I thought it might be fun to share some stories on american steel floating around on ground across the other side of the Atlantic ocean. Here we have rather large subculture called "raggarkultur". American cars are central to this subculture and you see often see these cars in small towns and on the country side. I have heard the claim that there are more american classic cars here per capita than in these cars country of origin, but I'll leave that to the fact checkers. What I guess contrasts american classic car culture a bit is that full size cars are the most popular and common ones. And here Buick has a lot to offer, as we all know! The car should be from the 50's and 60's, with some exceptions also early 70's. A car like this is called "raggarbil" here and everyone knows what that is. There are some muscle cars here too but they are far less common. Same for pickup trucks. They are not cheap nor disregarded, but they are, you know, not a exactly a full blooded "raggarbil". Because in the states I guess you have first pickup trucks, then muscle cars and then land yachts in terms of commonality? Every year there are several cruisings all over the country. Towns get completely jam packed cruise style american cars and you basically just cruise along and drink beer. Well not the driver then, the DUI limit is 0.2 and people usually respect that. Which might not seem obvious given what you might see in some of the videos below Here is a cruising that a foreigner is commenting: Another one: Power Big Meet, allegedly one of the worlds largest classic car meets: In later years extreme patina and even trashy looking cars have become a thing. This is often people in their early 20's and it is almost only Chevrolets, for some reason. Prices are over inflated for these and you can easily pay 150000 USD for roller painted Impala that hardly runs. Some of us prefer a rather shining Buick instead
In Sweden they know what a real American car is all about: the biggest models, V8, rear wheel drive, automatic transmisson and all the luxury. Full-size convertibles are very popular. Ever seen eight 1958 Limited convertibles at one show? Here are four of the eight ragtop Limiteds I came across at Power Big Meet in Västerås
Did not know about this, reminds a lot of the cruisings here. Albeit more clean and sober from what I saw on Youtube at least Nailhead in a 1967: Omg, must literally be the worst condition I have seen on a running american classic car haha.
Ahhhh....those wacky Europeans....how they love our big iron cruisers. If ever the time comes that I leave this Earth, I hope my 67 goes to a cool owner over there who will keep it in conventional form & not chop it up to put on lambo doors & donk wheels, etc.
So first town cruise of the year for us this weekend. These events are often split up in two categories, "Pilsnerbilar (beer cars)" and "Finbilar (nice cars)" . My Buick is in the latter category, still, I hope On some cruisings you cannot go with a Pilsnerbil on the Finbilar event, but on this cruising it is mixed. Here is someone who filmed some Pilsnerbilar: Some people flash the Confederate flag around their cars. For some reason it has become a symbol on its own for the Swedish american car subculture, to some people. Nobody exactly knows why, and there is no hard connection between the usage of this symbol in Sweden and the southern United States. The intention is generally apolitical (unless "I live on the country side and I like to drink beer in land yachts" is a political statement). Usually you only see it around Pilsnerbilar. However, it becomes a rarer sight each year due to the controversies surrounding this symbol internationally.
