Cars on stamps

Postage honors Norwegian vehicles

Photo: Norway Post
Cars on stamps: Clockwise from upper left: The Mustad “giant,” the Bjering, the Think, and the Troll.

M. Michael Brady
Asker, Norway

On Saturday, October 7, Norway Post released postage stamps honoring four Norwegian designed and made cars:

• The Mustad “giant,” a six-wheel car first built in 1917, exhibited at the Paris car show in 1922, and modified and fitted with a seven-liter motor in 1927. Only a few were built; most famously one was used in the evacuation when Oslo was invaded in 1940.

• The Bjering of 1921, a narrow car just one meter (39.4 inches) wide, specially built for the narrow winter roads of the time, with an air-cooled motor and two seats, passenger in front of the driver; the front wheels could be replaced with runners for winter driving. Production was planned but not started, as improved plowing made winter roads drivable with ordinary cars.

• The Troll of 1956, with a fiberglass-reinforced plastic body and a two-stroke, 30 horsepower motor. Production was started by Troll Plastkarosseri og Bilindustri at Lunde in Telemark County, but only five were built before the company went bankrupt.

• The Think of 1991, an electric car with a plastic body on an aluminum space frame. The basic design was developed in the 1980s, and 16 prototypes were built and driven in Lillehammer during the 1994 Winter Olympics there. In 1999 Ford acquired a majority interest in Pivco (for Personal Independent Vehicle Company), the producer. In all, 1,006 Think cars were produced before the company went bankrupt in 2011.

For further information on the stamps and online ordering, visit the Norway Post philatelic website at www.posten.no/frimerker; selections from it are available in English at www.posten.no/en.

This article originally appeared in the Nov. 3, 2017, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.