neville had yet to be born, and his parents were travelling in a Volvo 240. They were the victims of a vicious crash that could have easily taken their lives when a drunk driver collided with them. The many safety features of the Volvo protected the couple and Neville would be born a few years later. His father would never again buy from any other car brand but Volvo. In fact, the Britto family has been driving nothing but Volvos for the past 40 years!
Neville was surrounded by Volvos so constantly during the pre-natal stage and childhood that it’s likely they leached into his still-forming head via osmosis. The car he learned to drive in was his dad’s 740 Turbo, a car he still fondly remembers. When it came time for him to purchase his first car, Britto of course went with a Volvo. His “regular” car is a 2007 Volvo S60 that he still owns today. Britto is versed in all things Volvo. So much so that he has assisted Volvo Canada and Volvo Heritage in researching the history of their Halifax operations. Britto is “into” Volvos in the same way that Tiger Woods is “into” golf.
In the same way that many Millennials have decided to replace their iPods with vinyl records, Neville, too, sought a more analog experience. He had to have a classic Volvo, and he set his sights on a very certain car. Britto is a fan of sleepers; cars that look unassuming but that drive surprisingly quick. For this, he steered past the P1800 and decided on a Volvo 122S coupe more commonly known as the Amazon. But as someone who had to constantly deal with Toronto traffic, he also sought out one with an automatic transmission. A 1968 model was his target, as that was the only year one could get the high-compression B18B performance engine backed by a three-speed Borg-Warner automatic.
Britto was looking for a very rare high-performance two-pedal needle in a haystack. Britto had been passively looking for one such car since 2015 but in 2017 he kicked his search into high gear. He personally contacted every single U.S. chapter of Volvo Club of America, and Volvo Sports America, asking for leads on one of these cars. After looking at one in Maine that turned out to be a dud, he eventually found one in Houston, Texas.
After a bit of back and forth with a reluctant seller, money and paperwork were exchanged and the car was his, even though the car was in Houston and Britto was 2,400 km away in Toronto. Arrangements were made with a kind Volvo-loving couple to store the newly-bought car in their personal garage across town. And then Hurricane Harvey hit.
The devastating Category 4 storm ripped through Houston and surrounding areas, causing $125 billion in damages. It was the second-costliest disaster in U.S. history, second only to Hurricane Katrina. Britto tracked the flood path by looking at road closures on his phone. The garage where the car used to be ended up being flooded with six feet of water, but amazingly in its relocated Houston garage within the home of Volvo Sports of America Texas President George and Jackie McDonald, the Volvo was safe and dry.
For those of us less versed in Volvos, think of the 122S as the 1968 Volvo equivalent of a BMW 335i. These sporty coupes made 115 hp from a 1.8L OHV I4. With the automatic, 60 mph (96 km/h) was dispatched in about 12.4 seconds. The engines are revered for their durability, and Volvo ran a healthy rally program with them in period.
On the road, the 122S is a joy. The engine sounds classic and racy and it bubbles its way up to redline. The ride is taught and composed, body roll is minimal. The 122 is a fun car to drive fast, and Britto isn’t even slightly shy to open up the throttle plates as he cruises around southern Ontario in it.
Britto has hunted for years for certain period accessories and has nearly all of them installed on his car. It wears an original competition exhaust that was a dealer option when new. As well, he’s installed a rare centre console between the front seats; and period Hella 160 spotlights up front. He also accurately re-created the original Volvo window stickers and applied them to the car. Britto’s car was not sold new with air conditioning, but he fitted it to the car to help cope with the heat of Toronto summers.
Britto is passionate about classic cars, but with a degree in political science and history, he is equally interested in the historical context in which they existed. Britto’s car was built at the height of Trudeau Mania in Canada, during an interesting time during the Cold War, an era in which he specializes. He has driven the car to various historic bridges and buildings around Ontario.
Britto’s attention to detail permeates his 122. He’s carefully restored tiny pieces of it, like the plastic vent window handles, and the seatbelts and buckles. Every tiny detail has been considered.
He realizes the automatic transmission isn’t loved by everyone — and he doesn’t really care. After years of searching and hard work, Britto has found his Volvo unicorn and made it his own.
