History Back in the old days in Sweden.

Here's a treat for you Americans. We in Sweden have allmost forever had an interest in the American car and it's still so. Late fifties, early sixties young men, called raggare in Swedish (cruisers in a loose translating) bought these cars for a bargain and just cruised around, picking up girls. And made some riots. Hated by the society and the police as you will see. Also you'll see pix of Swedish bikers from the same time. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUAVDBJfIWw&feature=share

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Cool post thanks I enjoyed that

 

^ ^ ^ X2,thanks for sharing--chuck

 

Very cool, I wonder how many of those cars and bikes are still around today? I hope all of them.

 

I enjoyed that , Thanks for posting

 

Badass. This is my favorite picture...


Also it is on my bucketlist to go to Sweden.

 

What ever happened to STIG BROHLEN of Tungelsta,Sweden??---He was an Associate member of LAR in the early 70's. Is he still with us???

 

Thanks for posting that. I had a chopped 57 Ranchero go to Sweden 20 or so
years ago. Wonder if it still exists.

 

back in the day(early 70s) i wanted to go to sweden. man i still do, but ive been trying to drive a old car down hwy 66 and i aint done that yet either.and its in my own damn country lolol

 

Raggare = greasers

 

Was it silver or light blue metalic with
darker blue flames?

 

YANK TANKS RULE!!!!!!!
If you were in the military in the '70's you could buy a new car, transport it to Naples, Rota, Mildenhall, etc., do your tour and sell the vehicle at a profit then order a new one thru the proper channels and have it waiting stateside upon your return. NEMET was a big dealer as were the base PX's/Exchanges. Status of Forces agreements made it so if you sold your vehicle before your tour was up it could be near impossible to put anouther car on road for upto 3 years. I bought 2 motorcycles thru the Navy Exchange at Rota, Spain over a 21 year period, saved big bucks and was waiting stateside for me. In 1977 I bought a Suzuki GS550B in Black and the dealer made my payments to use it as a static demo as he was unable to get his order until 1978 and only in red or blue. In '84 I did anouther buy on a Honda VT500FT V-twin, come to find out this was a rare model in US (looked like a Harley XL clone with shaft drive) the US version was chain drive and a totally different looking bike.

 

Great video, thanks for sharing.

 

had a new 1972 GTO waiting for me when I came home. thanks for the post I could sware I seen some of my uncles there. Lol

 

AND they were driving those LHD American sleds on the left side of the street. They didn't switch sides until the 80s or so. Nice film.

 

Swede Rebels Without a Cause! No Vovo's in sight.

 

Cool video. Btw, We switch from left to right side driving 1967 in Sweden.

 

I bet that was a big mess. I couldn't imagine how that could be done safely.


Cool video, great pictures

 

Awesome. Enjoyed the video.

My Grandpa was from Sverige. I think this would've made him proud.

 

Thanks all!
There are more videos if you like, for instance this cutie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qeBmM7_Za4&feature=related
A more romanticized view, but great edited.

 

those tuff guys with the leather jackets might have to throw down to protect those duck mascots on their back! i don't think i could do that. fight for a ducky. that second song was a hit on the radio in the early 60's in the usa, but it had a banjo playing the main part. the one on your vid. was better. a surf take off. thank you for that.

 

For those of you interested in the history of the Swedish 'raggare' there is a really good link (written in Swedish ) at the Labbås Cruisers website Tidaholms raggarhistoria



It includes full ownership history and scanned titles of the cars pictured :

 

Cool vid! Thanks for posting! at 4:57 I kept thinking A-HA video