Grand Prix Raggarbil 2019

The annual Greaser Meet Grand Prix Raggarbil took place yesterday. For many years it was held at Vegabaren in Handen, but this year it had moved to the headquarters of the arranging motor club Moonshine Cruisers at Larsboda in Farsta. More photos from the event to come in the next few days.

Two Portraits

A couple of portraits from the big greaser meet. I tried and succeeded to take a few candid portraits of these photogenic "raggare" before the noticed me. and when they did see me I took a few more and here are two of those photos.

No Regrets

This is a Swedish subculture with a difference. Some people live it 24/7, and this guy is one of them. Met him at Vegabaren yesterday during the annual Grand Prix Raggarbil event. It was a great Summer day, everyone was happy and I came home with more than 700 photos of cars and people.

Moments in Time

Three moments in time from Grand Prix Raggarbil 2016. A girl sitting on a car top with a party whistle in her mouth at Vegabaren. Two "raggare" arriving in style to the big meet, sitting in the trunk of a red Impala downing a beer. A tired guy resting on a mattrees on the top of another car.

The Dudes

I want just aiming my camera at the babes or the cars at th e Grand prix Raggarbil event. Here are a few of the "Raggare" as well.

Volvus Raggisus

Look what I found! Your typical "Volvoraggare" (Volvus Raggisus. A very Swedish subculture of the even more Swedish subculture Raggare that I have shown you here many times before). Driving his pimped car with the hot girlfriend riding shotgun. Oh, and I'm pretty sure they noticed me.

Sideburn Danne

Meet Danne. A cool "raggare". With very realistic (not), looking sideburns! He had entered the competition for best looking hairstyle at the Grand Prix Raggarbil at Vegabaren.

The Highway Patrol

Always fun to hang with the people in the unique Swedish subculture "Raggare" . That's what I did on Saturday during the 19th Grand Prix Raggarbil event at Vegabaren in Handen. That meant seeing a lot of American cars from the 1950s to the 1970s. Most of them in mint condition. But not all of them as you can see here. There are a few great competitions at the event, one of them being Worst Looking Greaser Car. This one has travelled all the way from Värmland to take part. And, yes this former Highway Patrol car has passed the vehicle inspection, that is a rule if you want to be part of this meet. I will show you much more cars and people from this meet in the next few days.

A Very Swedish Subculture

The Raggare subculture was born in Sweden back in 1950s and is probably stronger than ever before today. This is my last post from the big meet that took place in Handen last weekend. To get a good look at what the term raggare means have a look at the slideshow. I have uploaded 120 or so photos and that should tell you a bit about this way of life.

Icons of American culture

The Swedish subculture "Raggare" or Greasers (Rockabilly rednecks), have adopted a few American icons. Like the cars from the 1950s and 1960s, the music of Elvis Presley, and for some reason the sometimes controversial Confederate flag. Some more info about Raggare in English here. This 1964 Impala belongs to a member of moonshine cruisers, the leading club for the Stockholm raggare.

A Swedish Raggare

This is Göran Wester. He is one of Sweden's many Raggare. He joined that unique Swedish subculture in 1962 when he was sixteen years old, and has never left it. At the moment he drives a Pontiac LeMans Convertible. It was imported from the USA six years ago. Wester, as his friends call him bought it four years ago and he has done a lot of work on the car since. His aim is to get it back to the original condition, not counting the color as this Pontiac was once blue. The replaced retractable roof alone cost him 38.000 SEK. The new leather seating will be put in later this year. Wester attends most of the big car meets in Sweden including the one in Västerås, The Big Power Meet, which is the biggest American car show in the world. Next week he and the wife will drive down to another meet in Öland. And after that it's the big one in Rättvik. I will probably meet him again at the annual meet at Vegabaren later this summer.

Cadillac De Ville

The Biggest American car show in the world is how the Big Meet in Västerås is described. This year around 17 000 cars from all over the world will be there. Including this 1960 Cadillac De Ville. The guys posing with the beer are three members of the Wermdö Rough Stuff club, which means that they are raggare. I noticed the car at the mall in Handen on Friday and walked over for a few photos. Not sure if this car will win the 2011 Jay Leno Car Award, but you never know. The guys were quite happy with the attention so they gave me two beers. Västerås is only one hours drive from Haninge, so as I'm typing this they have arrived and are probably partying as best they can!

Rebel Without a Cause

I visited a car show over the weekend. A fun event with sport cars, classic cars, unusual cars and also of course, the odd Raggarbil, which is what you are looking at here. It's a very Swedish subculture. People with a love for the US, and especially the cars and the music from the 1950s to the early 1970s. If you would like to read more about this subculture, try this article from guardian.co.uk. The guy you see here is Jonne Engström who was one of the co-drivers in last years season of Sweden's Worst Driver. In a few weeks time the world's largest classical car meet will take place in Västerås like it does every year. More facts at the official web site for The Big Power Meet.

Rebel Without a Cause

This is Svarten Asplind. He is the president of The One And Only V8 Cruisers. Which is a "raggarklubb". It's kinda hard to explain the term raggare, but I found a very good article of the subculture in The Guardian, well worth a read. Svarten is the oldest active "raggare" in Stockholm. He is sixty three years old and still going strong. I figured he would know the President of The Moonshine Cruisers and he said he had known him since Robban was a kid. Svarten loves Elvis Presley. He drives a 1960 Chrysler New Yorker. It's worth around $27 000, and is in mint condition. His t-shirt says Home is good, but the garage is best. The original proverb says Away is good but at home is best.

The smell of burning rubber

There's nothing better than the smell of burning rubber. At least that was the opinion of many of the raggare at the cruiser meet last Saturday at the famous Vegabaren. During my visit the air filled with burning rubber every ten minutes or so. Some of the visiting cars had travelled a long way to get here and celebrated in style when they arrived. Some of them even produced a pink smoke cloud! Every year you can vote for the worst cruiser car at the meet. To enter the contest you must show that the car has passed the compulsory periodic inspection done by the Swedish Motor Vehicle Inspection Company. And believe it or not, both these vehicles with the resting raggare on the car hoods has been here for the last couple of years. And has obviously passed that test!

In True Swedish Spirit

There were a few Swedish cars at the Retrorun meet that I visited on Sunday, and in true nationalistic spirit I had to find my favorite among them. And after an hour or so I spotted this very blue Volvo Duett with the two Swedish flags and my search was over. It's been worked over a bit and is now a very different looking convertible. One detail that I liked was the blue clock. To see that you may need to have a look at the original size.

2008 Cruiser Meet

Every year Raggare from all over Sweden meet at Vegabaren for a get together. There's live music and hundreds of cars and much more. On the wind shield you can read: Dare to be disgusting. They misspelled it, but I'm sure you get the picture. These guys were hoping to win the category for worst "Råttsoffa". The worst rat seat if you translate it to English. They were already drunk when I arrived. The TV crews were drawn to them and that made them very proud and even more drunk. Not sure if they won but they got my vote. I talked to another photographer who said that the car had all it's paper in order and that they had driven all the way from Värmland without any problems. If so that is very impressive! From the 2008 Cruiser Meet at Vegabaren in Handen on Saturday. 2008 Cruiser Meet at Vegabaren. I will probably show a few more photo in the coming week so stay tuned!