Sweden is well known to many people, including the writer of this piece, as a place that is in love with classic American cars. Nevertheless, during an ongoing trip to Sweden, the writer is still stunned daily by the number of classic American cars in daily use around the country. 1960s Cadillac convertibles? An everyday sight in Stockholm. Chevies? A several times a day sight. Ford Roadsters straight out of American Graffiti? Seen on the road every weekend. A 1953 Cadillac 62 convertible towing a camper trailer? Seen yesterday. Convertibles, coupes, station wagons, pickup trucks, vans … they all are represented in vast numbers, some pristine restorations and others ratty but still solid runners, often driven daily and parked on the street. While amassing photos for a more extensive profile of the curbside classics of Sweden, I decided to share one exceptional example spotted in Gothenburg, the second largest city and largest port in Sweden: a beautifully restored Cadillac Series 62 convertible, spotted at a wedding photo shoot on the waterfront.
A 1958 Cadillac with sharkfins, Sabre Spoke wheels, and chrome edgings and hashmarks galore has to be one of America’s most flamboyant vehicles of all time. A continental kit with a full custom bumper, which can look artificial and out of place on most cars, somehow works on this one. The wedding party and the waterfront scene evoke the atmosphere of Cadillac advertisements of the 1950s, which showed their cars in glamorous scenes with obviously wealthy owners, usually dressed in formal clothes. A 1958 Cadillac clearly conveys the same kind of glamour to young people in Sweden.
The tall ship is the Viking, built in Denmark in 1906 as a merchant ship and preserved in Sweden as an accommodation and museum ship in 1950. An interesting moment in its history is that during the First World War, while on a voyage in the Pacific in February 1917, it was intercepted and boarded by the German commerce raider Seeadler, also a tall ship, but was released because it was from neutral Denmark. It is now permanently moored in Gothenburg, confined to the harbor by a bridge that is too low for its masts to pass under.
I believe those crazy Swedes have the biggest yearly American car show of the world,
called “Power Big Meet Västerås”, a lot of videos of that mega-party on YouTube.
Here’s a link to many pics from Power Big Meet:
http://www.lov2xlr8.no/show/fopo/fopo.html
It would appear that they have more classic American cars than America does & they are out cruising in these gas hogs in spite of the fuel prices.
Old Cadillacs are still in service here as passenger service limos fully certified and inspected 6 monthly, Once upon a time GMs mark of excellence meant something real.
I’m with Bryce on this one,I think it was probably a better car than a 58 Rolls Royce!Is it me or am I the only one who prefers the 58 to the flashy 59?Not my cup of tea when it comes to 50s Yanks a bit to ostentatious for me, a Ford or Chevy will do fine for me.I can recommend Sweden for seeing American cars in use and not parked up in fields in the summer.Sometimes you’ll see a few oddities like the many “Plodges” never seen in America or a DeSoto badged and trimmed 55 Plymouth
Beautiful car, no doubt, but I kind of want some close ups of the bride and her maid of honor. Nice looking tattoo on the bride’s left shoulder…
Interesting that Swedes really manage to drive these daily. I’ve seen it myself. Back in the summer of 2009 I saw a lowrider 55′ Pontiac cruising around Stockholm suburbs. In one yard there was appearantly a daily-driver condition 67′ Eldorado. And I also noticed a 1st gen Mustang parked by the side of a street. Btw, what also fascinated me that in the window of one antiques shop there were American classic scale cars. I haven’t seen anything like that in Europe. We usually have mostly European model cars in antique shops.
I may have seen the same 1955 Pontiac in Stockholm yesterday. The one that I saw was a 4 door sedan, painted flat black. It was packed with young “raggare” guys cruising around, with American country music playing really loudly.
Yes indeed, it could almost be a 1950’s ad shoot, except for the Kardashian-ness of the bride and her attendant.
Yes, these are great years for Cadillac, I can’t decide which I like best, 56 57 or 58 Convertible. No real need to decide, All three are beautiful.
The American car culture there is oriented around raggare, who are an offshoot of what we would call rednecks. Historically, they were blue collar, not well educated, and had a fondness for brawling, although I gather that they’re less prone to violence these days than they used to be.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/01/raggare-swedish-rocknroll-cult
That shot of the ’58 Caddy in Sweden is one of the nicest I’ve ever seen on CC. Our American classics are also very popular in the Netherlands.
Which is startling to me from a practical standpoint. How much does gasoline cost in Sweden and the Netherlands at this point?
Dutch (daily) prices: http://www.nu.nl/brandstof/
Prices in euros per liter. Euro95 is regular gas. (Octane RON 95~AKI 90)
These are list prices from the oil companies, off the freeway I think prices are about 5 cents lower per liter.
Recovered from the shock after you did the math ??