Trafikjournalen: Cars that influenced Swedish car culture (The end!)

Honestly I don’t see the trouble, could not the parking lights be housed in the white units in the bumper, as an example?

I’d be fine with that. Also I’ve just realized I got no washer nozzles for the windscreen.

Well, they might be integrated in the wiper blades then, as some Peugeots do have. I must say that I kind of forgot about them when I wrote the rules and got reminded of them when I got that question…

I think I’ll follow this idea then.

The bricken Dione has arrived!

The Anhultz Dione XIII has been released in 1978 in response to relatively mediocre sales of the Dione VII. Anhultz was financially stable, but relatively stagnant in the 1970s. In an attempt to make a premium car for non-premium buyers. As such, the mechanically conservative Dione XIII was born. Leaders and chief engineers at the time were (still!) of the impression that a reliable car will garner respect from the customer base. Thus, reliability became the top-priority, leading to the conservative approach. Coupled with the heavy focus on economics of scale, parrts-sharing also was done to minimize costs and further refine the car.

The vehicle shown was the base-spec Dione with a whopping 75hp out of a 2.0L 5 cylinder engine. The heavily modular approach made swapping engines for testing very easy. A 1.8 and 2.0L 4 cylinder was also trialled, but ditched in favor of the 5 cylinder for better NVH values as well as better reliability. The remainder of it was rather primitive, still employing an OHV valvetrain as a leftover of the efforts done after the early 60s R&D fire. In most of Europe (not necessarily Sweden, that’s up to the host) as well as america, initial sales and preorders were very promising, with the future being determined by the upcoming years.

In the middle of development, leading hands switched, with far more aggressive plans to be made. As such, the vehicle gained a 5th gear as standard, a Double Wishbone suspension adapted from the Superkroon luxury car at the time as well as other, less significant improvements. The engines were kept for lack of a suitable alternative at the time. A new set of engines shall be pushed to the supposed facelift model in a few years (see next round lol).

In the same year, Anhultz bought Keika Automotive, a small-scale japanese sports car maker, which is planned to be used as the in-house tuning company for the Anhultz and Moover passenger cars as well as selling independent sports car models.
Various cars got a top-end sports “FTE” (Flex-Tape-Edition) model, starting the first true sporty intentions of Anhultz save for a few souped-up oddity models in the United States.

Will it be successful in Sweden as well? Time will tell…

6 Likes

Upon Franco’s death in 1875, power transferred to the “true” king of Spain, Juan Carlos, just as he had directed. Plot twist: Juan Carlos believed in democracy, and began transitioning the country to democracy almost immediately. Spain caught up with the rest of the developed world’s human rights basically overnight; and having been primed with foreign ideas for the past decade, the people were ready, jumping wholeheartedly into these social and political changes like the swing of a pendulum.

Of course, the description above is an egregious oversimplification of what happened; but to someone coming of age during this time period, it was very easy to get caught up in the excitement of all these sudden changes…

The 1981 Cade Super-eXtreme-Injected (SeXi)

IS STORY HERE

When the dictatorship collapsed, the once-government owned CADE was privatized. It kept all its factories, as well as its strong but fading dealership network in Spain and its barely surviving export network. But what it lost was most of its higher-up executives and designers; since they had been a loyal part of the old dictatorship, and for the most part still were government officials, their ties with the company were cut as part of the privatization process. And almost as soon as the spots were vacated, a variety of fresh-out-of-college yuppies immediately stepped up to fill the gap.

Now, know that these “kids” were all very intelligent individuals. But they were also very young, and very inexperienced and excited, and all caught-up in the energetically liberating atmosphere of the period. And now, in charge of one of Spain’s most (in)famous brands and with the ability to build whatever they wanted, these men and women got a bit carried away.

After a brief rebranding of the company (“CADE” lost its acronymical meaning and became a regular proper noun), Cade’s first course of action was of course to build a sports car from scratch (no more stealing allowed!). In an excitingly chaotic design process, they stuck anything and everything they thought of as “cool” on there, including huge spoilers, bright colors, a hood scoop, rear-hinged doors, a black front end (dubbed the “heat shield” in advertising), and a giant decal on the side of the car with the car’s name.

And the development process was even crazier. For example:

  • According to surviving documents, Fuel Injection was implemented primarily because “it sounds cool.”
  • Catalytic Converters were also nearly implemented as standard for the same reason. It wasn’t until a couple months before release that a marketer actually bothered to look up what they were.
  • One of the most frequently repeated goals of the team was to figure out how close the car could get to the noise regulations in every market it was exported to.
  • Front bench seats and a floor shifter were implemented to make it easier to have sex in the car. This was explicitly advertised as a feature.

The resulting car, called the SeXi, proved… a bit weird, to put it lightly. The general Spanish public didn’t really know what to do with it. But it had a way of resonating with the very same kind of youngsters that created it. Love it or hate it now, it certainly was a product of its time and place. But they didn’t confine it to that place; they aggressively exported the car as far and wide as they could. To Europe, South America, North Africa and even as far as Japan, they wanted as many countries as possible to see their new creation. And for every country it was exported to, a different reputation emerged…

5 Likes

How much shitpost is this?

1 Like

It is designed to be a full entry. Spain spent 40 years of a religious fascist regime that imposed harsh censorship; Once freed, it pendulum-swung into a very progressive and liberally expressive environment, where discussions and portrayals of subjects like that became very common. Add to that the fact that the lore of this brand until now has heavily been tied to a dramatized version of the politics of the country, and the people who now run it are the most liberal kinds of people possible (and who aren’t yet old enough to have internalized what consequences are), and something like that in an advertisement is pretty fitting. (It’s certainly on the extreme side, and would probably be a bit controversial, but I intend to address that next round).

With that said, if that text bothers anyone here even lightly, I will gladly remove it instantly.

2 Likes

my eyes are burning. good job

1 Like

1983 Ardent Chancellor Limited

As if the 80’s weren’t a strange enough time on their own, its period of continued instability of automotive regulations in markets across the world posed a great challenge to global automakers such as Ardent.

Some truly unique configurations made their way to small, affluent markets such as Sweden.

The 1983 Ardent Chancellor Limited was one such oddity in that market. 1983 was a facelift year across the world. It was also the year that exports of the Toledo Iron Eight were dropped, and the manual was no longer available on the Chancellor.

For the most part, this would be a run of the mill Chancellor Limited. Leatherette seating, power steering and windows, central locking, and cruise control were all standard, as was a 60W AM/FM digitally-tuned stereo. But there was a departure under the hood, making this the first “Limited” trim vehicle not to sport a Toledo V8 engine.

Instead, this market (and similar ones slow to abandon leaded fuel) got a throttle-body injected 4.0 liter Eridani V6. However, as it was a Limited model, it gained the new 4-speed ShiftGuard electronically-controlled 4-speed; this would be the only line that could have this transmission with any fewer than 8 cylinders until 1991.

Yet some V8 Limited-specific features made their way to this oddball export, such as the gold Pinkei rims with body-color accents. This marked the first time that body-accent rims were available on an Ardent without a V8 since 1962,

This made for a rare, quirky combination for the entire run of the 2nd generation Chancellor.

6 Likes

We’re actually very close to reaching the limit now.
I’ve got full submissions from
@conan
@Texaslav
@Tez
@abg7
@Restomod
@Lotto77
@Interior
@HighOctaneLove
@AMuteCrypt
@voiddoesnotknow
@TheYugo45GV
@AndiD
@Petakabras
@GassTiresandOil
@Elizipeazie
@Edsel
@VicVictory
@Prium
@cake_ape

Car but no presentation from
@Maverick74

That means that if Maverick and Prium fixes their entries, there is room for one more car before I close submissions.

4 Likes

Eeeek, I am >< this close to being finished… can I reserve a spot? :wink:

Otherwise I’ll just submit without an interior. The exterior and engineering is done.

Truth is that I have only checked interiors briefly and none of them has been outstanding enough to change something, so you can as well send it in interior-less and make an interior later if you want it for your own sake.

Aight, cool. I’ll send it in as is now, and then I’ll post screenshots here soon :tm: when the interior is done.
Darn… thought I had the weekend to work on this still. Seems to be a popular era this one!

1 Like

CLOSED FOR SUBMISSIONS

I suggest @cake_ape and @Maverick74 to fix their missing stuff soon, and at least before the original deadline on tuesday. If anyone of you wants to jump out of this instead of finishing, please tell me that soon and I will leave your slot open until tuesday instead.

1 Like

I’ll be sending my entry right away!


Mons Racing

Introducing the

Mons Hawk GT-X


A little history of the Hawk model

The Mons Hawk series

Introduced in 1985 as a new model, the Mons Hawk was another attempt by Mons Automotive to bridge the North American and European markets. Advertised as a hatchback it rode the “hot hatch” trend of the era with front-engine FWD drivetrains. The Mons Hawk line of cars had several trims, including two and four door variants. The lower trims had 1.2-1.5L naturally aspirated I4 engines, some with carburators (especially in North America), but also with fuel injection. The top mass-produced trim was the naturally aspirated and fuel-injected 1.6L I4 putting out just over 100 HP. The GTI participated in lower rally classes, but Mons Automotive wanted to crack the prestigious Group B! For this purpose Mons Racing was tasked to take the GTI and modify it to Group B standards, and to build the mandated 200 homologation models. So the GT-X was born.


The Mons Hawk GT-X was a complete rebuild of the Mons Automotive GTI model by Mons Racing. The 200-run limited series homologation model had a reinforced and altered chassis to allow for the mid-engine lay-out. The car sported a 1.8L I4 turbocharged engine that put out just over 200 HP (about half of the competition car). Power was delivered through a 5-speed manual gearbox to the advanced AWD system. Functional lips and wings made for a sure footing, even at speed. The car stood out with its more extreme fender flares and ample venting system. The two-door hatchback had two seats, a sports interior, but did have comfort amenities such as a cassette player and air conditioning. The car was only available in one colour - a unique grey and red colour scheme. The final touch was the GT-X exclusive red badging and sports rims. A poster of this car belongs on each teenager’s bedroom wall!

More eye candy!







9 Likes

1982 Moravia Veverky DE

By the mid sixties the entry level 850 DA was beginning to look rather outdated compared to the cars being introduced throughout Europe. So work began on a new car. Their new car was christened the Veverky, a nod to the nickname given to the 850 DA. By teaming up with the French company CESMA, Moravia was able to develop a fairly advanced traverse engined front wheel drive chassis. This allowed it to have a small footprint while retaining a reasonable amount of space.

Like it predecessor, it was powered by a small inline three, but with an overhead cam cylinder head and a larger 950cc capacity. It proved to be a sensible and affordable small car. But dark clouds were beginning to form over the Czech company. Around the time the car was introduced, Soviet forces took up occupation of the country and put a kibosh on the liberalism of the nation. The Prague Spring was over. What this meant to Moravia was that they simply had to make do with the cars in their lineup until conditions improved.


Welcome to the rest of your life

Fast forward to 1982 and the Veverky is still in production. But don’t think that the Czech company completely neglected the small hatchback. It had seen a small stream of steady improvements over the years, with a full facelift at the beginning of the 80’s to make it look more contemporary. A new eggcrate style grill, flush mounted headlamps, and larger bumpers set it apart from the older models. By once again making a deal with the French, the Veverky features a throttle body fuel injection system that allows the inline three to make 45hp and 50 pound feet of torque.


Radial tires, front disc brakes,eight track radio, and advanced safety features help keep the DE competitive with the European export markets. With low service costs, 35 mpg fuel economy, and a $12,900 AMU pricetag, Moravia hopes to have the Veverky stay relevant until a better tomorrow.

5 Likes

small thing i forgot to mention:

the trunk works the same as a 1st gen Smart Fortwo

outside handle opens the top half along the grey seam, revealing the other, inside handle operating the lower half (with the DIONE lettering) to open tailgate-style

1 Like

Would be great to see the rear of the car then. With just one front quarter photo this explanation doesn’t mean much to us :stuck_out_tongue: