Review: Volvo P1800 IG Meet 2026 in Unkel
21.05.2026
On Thursday, May 14, the numerous participants in this year’s Volvo P1800 annual meet gradually arrived in the small wine-growing town of Unkel on the Rhine. Over 100 participants arrived with 57 vehicles, including 25 Volvo P1800 coupes, 22 Volvo P1800 ES models, two PV544s, one Amazone, and one Volvo P164. This record-breaking turnout posed major challenges for us and the local restaurants, but we were ultimately able to overcome them. We handed out dark blue linen bags printed with our P1800 logo, containing brochures about the surrounding area, giveaways sponsored by Skandix, the roadbooks, and rally signs for the cars. Our participants came from all over Germany, and even from Luxembourg, Denmark, and Austria. In the evening, we dined from a small menu at the Panorama Restaurant of the Rheinhotel Schulz,
the main hotel among the three fully booked hotels in Unkel.
This was followed by a car-free Friday featuring a guided tour of the town and a stroll through the small village with its picturesque half-timbered houses. After the obligatory group photos, we walked to the nearby boat dock. The round-trip boat ride to Bonn along the Siebengebirge took three hours and provided plenty of time for conversation. Back in Unkel, we enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine right at the pier in glorious sunshine, because despite the alarmingly poor forecast for these “Ice Saints” days, the weather remained kind and dry for us that Friday and also on Saturday during the outing. We had dinner at the neighboring wine bar “Zur Traube.”
Since there was little space for our competition games at the hotels and their parking lots in Unkel, we drove as a group after the start of the outing on Saturday morning up to the “Erpeler Ley,” a rocky plateau high above the Rhine with a fantastic view. Three of the five so-called “special stages” took place there. After trying to get rings to catch on a moose antler and throwing as many tennis balls as possible into a basket held by the life-size figure of “Saint,” we still had to hit a target with the right rear wheel before continuing on. This was followed by a one-hour drive along scenic back roads to the Confiserie Coppeneur chocolate factory. There, participants had to estimate the number of pralines in a jar before we continued through the Wied Valley toward Waldbreitbach. After our P1800s were parked in a long line and the participants had refueled with a small lunch buffet snack, one final task remained to be completed.
The final leg back to the hotel could be completed individually, with or without additional breaks. At the buffet dinner at the Rheinhotel, the winners of the outing were announced, the challenge cup was passed on, thank-you speeches were given, and future meetings were already mentioned.
On Sunday, we once again parked our cars in a photogenic spot in a parking lot right on the Rhine and then drove to Königswinter to take the historic cogwheel railway up to the summit of the Drachenfels. Unfortunately, it was drizzling a bit and the view was limited. This marked the end of the official part of the gathering, but some participants also visited Drachenburg Castle on their own. Another entertaining gathering was over far too quickly, but many of the participants resolved to return to this beautiful landscape along the Rhine on their own time.
