Easy Saturday Morning at Wheels Nationals
I really enjoy traveling to all sorts of automotive events. Almost always, I come back with lots of positive emotions and great memories. What is good for my mind, however, isn’t necessarily equally good for my body. Visiting these events most often means getting up very early and driving or flying long distances. Mantorp Park, Båstad, and Mogilno – these are the places featured in my most recent stories, and each of them required some effort to get to. So, when I found out that I could attend an event just a 20-minute drive from home, I was very happy to take the opportunity.
This was a very easy Saturday morning. Breakfast, coffee, and a short drive to the airport in Vallentuna, north of Stockholm, where Wheels Nationals was taking place. I parked my car on the other side of the road and headed to the main entrance – my little Alfa probably still needs a few more years to earn its spot in the area reserved for enthusiast cars.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the majority of the cars at the event came from the USA. I may have very little to say about them, but I really enjoy photographing them. Their fancy shapes and numerous ornaments create all sorts of opportunities for light and shadow to play across their bodies. One car, however, caught my attention more than the others: a 1964 Studebaker Avanti. I remember how, as a little boy, I would go through “The Great Book of Dream Cars” over and over again. The Avanti wasn’t the one that made my heart beat the fastest, but its unmistakable shape has stayed in my mind to this day.
The Avanti wasn’t the only car from that book present in Vallentuna. The looks of the Chrysler TC by Maserati didn’t particularly appeal to me back then, but it had some great photographs in the book, and its exotic blend of Italian and American blood intrigued me. The Honda NSX was probably my favorite car when I was ten, but the way it was photographed in the book did absolutely nothing for me. To make things worse, it had that weird Acura badge – just like the one on the car at the meeting.
The venue was full of amazing vehicles that definitely deserved their place in a book devoted to Dream Cars, but the car I fell in love with belonged to another kind of publication: Shitboxes from Hell. Or, to be more precise, from the Netherlands. It’s not that I wasn’t aware of the Volvo 66’s existence, but I don’t think I had ever really taken a closer look at one. This time I did, and I really liked how honest it is. It doesn’t try to impress, nor does it have any fake ornaments – a great counterweight to modern cars, which are heavy and packed with unnecessary, distracting features.
Unsurprisingly, as in many of my stories, I could now start complaining that one Alfa Romeo Spider and a few Panteras hardly make for a proper representation of the Italian automotive industry. However, I won’t, because I saw one car that really blew me away: a garage-built Lamborghini Countach officially registered as a VW Beetle – the result of some seriously forward-thinking. This car is so ugly it’s beautiful. And why do I call it an example of forward thinking? Because modern Lamborghinis are also based on VW parts.
Walking along the rows of cars in Vallentuna turned out to be a perfect way to spend an easy Saturday morning. A short drive, some interesting cars, a camera in my hands – and a chance to let both my mind and body slow down and recharge. It turns out that not every automotive adventure has to involve an early flight, a long drive, or a weekend away. Sometimes, all you need is a Saturday morning and an event just around the corner.
