REPRINT FROM TRAFIKJOURNALEN #4 2021
CARS THAT INFLUENCED CAR CULTURE
PART 4: WHEN “GROOVY” BECOMES “RAD”.
As we all know, the 80s was nothing but a counter-reaction on the 70s. Two centuries that, when looking at it in one way, is only a day apart. An hour, a minute, a second. Yet, they seems to be worlds apart. But did that happen over night? No, of course not. One great way to see the transition period is to look at the cars from the late 70s and early 80s, which we are going to do today.
VERY INFLUENTIAL: 1982 AEKI 451 2.2 Turbo Exclusive (
@conan )
Every day in regular traffic, you will meet an 80s car that is so common that you won’t even react. We’re of course talking about the AEKI 400 series, for many years the backbone of Swedish transportation.
But it has not always been like that. To start with, the sales of the 400 series were slow. Many people were questioning why it had to be so expensive. But in another way, it was a clear example of getting your money’s worth. It gave you lots of interesting technology, like turbocharging, a computer controlled 4 speed automatic transmission, limited slip differential, variable ratio steering and double wishbone suspension all around (on the most expensive models). Not to mention that it was among the first cars to feature pretensioning seatbelts and a driver’s side air bag, which combined with the carefully engineered body shell made it one of the safest cars of its era. And just like the 100 series had been once upon a time, having a 400 series in the driveway finally became a status symbol that many families were aiming for. And it was produced for over 15 years, becoming so popular that some people were in tears when it was finally discontinued.
Other people were not very keen about it, though, They meant that the big bulky square body made the car look like if it was some concrete shelter on wheels. The engine was “coarse” and “agricultural” for an executive class car. Also, even if luggage space was great, there were smaller cars offering equal amounts of passenger space. But the criticism could by no means hamper its success.
And if we should compare it to the 100 series once again, the natural thing to do was to pass down the 400 series to the younger generation. If you were born in the late 70s, 80s or early 90s, we could almost bet that an AEKI 400 series were your first car. And turbo, limited slip differential and rear wheel drive could only mean abuse, right? But the 400 series could take it like a champ.
Maybe that is the reason why values have been skyrocketing for the last five years or so? Finding a 400 series that isn’t a complete wreck means that you have to empty your wallet.
1982 F&S Rattler MkIII Turbo @Tez
The third generation Rattler was kind of the revenge for F&S after the dark years. The old unreliable SOHC inline six was now replaced with a modern DOHC unit, despite an extreme power output for its era of 372 hp, it held up, unlike its predecessor. Driving dynamics were in a class of their own, which could not be said about earlier Rattlers (not bad, but maybe a bit disappointing for the type of car). That was, of course, as long as you could handle its tendency to smoke the tyres. Sticky 215 wide rubber did not help when 456 Newtonmeters were sent to the relatively light tail. Because when it came to weight distribution, there were better cars on the market, but that didn’t matter, it was still relatively well balanced. A top speed only 4 km/h short of the magical 300 limit and a 0-100 time of 5.59 seconds were amazing in its era, too. But all of this must have meant that it sacrificed the comfort, right?
Nah. The driver and passenger (as the 2 seater it was) were sitting in an air conditioned cocoon clad in leather, with a decent stereo system and all the bells and whistles that were available in the 80s. No wonder that the F&S Rattler was such a dream car for many people back then. Many teenage bedroom walls were decorated with posters of them, the automotive journalists weren’t short of their praise. And of course, such a nice car was costly, but $33500 AMU was still not totally bonkers, considering what you got.
But of course, the market was very much limited here when the car was new, since it still was a dream for many people that meant that the import in the late 80s were, not massive but still remarkable. Many examples found their way to the country, but that didn’t mean that they were ever cheap. The Mk3 Rattler’s destiny was to become a classic from the moment it rolled out from the factory, and a classic it remains.
VERY INFLUENTIAL: 1984 Waldersee Ritter T23 TRA (
@Texaslav )
If there was one car that brought AWD to the masses, it was the Waldersee Ritter. Before this, having anything more than 2 wheel drive was usually limited to off road vehicles that, to say it nice, was quite compromised on the road. Manually locking freewheeling hubs and transfer cases with no centre differential made for primitive systems that should only be used when you already were more or less stuck - not on a bad and slippery road.
That all changed with the more complex system that was introduced in the Ritter. You didn’t have to touch anything, the 4 wheel drive simply was there all the time, without driveability being hampered at all. Today “all wheel drive” are well known words to any car nut, but in the 80s this was something new. That made it a favourite especially in the northern parts of the country.
But did the Waldersee have anything else than AWD speaking in its favour? Of course it had. Excuse us, but it was simply a damn good car. It was sturdy and reliable. It was safe and secure. It was so utilitarian, practical, everything you could expect from a workhorse, while the nice 5 cylinder engine meant that it never felt slow either.
All this was sold at a competitive price of $21300 AMU. But while the price as new was held at a sane level, the craze about the Waldersee Ritter as an used car held the second hand values at an insanely high level, finding an owner that wanted to part with his Waldersee was not an easy task, and it has sort of been like that ever since. It is not as an enthusiast vehicle the Ritter have been most influential, fact is that it took some time for it to be accepted like one, no, it is all the daily driven examples that never seems to get tired that have given the Ritter a kind of legendary status. And you can still find them, especially in the north where the salted roads are few and far between - not that it matters very much since the rust protection was really state of the art for the mid 80s.
VERY INFLUENTIAL: 1985 KAI K180 Turbo (
@abg7 )
The K180 Turbo was really the right car at the right time. In the mid 80s, there was some new interest sparked into the sports coupé segment, it once again became THE kind of car to have to be hip. And one of the cars that caused that to happen was the K180 Turbo. It is a bit unclear if the hen or the egg came first here, but the sales of sports coupés in general seemed to go hand in hand with the sales of K180 Turbos for all of its production time.
But why did the K180 become such a success then? To start with, styling has always been an important factor in this segment, and the K180 was looking very modern and contemporary, without being overstyled, rather a very clean and timeless car that still looks great over 30 years later. Also, it had great driving dynamics and was very fun to drive, with a relatively good balance, great chassis engineering, rear wheel drive and a 5 speed manual transmission. Also, the engine was something of a piece of art for its era, cranking out 195 hp from only 1.8 litres (with the help of a turbocharger of course) without hampering reliability or driveability too much. Also, it was practical and comfortable enough to have as a daily, at least if you didn’t have a family, and you could own it without breaking the bank. Finding any major flaws with the K180 was really hard, which resulted in strong sales.
Fast forward circa 15 years. The movie “The agile and the angry” was extremely popular, resulting in the tuner style being all the rage, and the K180 was a popular object at the time, multiple examples were featured in the tuner magazines of the era. We may laugh at it today, but all of us that was there and remember may nod at it too. And when that fad slowly was fading away, drifting was starting to become popular in this country. And which car became a very common platform to build on there? Yup, you are guessing right.
And as time goes by the pendulum turns back again. After over 30 years, the K180s are getting restored back to original condition. And if you have one that survived all the fads, you are a lucky one. An untouched example is certainly not cheap today.
The K180 - a modern classic in its own right.
1984 Aim Swallow Mk IV G6T (
@lotto77 )
If the Waldersee Ritter brought all wheel drive down to the masses, the Aim Swallow unfortunately barely missed the goal. Not because there was anything wrong with the Swallow, just like the Ritter it was a really good car. And not because it was a flop, it still had somewhat decent sales for what it was. But the Waldersee Ritter was cheaper to buy, cheaper to run, more reliable, better at the light offroad duties it was supposed to do, had better rust protection and was more utilitarian. The Swallow was more comfortable, civilized and offered better standard equipment, and overall felt like the “nicer” car.
And in the end it was quite clear who “won” this race. People asking for an AWD station wagon in this era was more in the market for a workhorse, than they were for luxuries. Though both the engineering and styling of the cars did have some interesting similarities, so they really do share the status of being the pioneers among the lifted AWD wagons that should become so popular in the 90s.
And today, there is clearly some fresh interest in the Aim Swallow, because today we can see what we didn’t see when the car was new. It was an interesting example of what you could do with a car using the (by then) latest state-of-the-art technologies. How about an MS-DOS based diagnostics system? Horribly outdated today of course, but very modern back then. So if you are going to attend a car show, make sure to bring your Compaq Portable with you, and the diagnostics programme on 5.25” floppydiscs. There is always some nerd that will appreciate seeing the values of the sensors displayed in ASCII graphics, alternatively some ex Aim-mechanic that will give you some sighs and think “thank god that this is over”.
1985 Schnell LX-6 (
@interior )
If the Waldersee was a hit and the Aim a quite strong seller in the emerging 4wd wagon segment, the Schnell LX-6 was the flop. It was sold marginally cheaper than the Waldersee, but in most areas it simply could not keep up. Sure, the performance was a little bit better, but that was hardly requested in this class, and the Schnell did not have neither handling nor brakes (they were actually horribly bad) to keep up with the speeds it was capable of doing. The LX-6 was thirsty, and it was less practical and less comfortable than the Waldersee. And despite the more primitive (but effective) part time 4wd system, it was not THAT much better as an offroad vehicle. So if Waldersee hit on bulls eye and Aim missed the goal a little, Schnell missed it completely. The LX-6 was an oddball in the sales statistics that never really seemed to make it. There was not really a market for this car to start with, and it really didn’t help that it had some obvious flaws.
So, the question is, do the LX-6 have any significance at all in todays automobile world? Well, there is always people around that likes oddballs, and the LX-6 probably ticks the right boxes for some of them. But there were never many of them to start with and even though the reliability and rust protection were relatively good, even fewer of them have survived for over 30 years, so finding an LX-6 is hard, finding an enthusiast even harder. But we are sure that they are out there somewhere. Maybe you are one of them?
1976 TACK Resande Sport (
@HighOctaneLove )
Trafikjournalen, issue #3 1978. The headline was “Tack och adjö”*. You might remember it still, if you were around by then. The reason was that we did an investigation about the troubles surrounding the TACK V8.
To start with, things were looking kind of bright for the TACK Resande Sport. 8 cylinders for the price of four has always been a selling point, even if it was a bit doubtful this soon after the oil crisis. And considering how advanced the V8 was, it was almost too good to be true. One has to remember that overhead camshaft V-engines were a rare thing back then. Building an OHC inline engine is kind of straightforward, but a V engine requires a much more complicated transmission for the camshafts, as well as requiring twice as many camshafts, two for a SOHC layout and four for a DOHC layout. So, having a SOHC V8 in the TACK Resande Sport felt exclusive, it was something that was mostly seen in some exclusive german cars at the era, costing many times as much as the TACK. It also had performance that could very well both match and exceed one of the main competitors, the 6 cylinder variants of the AEKI 2/300-series. And to make it even more exclusive, the V8 featured 3 valves per cylinder, which was almost unheard of in the era.
Was this too good to be true? Oh, yes. Timing chains that did stretch. Camshafts that had problems with the lubrication. Casting problems with the aluminium block. There was numerous troubles plaguing the TACK V8, that resulted in everything from ticking noises to complete engine failures. Many owners could confirm that the Resande Sport was nothing but a lemon. In the end TACK had to extend the goodwill and change many faulty engines. Costly for them, and of course it was of no help at all when the replacement engines blew some years later again. No matter if the engine was toast or not, the TACK Resande Sport was ice cold on the second hand market.
And then, somewhere, someone found the solution.
The TACK was by no means a bad car in itself. Maybe not excellent either but except for the troublesome engine it was worth its price on the second hand market. And it was found that an IP gearbox bolted up to the crossmember and propshaft, for some strange reason. So, what became the powerplant of choice then?
The IP 4DS engine. Yes, you heard right. The N/A pushrod 4-cylinder diesel that we first saw in the 60s Celestia and Icarus in its 2 litre form, and that evolved to the 2.5 litre version (still with an abysmal 72 hp) in the 80s Rugger pickup. So all of a sudden, it seemed like every TACK Resande Sport got a diesel swap with this old, slow but rugged power plant. Especially in the northern, and in the western part of the middle of the country, a 4DS swapped TACK Resande sport was the chariot of choice for a while. Hardly worthy of the “Sport” moniker anymore, but a lot of amount of car for your money that now could be chugging around reliable, economical and totally without any refinement or performance.
That was, until every TACK Resande Sport finally rusted away, and nowadays they are more of a novelty that you never see anymore. With or without its original power plant.
1982 AMM Avstånd (
@AMuteCrypt )
The AMM Avstånd was not a failure as bad as the AMM Lyxig when it came to understanding the market, but it is still sort of an example where history did repeat itself. Remember, this was the 80s, and it was long before driving around in an American full size pickup became some kind of status symbol. The Avstånd was of course not American, but it tried to bring the idea of the full size heavy duty pickup truck to the Swedish market, and it failed. Having a GVW that made it require a commercial license, it did not compete against other pickup trucks, but more against the light duty examples of “real” trucks, like the Volvo F4, which was preferred by most customers in this case, since they were simply better at doing “truck” duties. It didn’t become any better considering the fact that the gasoline engines were more or less “dead” in the market for heavy duty work vehicles by the early 80s. The AMM Avstånd was a slow seller, but still found some niches to fill, mainly being rebuilt into small firetrucks, where there was use for the performance and where fuel economy did not matter very much.
Today, though, there is some interest in the Avstånd, as it after all was a rather interesting attempt to build a Swedish truck in this class. It is not the truck that will steal the show at a car meeting, but still an interesting piece of Swedish automotive history.
1978 Maestrum 1850 Princess (
@voiddoesnotknow )
“Where did all of them disappear”? Well, we ask ourselves that many times when it comes to old cars, and the Maestrum 1850 Princess is really a good example of that, so prepare for an explanation…
The Maestrum 1850 Princess was sort of an automotive version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde when it came out in the 70s. It was easy to drive, with luxuries like power steering, had a well appointed velour interior with walnut inserts scattered here and there, it was roomy, it was comfortable, if not very exciting. All of that was sold for a sane price too. No wonder that the 1850 found its share of buyers then.
It was not without its faults, though. One example was the brakes, that left much to be desired. The servicing was of course not as cheap on this advanced FWD automobile as it would have been on, say, a simpler RWD live axle competitor. Also, some of the engines encountered piston and rod failures. Not many of them, but they did exist, and you should be careful with driving the Maestrum 1850 hard.
But what killed most of them was the tin worm. Holes through the front fenders on 2-3 year old cars weren’t all that rare. At the age of 10, it was not uncommon that it could not even pass the safety inspection anymore, due to rust. And who saved a Maestrum 1850 Princess? Nobody. Absolutely nobody.
So, if you find one, you won’t have to worry about disappearing into the crowd at least. Strange how some cars can be almost completely deleted from our minds.
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