Volvo S60 Recharges a Basic 1961 PV544, Reveals It to Applause at SEMA 2022

• The outside of a 1961 Volvo PV544 hides a 415-hp plug-in-hybrid powertrain out of a 2019 Volvo S60 Recharge.
• Lateiner headed up the construct, working with volunteers—each skilled techs and newbie mechanics—over an 18-month interval main as much as the 2022 SEMA present.
• Volvo has been vocal in its targets to extend gender variety throughout its workforce, together with technicians in dealerships.

Within the Forties, girls constructed most of the warplanes and tanks that gained World Warfare II, however by the Fifties, the thought of a lady turning a wrench on a automotive was culturally laughable. Ladies weren’t even allowed within the pits at many motorsports occasions, and new-car promoting tended to showcase girls within the passenger seat extra usually than behind the wheel. The automotive trade has been making strides in diversifying its workforce and its advertising and marketing, and the 2022 SEMA present featured quite a few feminine racers and a number of other automobiles constructed by all-women groups. None included as many feminine individuals as this Volvo Iron Maven, a restomod PV544 headed up by fabricator and TV host Bogi Lateiner and accomplished with the assistance of greater than 160 volunteers—all girls.

“This was an incredible expertise,” stated Lateiner, because the completed automotive was revealed within the BASF paint sales space to a spherical of applause. “It is vital to convey consideration to all of the unbelievable girls working within the automotive trade, and to help and promote gender variety in hiring.”

The Iron Maven undertaking began with a inventory 1961 Volvo PV544. Lateiner and her staff fully stripped the automotive to reveal steel and eliminated the physique from its authentic underpinnings. On the similar time, they took a 2019 S60 Recharge hybrid sedan and fitted the basic physique to the fashionable chassis. For those who’re pondering that was a fitment problem, you are proper. The PV544 needed to have its fenders widened whereas the S60 wheelbase was shortened by 16 inches. Even the seats needed to be sectioned and narrowed to slot in the small classic physique. The completed automotive is painted in a customized BASF colour, Rebelberry.

All through the construct, girls from everywhere in the nation got here to supply their expertise and be taught new ones. In the course of the reveal, we spoke with Christy Stainback, a steel artist from North Carolina who was invited to work on the construct after sending Lateiner a Stainback Metal Works sticker. “She wrote again and stated I ought to come work on the automotive,” says Stainback, who initially was reluctant, fearing that she wasn’t certified or that Lateiner wasn’t critical with the invite. “Lastly, my husband stated, ‘Say sure, what’s there to lose?’ and so I flew to Arizona and did it!” She pointed to a piece on the entrance fender and grinned, “I made that piece!”

It is that form of confidence that Lateiner needs to encourage in all automotive lovers, however notably in girls, who’ve traditionally been discouraged from pursuing STEM and industrial careers. Her Woman Gang Storage in Arizona affords lessons and open-house occasions designed to enhance expertise for knowledgeable techs and educate expertise to rookies.

Different individuals on the construct included skilled mechanics, welders, and painters in addition to a number of Volvo techs. Volvo has been actively pursuing a extra balanced workforce, partially from its work with Lateiner on the Iron Maven undertaking. Efforts embrace extra coaching applications for seller techs and managerial coaching for all workers about inclusive workplaces,, and Volvo experiences that since 2021, the variety of girls in its U.S. workforce has risen from 28 p.c to 33 p.c. Small steps, however in the precise route.