...you’re going to want to find a raggare club and slow-roll in their classic American iron.
THE DRIVING AGE IN SWEDEN IS 18, and as that magical number approached, Nicklas Holmgren accepted that his first car would be a Volvo, because of course it would be. But he pined for something big and bad and born in Detroit, preferably before he was. So in 1990, at 19, as soon as he’d saved enough money, he drove 210 miles from his home in Kiruna to the nearest big city, Luleå, and bought a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Now 47, Holmgren says his attraction to the car hit him “like a bolt of lightning on a clear day.”
Holmgren’s obsession with American cars may not be normal, but neither is it uncommon. On a summer afternoon in the center of most any working-class town in Sweden, parades of Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles and Plymouths course through the streets, driven by men sporting leather jackets and slicked hair. The culture has a name—raggare, typically translated as “greaser” but derived from a verb meaning “to pick up girls”—and it’s turned Sweden into an unlikely museum of American cruising culture.
Holmgren’s current ride, a metallic-blue 1967 Cadillac DeVille, is parked outside the headquarters of the Midnight Sun Cruisers (MSC), the raggare club he co-founded in 1989. The clubhouse is a two-story brick building across the street from Kiruna’s ski hill. The original idea was to have a place where Holmgren and his friends could rebuild engines, drink beer, and complain about work. Within a year, there were 20 members. Today, there are 90.
Most of the members, then and now, work at Kiirunavaara, a mountain in Kiruna that contains the largest underground ironore mine on earth. Since its founding in 1898, the mine has produced more than 900 million tons of high-quality magnetite. “No mine, no Kiruna,” Holmgren says.
This story is from the February 2019 edition of Car and Driver.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 2019 edition of Car and Driver.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Great Aspirations
Highs: Excellent fuel economy, good controls, quiet on the highway. Lows: Bigger outside than inside, just-average dynamics, premium pricing.
Treading Water
Highs: Sharper styling, big new touchscreen, solid electric range. Lows: No all-wheel drive, steep pricing, rivals are quicker.
Higher-Purpose Hybrid
Forget electric range. This plug-in hybrid delivers 791 horsepower.
1979-93 - WHAT TO BUY: SAAB 900
Echoing the design of the long-running 99 that preceded it, the updated and modernized Saab 900 was the car that brought the fringe Swedish brand into its closest proximity to the mainstream, which honestly wasn't that close.
12-Cylinder Salute
Bentley makes 18 Continental GT-based Baturs as a send-off for its W-12.
How to Winch in a Pinch
We head out into the Utah wilderness with the Cameron Advanced Mobility team to learn to off-road like military special forces.
Time Machines
A trip to Duncan Imports prompts an unexpected rendezvous with cars from my past. And want them all back. Well, except maybe the Ram.
Now Hear This
Automakers are going to new lengths to create the sounds of modern cars.
Getting Hammered
Jonathan Hodgman isn't afraid of a challenge, and his shop, Blue Ridge Mercedes, specializes in the difficult task of repairing early AMGS.
2022 GENESIS GV70
Long-Term Test AFTER TRACKING EVERY FILL-UP, SERVICE, PROBLEM, COMPLAINT, DENT, AND DOG HAIR, CAR AND DRIVER PRESENTS THE 40,000-MILE EVALUATION.