The other day I was on a long conference call, mostly just listening. So I put the phone on speaker, muted the receiver and began looking at Google Maps to see what interesting cars were captured. It’s fun to explore places I have lived or visited: West Chester, Pennsylvania; Potsdam, New York; Norfolk, Virginia; or Lincoln, Rhode Island; Mount Vernon, Maine; rural West Virginia; and Edinburgh, Scotland, to name a few. But this was a long call, so I soon moved on to places I’d like to visit. My mother’s grandparents came from southwestern Sweden, so I clicked on a random street near Goteborg (Gothenburg) and did an immediate double-take. A NASCAR Pontiac? Well, Robert Kim has told us about Sweden’s American car scene so maybe not so surprising.
One more click to see if there’s a house to get an idea of how my family lived and…
…cute house, but what are those fins? Two clicks, two Curbside Classics Trottoarkanten klassiska. Beautiful countryside too. Let’s keep moving.
One more click, and look what was behind that bush! Even Eugene doesn’t look like this.
By the way, this really happened just as written–three clicks, eight Curbside Classics. I tried again at a couple more random locations in Sweden, and found mostly Volvos. I guess I should have bought a Lottery ticket that day…
In the third photo, I wonder if the thing that looks like a gigantic rock is actually a gigantic rock….
You were meant to see those cars; there are no coincidences. 😉
Looks like the CC effect was in full force!
The Swedes have such a sense of humor. Pontiac’s full-size NASCAR days were long over by 1966. Smokey was then building super-cheater Chevelles and Fireball was dead. But apparently the car lovers of Goteborg aren’t quite so picky.
Love that 66 ponty. I assume petrol prices in Sweden are the same as the rest of Europe so cars like this must seriously bruise the wallet.
Non-daily drivers~hobby vehicles. Somewhere between 0 and 5,000 miles a year. Installing an LPG-system is another option, cheapest fuel available (in my country that is, don’t know about other countries in Northwestern Europe) and the mileage is only slightly worse.
Yeah, I’m just amazed at the disproportionate amount of US metal I read of in Sweden. As my father always says, a big car is one with six cylinders. And that attitude seemed apparent in his native Italy – a classic this big or even an old six cylinder Fiat/Alfa/Lancia was not to be seen when I was there in 2009. I did spend most of my time in Rome though.
Changed my mind. I want the grinning Buick instead.
US metal from the fifties, sixties and seventies is “serious business” in Sweden, Norway, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands (maybe I’m forgetting a few). Lots of importers, dealers, specialists, parts suppliers etc. And of course the annual shows, clubs, magazines, internet forums, the whole shebang.
Internet has become a major factor in finding cars and parts. Not unusual to buy a car (unseen) on Ebay and have it shipped to your own whereabouts.
Well, as a Swede I’m not totally surprised that you stumbled over these
cars on Google Maps. In fact, Sweden has an enormous amount of US cars
compared to the number of inhabitants! Especially cars from the 50’s to the 70’s and especially in the parts of Sweden called Dalarna & Värmland (towns called Mora, Leksand, Torsby are good examples). Not too far away from Stockholm is another well known “US car metropol” called Västerås where the host a huge US car/swap meet every year. I live in Luxembourg in the hart of continental Europe and if I should pick one downside with it, it’ll be the lack of US car culture! Cruising around in my Cutlass Supreme I don’t meet many “buddies” :-). I have a summer house up in Värmland so when I go there next time I’ll bring my CC camera! //Johan
It’s mostly the same scene in Norway too. Try “walking” in Norway on google maps too, the sights are pretty much the same, streetviewing Oslo i’ve found a 1991 caprice, an 80s corvette in the middle of the countryside, the typical classics like cadillac broughhams and eldorados ,etc