transport of delight
Stockholm is a cool place for sure... but not necessarily a great destination for spotting vehicles. It's a compact city that you can walk across easily in a morning and it boasts an incredibly efficient public transport system, combine that with the high cost of motoring and the reserved nature of Swedes means you'll not see hundreds of flashy motors like in London. But those design concious Scandinavians really like a stylish ride - every other 911 that I saw was a classic, and that's a great indication of how they roll. Check out this lovely blue ducktail - Fuchs alloys and roll-caged natch. (click pics for biggety)
This Alfa GTA is purdy too.
It's no surprise that there was a surfeit of Saabs and Volvos with some pretty tricked out models. Few as stylish as the P1800 - Simon Templar on another mission...
...although this rugged Volvo down by the dock looks pretty Bruce.
Playing against type as ecologically aware diffident sorts there was a really high concentration of Detroit Iron - at a guess I'd say about 2% of the vehicles were big American rides (and if 2% seems low what do you reckon the British concentration is? I'd say less than one in a thousand) trucks, minivans, MPVs and yank tanks like Caprices and Grand Marquis. It wasn't unusual to hear a V8 rumble amidst all the Volvos at all - but they really love to cruise at night... I whipped out the camera quickly so the pic isn't very good but following a white land yacht was this sweet GTO, I think it's a '72 but WhiteBoyBob will be able to tell me.
There's a real enthusiasm for the rocker bike scene too, we went down the Stockholm Ton Up Club Rumble to see what was going on... loads of bikers and their chicks rocking the classic Ace Cafe look but not quite as many bikes - I think they came along on the bus so that it wouldn't intefere with their drinking! This fella was an expat from LA riding a sweet Enfield 500 Export - he's modified the rear to take a different seat unit from a '52 bike (he told me the model but I can't remember soz) and made a nice job of integrating a new rear fender, not a bobber but a lovely bit of work.
Norton, Tribsa and a BSA
A classic Olds in attendance
It's a good thing that they decided not to mix drinking and driving.
If you want to enjoy the water, take a boat trip - there are plenty of ferries around the 14 islands, and you can use them with your travelcard! Or even better stay on board the af Chapman like we did - a hostel converted from a former Swedish Navy training ship.
posted by Chris at 3:21 pm
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