MEET THE OWNER – ADRIAN WAINWRIGHT AND HIS VOLVO 244 GLE THOR
19 December 2022
"My dream car when I was 17 was not a sporty Ford or Vauxhall but a Volvo 265 GLE Fuel injection automatic - a dream still not realised as yet!" But Adrian Wainwright now owns an even more exclusive Swedish car – the 244 GLE Thors.
As most readers know, Thor is the god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, strength and fertility in Norse mythology. For affluent buyers of 1979, it meant that you could drive a car with connotations of hammer wielding to impress Rover SD1 drivers. The 244 Thor GLE was the second limited-edition 240 – the 1977 'Silver Jubilee' was their first - and celebrated the 100,000 Volvo sold in the UK.
This was a significant achievement when you consider that the general public was largely unfamiliar with the marque when the Amazon starred in the 1958 London Motor Show. Over the next 10 years, the P1800 appeared alongside Roger Moore in The Saint and Hampshire Constabulary's first 221 patrol cars established the badge with solicitors and accountants across the UK. By the time the first imports of the 240 reached this country in 1975, few suburban avenues had lacked at least one Volvo.
And so, the 244 Thor was a suitably impressive vehicle to mark an important milestone. In addition to the GLE's already extensive array of standard equipment, there were alloy wheels, a stereo radio cassette player and a metallic black paint finish. Volvo produced only 300, so naturally, Adrian was delighted when he acquired the Thor last year. His loyalty to the marque dates back many years, and as he explains:
My father purchased a brand new Cortina Ghia in Tibetan Gold on the 1st January 1981, but 18 months later, the bottoms of the doors were bubbling up with rust. So, he part-exchanged it for another new Cortina Ghia in late 1982 - with the same corrosion not long later. At that point, the Ford was traded in for a second-hand 240 DL in 1984. He stayed loyal to Volvos as a family car till the production of the 240 ceased in the early 1990s hence why I have a deep love of the 240 range.
Perhaps the final words should go to Car magazine of December 1981, which compared the 244 GLE to the Ford Granada 2.3 GL Mk. II and the Talbot Tagora GLS. In their view, "If the Volvo has a face you can stand, there is a lot about it to admire". Personally, we think the Thor is rather handsome in its Nordic-American way…
With Thanks To: Adrian Wainwright