COPO Anders' Swedish LeMans !

[Belair62]

For a couple of years now, my friend Hans Olsson and I have been trying to buy a # 512 shortblock from a guy in northern Sweden. Recently when we were about to close the deal on the 427. he all of a sudden asked me if we were interested in buying his fathers car, a 1971 Le Mans. That´s how I got in touch with Allan Ogren, who bought the car in 1975 with 3700 miles on the odometer
.The Le Mans was bought brand new by a Mr A. Goransson from Rattvik, Sweden. He travelled a lot and for some reason he ended up buying the car at Myrtle Motors in N.Y. It was immediately shipped to Sweden, and was registered here on June 15, 1971. The car was to be used by his girlfriend, I have been told.
During the thirty years Allan Ogren owned this car he drove 96.000 miles with it. If you exclude one winter, he only drove it in the summer time and only on paved roads. The hitch was put on the car in 1976 and was used to trailer a mobile home. 99% of the paint is still original, but a clear coat of lacquer was applied by Allan after he got the car. As can be seen on the buildsheet and the car itself, there are a number of options. Nothing high-performance though. The AM-FM radio works fine but I haven´t tried the tapeplayer yet. The interior is still very good. A small part of the seam in the backseat is gone, but that is all we can find.
The engine in this car has it´s own story. In 1969 Allan bought a used Ram Air III 1969 GTO. During the first winter, while driving in the countryside, he met a truck loaded with timber on a narrow road. To avoid being hit by the truck, he steered off the road and hit a stone. The front part of the frame got twisted and the engine was never to run again. As a replacement he ordered a new longblock. Intake, pulleys, alternator etc. was taken from the R A III. Thanks to Da Judge, GTO DON and others on this forum, I now know it was a Ram Air II service replacement engine he ordered. Since he couldn´t straighten the frame properly, he sold the GTO with a 350 engine under the hood, and put the R A II in storage. Ten years later, when the Le Mans had something like 60.000 miles on the odometer, he pulled the 350 engine and trans and gave the NOS Ram Air II a new home under the hood of the Le Mans. He had some fun with it, but never really raced the car. Mainly because of the 2.78:1 rearend gear ratio. After having put 35.000 miles on his R A II engine, he rebuilt it totally in 1995. After that he drove the car less than 3500 miles in ten years, and never faster than 55 miles / hour, he told me.
Here in Sweden it is really unusual to find an unrestored car in this condition. We plan on preserving, as well as having fun with it. I am sure it will get some attention at the events that we will attend with it.

Best regards
Anders Stalklint