Growing up near Portland in the 1970s, Larry Rembold and his younger brother, Kevin, were inspired by their Intel engineer father’s taste for cars. Their dad, Dale, had owned a ‘32 Ford pickup hot rod into which he installed a monster Cadillac 390-cubic inch V-8 – brand new – in the early 1960s. Dale had owned a trio of Model As earlier, and was a devout American car nut (although he did have an MGA he called the “white rat,” and later a Jaguar XKE with a Ford 302 V8 under the hood).
However, Dale Rembold had a friend in Missouri, Walt Erickson, today an Avanti collector, who convinced him that Volvos would be safer cars for his family, based on how well they survived crashes. Erickson had a business rebuilding crashed BMWs, Mercedes and Volvos, and one day in 1974 he showed up in Portland with three Volvo 1800s on a trailer. Walt claimed the imports were much easier to sell on the West Coast than in the heartland, but young Larry thought the 1800s – which Walt called “peanuts” – were neat cars.
“Nobody in Missouri calls anything by their right names,” Larry explained. And so, the name “Peanut” stuck on the ’68 1800 that the boys convinced Rembold Sr. to buy from Erickson.
“It ended up being a really nice car,” says Larry. “I loved it and loved to be seen in it.”
Dale, however, had missed the feel of a big V-8, and had been searching for a Sunbeam Tiger or an Austin-Healey 3000 with a Chevy 350 engine transplant, (“You could find those around here back then,” recalled Larry). What Dale did find was a ’62 Volvo P1800, an early Jensen-built coupe into which the previous owner had installed a Ford 289 V8, and a Corvette rear axle. This car they named the “Super Peanut.” A year later they bought a third 1800, which was painted a color they call “Swedish Army green.” Today the family also has a 1980 Volvo 262C Bertone Coupe, as well as an 1800ES wagon, which avid radio-controlled helicopter pilot Larry used to transport his model choppers to flying meets. Other Volvos include a V70 grocery-getter and a 164 sedan with 300,000 miles.
Missouri-friend Erickson also turned Larry Rembold on to Avantis, while the family also searched out and got a V-8-powered Jaguar XJ to replace their ’78 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Because of the growing fleet, the family decided to build a bigger garage behind their rural Oregon ranch home and started on a 24’x 24’ four-car structure made of sturdy concrete blocks, and finished in 1998. However, when they began the building project, they changed plans to extend the garage to 48-feet long, and now it easily fits eight cars inside.
In the extra room of the spotless garage, Larry and Kevin restored a ’58 Mercedes 190 that has a Corvette engine, in keeping with the family’s decidedly genetic hot-rod roots.
– Phil Berg
