Volvo has always prided itself on being at the forefront of safety engineering. For one thing, it was Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin who invented the three-point safety belt while working for the company in 1959. Volvo went on to help pioneer things such as side impact protection systems, whiplash protection systems, airbags, and in more recent years, self-driving/braking aids.

One of the marketing themes for Volvo cars over the years has been the use of high-strength steel cages for passenger compartments. In addition to absorbing impact forces, the framework also aids in rollover protection. In June 1986, the company ran an ad in Road & Track where it showed a stack of seven Volvos.

The caption said, “The first known case of Volvo Stacking took place in Mobile, Alabama in late 1971. Six Volvo 144s were stacked on top of another Volvo 144. This demonstration of Volvo’s strength was recently repeated in Goteborg, Sweden, when six Volvo 760s were stacked on top of a new Volvo 760 station wagon.”

A deeper dive into the topic reveals that Mark McCourt from Hemmings tracked down the background on how Volvo-stacking became a thing. The idea originated when art director Bob Wilvers, among others, got to discussing how each of a Volvo car’s six pillars was designed to hold the entire (3,000-pound) weight of a car — so shouldn’t a single car hold the weight of six Volvos? And indeed, it did. Volvo even went on to make a diecast promotional model called the “stack.”

At the 1990 New York International Auto Show, the company stacked six cars, but there hasn’t been much mention of “stacking” in recent years. Volvo continues to stay at the leading edge of safety, and there is an entire section of the Volvo website dedicated to the innovations. One of those innovations is the use of “human body models” that represent different sizes, shapes, and genders to help ensure safety for every individual. Another simulation involved dropping new cars from a crane 100 feet high to simulate extreme, high-speed crashes.

Volvo clearly has held true to its safety-oriented approach. By the way, according to Mark McCourt’s story on Hemmings, as soon as engineers went to add an eighth Volvo to the stack, a gust of wind took the whole thing over. Bummer!