Swedish Car Day XVII: One for the record books!

Swedish Car Day XVII was held at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts on Sunday, August 28, 2016. As it has been since its inception in 2000, the event was sponsored by Ray Ciccolo’s Village Automotive Group, with Volvo Village of Danvers, Volvo Village of Boston and Charles River Saab as hosts.

Swedish Car Day XVII was packed with firsts and superlatives, and there was unanimity in the praise for the many successes achieved that day. 267 Saabs and Volvos were registered for the event, the most ever, which brought the gracious lawn at the Larz Anderson to its capacity. In addition, over 100 additional Saabs and Volvos had to be turned away with those guests having to park their cars in the Larz Anderson Park, and later on Newton Street. It was likely the largest turnout ever for a Larz Anderson lawn event!

Beyond the huge turnout, there were a few firsts. Most notable was the presence of Sweden’s smallest automobile manufacturer, Koenigsegg. Founded in 1994 and having delivered its first car in 2002, Koenigsegg has captured the imagination of automobile enthusiasts all over the world over. Their cars are a tour de force of engineering achievement and ultimate performance. Known for their carbon fiber construction and astonishing power (over 1300 horsepower), Koenigsegg automobiles hold a number of production vehicle performance records. Koenigsegg was represented by Steven Wade, who made the trip from Angelholm, Sweden to give the enthusiastic crowd a presentation on current models and future technologies.

Another first was the reveal of the all-new Volvo S90, the first luxury sedan produced by Volvo. A presentation on the car was made by Joe Haslam, Brand Manager at Volvo Cars USA. Three examples were on hand for the crowd, which numbered over 1000, to peruse. Mr. Haslam’s presentation was bolstered when Mr. Wade interjected that Koenigsegg had just replaced their client shuttle with a new XC90, which replaced an outgoing Mercedes, and urged everyone to take a look at all of Volvos new and exciting offerings.

Participants and their cars were diverse, hailing from all the New England states, plus New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Florida and one couple, Fredrik and Malin Johansson from Trollhattan, Sweden, home of Saab! This year clubs were invited to participate and park as clubs, and three participated: Swedish Chariots, Volvo Club of America and New England Saabs. In total, the clubs accounted for 72 cars! The oldest Volvo in the mix was a 1961 Duett belonging to Jeff Oberg of Rhode Island. The oldest Saab in attendance, also from 1961, was a 93 rally car belonging to Bruce Turk of New York. Best in Show awards went to Jeff Becker of Natick for his 1966 Volvo Amazon (he has also won the award for a 1978 Saab he owns), and to Peter Maitland of Upton for his combination of 1968 Saab 95 and Saabo camper, one of only two Saabos in the United States.

A crowd pleaser at every Swedish Car Day is the raffle, where participants win wonderful prizes donated by manufacturers and vendors. This year, there was a special raffle to raise money to support the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Pan Mass Challenge effort of long time Swedish Car Day participant, Saab and Volvo owner and cancer survivor Jim Coggeshall, who this year rode in his sixth PMC. Highlights of that raffle included a set of tires, a Volvo roof carrier, some fantastic clothing items donated by Koenigsegg, and a carbon-fiber dashboard cover from a Koenigsegg Agera, autographed by CEO and founder Christian von Koenigsegg. In all, $1500 was raised. Jim noted that of the more than $60,000 he has raised for PMC, almost a quarter has been from the Swedish car owner community.

As the day unfolded, awards were presented, stories were shared and new friendships were cast. Ray Ciccolo and Pierre Belperron—Swedish Car Day organizer and host—watched as the assembled Swedish cars eventually started to depart, and already they were making plans about how to improve the show for 2017!