plans in due time. Engineering, documentation and investment planning was carried out exactly in the same way, as if it had been carried out by SKF in order to prepare for the set up of a new automobile company. Gabrielsson most certainly had the full support from the managing director of SKF, Mr. Björn Prytz, at that time, as long as his 'private' project did not interfere with his work as sales manager for SKF. The first ten pre-series vehicles, model Volvo XC78, were designed and assembled in Stockholm at AB Galco under the supervision of Gustav Larson, at that time still having his other work at AB Galco to attend to. A "design-office", often called "Volvo's first design-office", was established in one room of Larson's private apartment at Rådmansgatan 59 in Stockholm. The design work started in the autumn of 1924 and a number of engineers were involved, among them engineer Jan G. Smith, that had returned from America in 1924, and later engineer Henry Westerberg. All the invoices related to the project was sent to Gabrielsson's private address at Kungsportsavenyn 32 in Gothenburg. In a lot of orders that Gustav Larsson made himself, he referred to Gabrielsson as a "guarantee" so that the deliveries would be paid by him personally. These details shows that the Volvo automobile project in the beginning was a true private project, not sponsored by SKF from an economic point of view. The first prototype car was ready in June 1926. Larsen and Gabrielsson took it and drove themselves, on bumpy roads, down to SKF in Gothenburg to show the SKF-board and now present the final investment plan. AB Volvo founded At a board meeting held in Hofors, Sweden on 10 August 1926, SKF decided to use the old subsidiary company Volvo AB, for the automobile project. AB Volvo, that was first registered in 1915 on the initiative of Björn Prytz, was originally set up to be used for a special series of ball bearings for the American market but it was never really used for this purpose. A small series of ball bearings stamped with Volvo was manufactured but it was never introduced on a larger scale. A contract was signed on 12 August 1926 between SKF and Gabrielsson, stipulating that all ten prototype cars, engineering drawings, calculations etc. should be handed over to Volvo AB, and Gabrielsson in return would be refunded