(first posted 2/25/2017) More lovely vintage pics from Norway found on VW Vortex. Here, we have some interesting street and road snaps, which I think all more or less date back to 1960. Can anyone ID the pre-war cars in this picture? You have three minutes… tick-tock, tick-tock…
1. We start our journey in Dombås. No, I’m not kidding about the name. Nice to see a Standard Vanguard out in the wild. Let’s take a trip through Norway and see what’s happening there.
2. Not too many folks out and about… Big country, but only 3.5 million inhabitants in 1960.
3. This town looks very quiet indeed. Just the odd V8 burbling on the street. Still, kinda Dodgy.
4. Wow, there’s just no one around here! Just a Nash and something that looks like a BMW 327? Let’s hit the road, there’s got to be a bit more action someplace else. I’m pining for something, but I’m not sure what it is…
5. OK, now we’re going somewhere… Ferry good…
6. Let’s just squeeze past these good people. Those mountain roads are a bit on the narrow side for caravans.
7. Woah! It’s bloody freezing up here! Let’s go back down to the plains.
8. What the…? Keep going, keep going. Don’t make eye contact.
9. A-ha!
Dual carriageway. Now we’re finally approaching a city.
10. Wrong part of town, or just a Simca dealership?
11. Oh, and now it’s a Dodgy garage (enough with that “joke” already!) The Pentastar reigns supreme here…
12. People! Norwegians! Finally, this is getting interesting.
13. Tram tracks, cobblestones, small shops and old buildings… This is downtown, European style.
14. And as luck would have it, there’s a classic car show going on! Classic for 1960, that is…
15. Though when you see a photo like this one, it seems the classic car show was really in the street.
16. Shame more of these weren’t in colour. You can really see how outlandish that red and white Buick is in these surroundings.
17. Can’t leave without paying a visit to King Olaf’s Palace. Would you gentlemen please scoot over so we can look at the royal cars? No?
18. Last one, which sums up Norwegian traffic 55-odd years ago pretty well: a very nice pick’n’mix of American and European cars, heavy on the Chevy with a healthy helping of Swedes (as one would expect).
Well done, Norway! You had a world of cars to buy, and you bought a little bit of everything, though Italian cars didn’t seem to be your bag.
Looking at pic 14, a 1903 car in 1960 is only as old as a 1960 car would be today.
I believe the Cadillac in picture 14 is a 1909. It is wearing Massachusetts licence plates. They only said “MASS 57” or what ever year back then.
I wasn’t sure of the age of the particular car, but a rally like that would have others of around that sort of vintage. Thanks for identifying it properly though!
I did a double take when I saw that license plate – Massachusetts still uses a very similar typeface for the registration numbers today (i.e., the “28” on this plate), so it immediately caught my eye. It appears to be an Antique plate. It looks like the writing to the left of the “28” says “ANTIQUE AUTO”.
Between 1949 and 1966, it was Massachusetts’ practice to issue new plates every other year. There was one exception to this; due to major quality issues with the 1963 plates, new plates were issued again in 1964. In this era, Massachusetts plates always had white writing on a dark-colored background, with three or four different background colors shuffled around. As alluded to above, there was always a white box on the plate with “MASS” and the last two digits of the year. At one time this box alternated with each issue between the top of the plate and the bottom of the plate, but from 1957 onward, it stayed at the top.
Against that backdrop, I see a few clues that can help narrow down the year of the plate.
1) Earlier I mentioned that Massachusetts still uses a similar typeface today for the registration numbers on license plates. Massachusetts began using this typeface in 1959. So this license plate has to be from 1959 or later.
2) All plates from 1957 onward had the white box at the top, so the fact that this plate has the white box at the top doesn’t help us narrow it down further.
3) The white box alternated with each issue between “MASS yy” and “yy MASS”. This license plate clearly says “MASS yy”. 1959, 1963 and 1966 were “yy MASS”. 1961 and 1964 were “MASS yy”. So this has to be either a 1961 (used in 1961-62) or 1964 (used in 1964-65) plate.
Great pictures! On the subject of italian cars: I do believe FIATs were somewhat popular for a while in the 60s and 70s, though they quickly developted a reputation for rust….
As some of the pictures show, our roads were probably among the worst in europe… Just like today.
Nordic winters and Fiats did not mix well.
Beautiful country, I need to visit.
Always good to see 60’s Mopar.
Looks like 3 BMW motorbikes beside the 1903/1909.
Reminds me of an old “Far Side” cartoon:
Not from Norway
In the first picture, I think I see a Russian Pobeda lurking behind the Saab.
It almost looks like a Chevrolet Fleetline from a distance.
This is probably an Opel Kapitan, projected for 1943, which plans the Russian “borrowed” when they occupied East Germany after the war. As they did with the tooling for the Opel Kadett that became the Moskwitch. The Opels followed the GM design school.
The Pobeda might have been influenced by the Opel Kapitan, but it’s questionable whether the Soviets actually used Opel tooling. The picture below is said to be a 1943 or 1944 clay for the Pobeda.
Yep — and I think there’s another one near the top of the hill, too. Soviet cars made sense in Scandinavia…
And here’s a picture from an AmCar car show in my city, still plenty of American steel rolling about here, haha.
https://www.amcar.no/Files/Aktuelt/2012/Mai/_sidebilde/Amandatreff2012_l.jpg
Judging by frequency, here’s the most common cars from the US you’ll usually find in Norway today:
Chevrolet Tahoe: Absolutely *everywhere*.
Chevrolet Suburban: Thinned in the herds lately, but still pretty common – occasional police vehicle.
https://gfx.nrk.no/K2UJdhzDWHr4BJnmP_hqpwFskl1rnDDQXKIeVYFoykfw
Chevrolet Colorado, Silverado and Dodge RAM trucks, and a likes: Usually in the Oslo plains, plenty of farms and cattle ranches there. Occasional ford trucks as firetrucks for rural areas, also the same as a tow truck now and then.
http://g.api.no/obscura/API/dynamic/r1/escenic/tr_1080_541_l_f/0000/archive/03357/Nett_FTP___Brannbi_3357503a.jpg?chk=B668A1
Ford excursion: Like the suburban you’ll see it on occasion, it is sometimes also a police vehicle, and a fire crew vehicle.
http://i50.tinypic.com/2db801w.jpg
Chrysler stratus( Rebadged Dodge Stratus): Still fairly common, all though most have been junked.
Chrysler Voyager: Dodge Caravan with chrysler badge – still everywhere.
Mustang: everywhere, especially vintage ones.
CamaroFirebirdTransam: Also everywhere.
Corvette, c3 especially: Always seen several times at summer.
Chevrolet vans, and ford e series:
Often as campervan conversions, or the factory “Starcraft” option, ocasional ambulance and police.
Jeep: Everywhere, In fact, looking at street view in Oslo, you will see up to 6 parked on just one street.
Hummer h2: Also just about everywhere, expect to see at least one in every town, more in the cities.
Tesla: Very, very common.
Assorted muscle cars: Expect to see them at summer, I have seen everything from superbirds, Plymouth roadrunners, Plymouth Barracudas, 442, etc all roll around here.
Truuuuuuucks: You’ll sometimes see the odd American truck here, Peterbilt, mack, etc Macks are sometimes used as recovery vehicles.
*Cough* On behalf of Norway I would just like to add that the rebel flag doesn’t have the same negative connotations as it has gotten in the US lateley, and is often displayed at classic american car shows.
Haha, yeah, i see people here fly it all the time. I’m not offended by it, but i do wonder if half of these people have any idea what that flag was used for.
Oh well, America’s problems is America’s, if someone here in Norway wants to fly that rebel flag, eh, I’ll let em. 🙂
It would be really good if United States can get that good.
The rebel flag is for many in Norway a symbol of freedom to do whatever you want. I don’t think so many people (who use it) really know the history behind it.
I don’t know if it was also the case in Norway, but to the French / Italians / Swiss, etc. of a certain age, the stars & bars is more associated with The Dukes of Hazzard than anything else. That show was really popular in Europe back in the day. It must’ve sparked a few purchases of Chargers from the US, complete with General Lee decals…
If you mean pre-war in the very first picture, I see a DKW F7 or F8 at the bottom right behind the VW; the other one looks like an early 30’s Chevy. Otherwise the 1st gen. SAAB, especially from this angle, never fails to make an impression, since it is the closest to Sason’s original ur-concept. As for the royal fleet, to my knowledge King Harald V still uses a convertible mid-60’s Lincoln Continental convertible on special occasions (weather permitting, of course).
I had surmised the same on the DKW front, but the earlier car is a tougher nut to crack. Could be a Chevy, but could be a number of other things as well, anything from a Model A Ford to an early Skoda or a RWD Citroen. From that angle, I just cannot tell.
Upon reconsideration, I think the Chevy really is a Chevy. My first knee-jerk reaction was Model A.
I am endlessly fascinated by these old pictures. The mixture of American cars and European ones is a bit surreal, as it’s just not the way I remember Europe (Austria and Germany) in the 1950s.
That is because of the Norwegian import rules until from WW2 until 1960. After 1960 everyone could buy a car (but very hard government taxed, first “luxury” items like power steering etc. later tax based on HP, Cubic inches and weight) , and before the 80s most of them was british (until 1970s, the quality was very poor….) and german, in the 80s a lot of japanese cars was sold as well.
I can recognize most of those. But photo 15 is a real United Nations. I see Opels (or maybe Moskvitch (s), an Austin, Citroen traction avant, a prewar Willys. And the Stude and Ford V8 of course. But whatever is the dark sedan with the seven letter name next to them?
Got it! It’s a 54-ish Ford Vedette, so that’s at least two for France. And the fabric roof front right maybe belongs to a British 10 HP Ford?
Could be — that greenhouse looks very British indeed…
Thanks for identifying the Willys — I never thought of that!
It’s my favourite pic of the bunch too. Incredible variety in that one. And that ’37 Ford just looks scrumptious from that angle. I believe the 2-door sedan just ahead of the Traction Avant in an Opel 6, which would make GM Europe the #1 maker represented in that pic.
Yes a win for Opel, especially as I think the sedan behind the Willy’s 77 might be a Kapitan and then behind that a Beetle.
Great collection. The photo with the camper trailers on the mountain road puts a smile on my face, as it shows what my brother told me when he returned from last summer’s Norway trip with a Fiat Ducato / Adria motorhome. The roads were narrow indeed, and everytime a big Scania or Volvo came rolling down the mountain, he had to put the motorhome in reverse and back up to “flee” to a wider part of the pavement, just like in the picture. Quite tricky, now and then…
On a more general note: logically you’ll find the most diverse collection of brands in countries without a car industry of their own, like Norway.
True, but with Norwegian car taxes, any cars with big engine (cubic), many horsepower or much weight will be expensive. If you bought a new Ford Crown Victoria in Norway new in 2005 it will cost about 120.000 USD. None was sold. Today the tax is based at weight and CO2. A Ford Mustang with a V8 costs about 140.000 USD.
So mostly japanse and european cars in Norway. Except in the late 70s/early 80s when you could take out the rear seat of the Caprice and then only pay 20% of the tax, or in the 90s when the Suburban/Tahoes and other was over 3500 kilos at maximum total weight and registered as light trucks and no tax. But today this is not possible anymore. Or the Chrysler Voyagers (Plymouth) who was “combivans” with 30% tax, not possible anymore.
Yep, the CO2 tax sounds familiar. The prices of new US cars with a V8, like a Ford Mustang you mention, are WAY beyond a brand new and very well optioned Mercedes-Benz E-Class with a 6 cylinder, for example.
We only had the lil’ DAFs as our own cars, for a relatively short period…Most new cars these days come from Germany and France. French cars have always done very well here, with Peugeot, Citroën and Renault dealerships all over the place.
The rest of the brands comes from the other Euro-countries, Japan and South Korea. Tesla must be the best selling US brand, other new Americana has become utterly rare.
Interesting collection, never realized there were so many American cars in Norway then. Among the assembled are a ’51-’52 Packard 200 and a pre-war Willys 77 sedan, cars that appear rarely in street scenes here in the period too.
Great pictures from the home of my ancestors!
I’m thinking the Packard 200 is on picture 12, far right-middle of the picture.
What photograph has the Willys 77?
Weird to see all those Chevy’s. I would think all the cars in Noway would be Fjords.
In Norway after the WW2 (until 1960) you couldn’t buy a car if you didn’t need it at your job. Only East-European cars could be bought because we exchangend fish against cars with the Russians/Sovjets.
After 1960 everyone could buy the car they could afford. And small European cars was the most common (British and German). Before 1960 only the rich persons who maybe was a doctor or owner of a big shipping company etc. could buy these non-eastern European cars, mostly american cars. Therefore it was quite common at the time before 1960. After 1960 american cars still was the dream for an average Norwegian, but to expensive to buy and to drive for an average salary. But, in 1985, the ACCN (American Car Club of Norway) finally got an agreement with the government of the “30 years rule”, aka no taxes when importing a 30 year old car. Therefore we have a lot of old american cars in Norway today, but hardly any new one.
Nice pictures and article from my country.
The pic ,about half…sixty percent along in the article What does the sign on the overpass read?
T/y
Looks like it says Vær Vår Gjest – “Be Our Guest” in Norwegian.
Thanks.
Any idea what is actually happening in the pic? Some type of show?
I believe it was taken on the day of some sort of race in Oslo, though I have no idea where the race was taking place, or what the crowd of people in the foreground is looking at.
On the ferry, is that a 1956 Buick Century next to a Saab?
Picture #18 is in Kongsberg, where the national mint is located
My hometown… And the 57 Ford Courier is still around.
Picture 4 is in Hamar, where the Hotel Astoria is today. M. Ødegaard a/s is still in business but has moved.
What’s the car in the lower left corner of the lead photo, next to the Volvo PV-444?
Skoda 1200, 1955 I believe.