We start our trip in front of the doors of the Ghent Volvo car factory…

We begin on our journey to Sweden with our faithful 850, and first of all we drove to the birthplace of our still quite pristine 850. We met at the Ghent factory with Marc De Mey, Manager PR and Communications. He showed us around the factory, which impressed us greatly indeed. We stood eye to eye with Volvo workmanship and excellence, and tell you a lot about it soon. Mr. De Mey handed me also two interesting books, one about the history of the factory and a second one about the men and women who make the cars.

Amongst the 50 personal portraits, there is one of Filip Goedertier, who works at Volvo Ghent since 1885, who governs the quality of the welding and fitting of the body parts. He is the guardian of the welding parameters, so to say… well, it shows clearly on my Volvo 850, which has perfectly flush fittings!

More to come, about the men and machines which build Volvo’s, both in Ghent and Torslanda, and of course also about the exquisite joys to drive a superbly engineered youngtimer…

Hans Knol ten Bensel