Norwegian gearheads on the right Way

Now the Nissan Junior — man, them’s some badass rigs. Japanese in origin, sure, but they look every bit like them old-school American pickup trucks from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Thing is, they kept crankin’ these things out in Iran all the way up ‘til 2020. That’s right — twenty freakin’ twenty. You could probably still pick one up over in Iran (before the war) while you’re on one o’ them so-called sun-soaked Abu Dhabi vacations. Then just load up your gear and head on home — either like some wild-eyed Persian road warrior or a mad Norwegian crusader like ol’ Sigurd Jorsalfar. Which one’s worse? Hell if I know — but either way, sounds like one hell of a ride. Reckon it might even be as epic as that fella I wrote about in another post, who drove his Chevy Camaro Z28 all the way to Turkey and back just to get it fixed. Now that’s dedication. Round trip to Turkey’s ‘bout the same distance as haulin’ back from Iran — maybe even farther. ‘Cept you ain’t flyin’, you’re drivin’ that beast all the...

(Opel Vectra) The Opel Vectra was one o’ them cars that hung onto that 1980s look all the way up till ‘bout 1995. You could get it with a 1.7, a 2.0, or even a big ol’ 2.5-liter V6 — not bad for a car that wasn’t much bigger than a possum on stilts. One time, back in the year 2000, I got a ride all the way up to Norefjell in a Vectra. Now, that car was at least five years old by then, but I was real impressed it had one o’ them fancy digital thermometers showin’ the outside temp. See, my old man was drivin’ around in a crusty ol’ Ford Sierra at the time, and he’d just swapped out his ‘85 Toyota Carina for a dang Citroën Berlingo — and neither of ‘em had no outside temp readout. Even though it was dead o’ January, the coldest it got was only ‘round 17 below (that’s Celsius, mind ya) past Sokna. Most places out there usually hit -20 or even -30 that time o’ year, but this trip was downright mild. Temps stayed steady between zero and -12 most o’ the way. Now that spot west o’ Sokna, whe...

Mercedes-Benz Vario had 'bout the same look as the old Mercedes T1, which I done wrote about in an earlier post . It came out the year after that one stopped rollin’ off the line, and with that there boxy 1980s look, they kept on buildin’ it all the way up till 2013. Back when I used to ride the school bus a whole lot, I always thought it was coolest when I got to ride in one o’ them big ol’ Mercedes 412 Sprinter vans — the ones with 17 seats. That was the king o’ the school minibuses right there. Since then, I been keepin’ my eyes peeled for even bigger models — reckonin’ there might be some that could haul 21 folks or more. And sure enough, after takin’ a few trips ‘round Oslo, I spotted a Mercedes Vario parked up by Frogner, right across from one of them fancy Frogner House Apartments. Now I remember thinkin’ back then — and many a time since — if that there van belonged to the American Embassy, or maybe some other big-shot embassy in the neighborhood, seein’ as they got plenty ...