The Family Mopar_® Garage: Part I

Somewhere in the Åland archipelago, halfway between Sweden and Finland, sits one of the finest Mopar_® garages in all of the Nordic countries. Inside this building, you’ll find the combined collection of the Hellström/Welin family – a fleet made up entirely of the highest caliber machinery from Plymouth and Dodge. Some people say the journey itself is the destination, and if that’s true, consider this your ticket onboard. This story stretches across four decades, following how three people’s newly sparked passion for American cars eventually leads to today’s impressive lineup of Mopar vehicles.

Father Ralf Hellström. Daughter Jennie Hellström. And Jennie’s husband, Conny Welin. That’s the trio welcoming me on this pleasantly sunny day in the summer of 2025.

The visit has been planned for years, yet never materialized – for reasons too many to list, though still fewer than the number of islands in Åland, roughly 6,700. But today, it’s finally happening.

It’s Ralf who opens the doors and greets me. So let’s start with his story. He lets the sunlight spill into the clinically clean garage. Was it worth waiting for this moment? Oh yes. The cars gleam – freshly polished and glossy. The colors crowding this space come straight from Chrysler’s High Impact Paint palette launched in the summer of 1969. FJ6 Sassy Grass. FJ5 Sublime. FC7 In-Violet. All accompanied by
an enormous graffiti wall just as vibrant.

When the cars go all-black instead, many of them commit fully to the theme. Except for one Road Runner covered in custom artwork. But we’ll get back to that.

“I moved to Åland from Kaskö – on the Finnish mainland – in December 2014. At the time, I owned four Mopars,” Ralf Hellström says. “First a ’71 ’Cuda with a 472-cubic-inch HEMI^® – the convertible you rode in – and another ’71 ’Cuda 340 convertible. I later sold that one to Älvdalen in Sweden. When I moved, I also owned a 1970 Plymouth GTX 440 Six Pack and a red 1970 Dodge Challenger with a four-speed manual. Also a convertible. I also had a 2009 Ford Mustang GT500, but that one doesn’t count,” he adds with a grin.

With a moving load like that, Ralf immediately began searching for garage space. Or rather, multiple spaces. But he couldn’t find a suitable property.

“It was outrageous what people were offering for rent. I wouldn’t even have put a project car in those cold storage units,” the elder Hellström says.

So the solution was to find a plot of land and build new. It took some time, but eventually he found the empty lot, and on January 24, 2017, he bought it. On April 26 of that same year, he received the building permit, and exactly one year after buying the land – January 24, 2018 – the building passed final inspection.

“The entire building is 570 square meters, and I – through my company – own 309 square meters, including the social areas, wash space and workshop. Since I used the entire building right and divided the property into three separate units, I sold two of them. I’ve regretted that many times since. The best thing is to own everything yourself,” Hellström says.

One thing he doesn’t regret is giving away Mopar vehicles – to his daughters. One of them, Johanna, received a 1970 Dodge Charger in FJ5 Sublime.

“It was restored by Joe Szczepaniak in Florida over a span of 12 years. A feature about the car was published in Muscle Machines in November 2014. It was for sale at a dealership, and I had a friend on site … but I thought a bit too long and someone else left a deposit before I did. A few years later, in 2021, it showed up for sale online again, and that time I bought it – from a Scott Kozlowski,” he says.

The 1971 Plymouth ’Cuda convertible with the 472 HEMI engine – that one belongs to Ralf’s other daughter, Jennie. She received it as a birthday gift. It was Ralf’s first Mopar vehicle, bought in Florida during the 2007 financial crisis when Lehman Brothers collapsed and everything was at its worst. The seller was a man named Bill Flynn.

And the black 1970 Dodge Charger R/T with the 440? That one came to Ralf through a trade. The bargaining chip on his end was an aluminum boat – a Buster.

“Oh yes – almost forgot. When I bought my ’Cuda from Flynn, he had five 1971 ’Cuda convertibles in different colors. I could just pick the color I wanted,” Ralf Hellström says with a laugh.

He goes on to explain that he has made no fewer than three Mopar investments in recent years. Jennie’s husband Conny found the Sassy Grass-green ’71 ’Cuda 340 in Kastrup, Denmark, not long ago. It had been restored by a well-known Canadian named Alan Gallant. The car made its way from Monaco to Germany, then to Denmark, and now to Åland. The black Challenger R/T convertible with the 383 was purchased in October 2024 from Sweden.

“And now in September 2025 – after you visited – I made my latest purchase. A 1971 Plymouth ’Cuda 440 Six Pack. It came from northern Sweden. Mm. It’s hard to stop buying these E-bodies – they’re just so good-looking. But my body these days is more suited for B-bodies,” Ralf Hellström says with a smile.

Well then. He may be a little older physically after many years in the fishing industry, but the mind is still young. I ask him about the spectacular graffiti mural in the garage — a piece that feels very much alive.

“I’ve always liked fine graffiti art. When the garage was finished, I contacted two local spray-paint artists after seeing their work on an outdoor wall in Mariehamn. The mural is 14 meters long and required 108 spray cans. The duo is named Calle Listerby and Marcus Gruner, and the first time they came by, they were dressed warmly – they assumed they’d be painting outdoors since the motif was so long…”

The painting took a while. Listerby and Gruner could only work about two hours at a time due to the strong fumes from the paint. Altogether, the total wasn’t that many hours – perhaps 40? Roughly a workweek. The artists had complete creative freedom, except for a few specific requests.

“I had four requirements: a detail from the Statue of Liberty, a purple ’Cuda, and the words ‘C R A Z Y’ and ‘Live your dream,’” Hellström says.

Speaking of the purple ’Cuda – that’s the one he gave to his daughter. And it’s sitting right here in the garage. Time to pass the microphone to the next Mopar enthusiast in the family: Jennie. How did she fall in love with Mopar vehicles?

Jennie Hellström’s interest in American cars began in her early teens, when she joined her parents on a trip to Sweden – to a car meet in Sundsvall. The younger Hellström didn’t really know what kind of adventure the family was heading into, but she tagged along, and remembers coming home with a brand-new fascination.

“Who can resist the rumble of a V8? Your heart skips a beat when you hear it,” Jennie Hellström says. “There was one car in particular that stuck in my head – one they drove up and down with hydraulics, and flames shooting out of the exhaust. My dad hadn’t owned any American car before this trip, and I remember him saying that whichever car he thought looked the best, he would go over and ask if it was for sale. And he did. It was a candy-red 1969 Pontiac Firebird.”

The red Firebird had been worked over by Ulf Kusendal – one of Sweden’s most renowned car builders. He wasn’t ready to part with his Pontiac that day, but he reached out to Jennie’s father Ralf after the family returned home. Ralf and Jennie’s sister Johanna traveled back to Sweden, and just like that, Ralf’s first American car was purchased – and the family suddenly shared a common passion.

Five years later, Jennie met her husband, Conny Welin. At the time, Welin owned two American cars: a dark-green 1969 Pontiac GTO (which Jennie came to call “the monster”) and a red 1995 Pontiac Trans Am. Since Ralf had sold his Firebird a few years earlier – and his interest in cars had faded a bit – the spark for thundering V8s was now rekindled.

“This was about 20-25 years ago. Pretty soon, Ralf bought another American car- a white 1969 Pontiac GTO convertible. Dad has always been very generous, and I remember Conny and I borrowing the GTO for an entire summer here on Åland, even though my parents lived up in Kaskö,”Jennie says. “As I mentioned, the whole family became interested in these American cars – even my sister Johanna and her kids joined in. They came along to many car shows and cruises on Åland.”

Jennie doesn’t quite remember how the shift from GM to Mopar happened. But in 2011, Ralf bought his purple 1971 ’Cuda convertible – the one Jennie would later receive as a gift.

“I actually got to choose which of Dad’s cars I wanted for my birthday. Not easy, considering how many fine cars he’s had. But the purple ’Cuda has been with the family the longest, and it’s the one with the biggest emotional value to me. And besides, it’s gorgeous – and it has a HEMI,” Jennie Hellström says with a smile.

And that’s when the ball really started rolling. Conny sold his GTO and was eager to buy a Mopar car for himself. He looked at a few different models, and suddenly he found his car – a black 1970 ’Cuda.

“When we saw it, we all said at the same time: ‘BUY IT!’ So that’s what happened,” Jennie Hellström says.

After that, she and Conny had no plans to buy any more American cars. At least that’s what they thought at the time. But a simple trade of one ordinary daily driver (a Honda) for another (a BMW) did not turn out as planned.

“One late-summer day in 2015, Conny showed me photos of a black 1969 Charger R/T SE – matching-numbers. That model has always been a bit of a dream car for me. It’s been featured in several movies I’ve watched,” Jennie Hellström says.

The Charger was for sale in southern Sweden, in Trelleborg. The photos looked incredible – taken by a very talented photographer, Jennie recalls.

“I immediately said, ‘CALL!’ Conny was surprised that I wanted us to buy another American car – but he called. And he said, ‘We’re coming down to look at it.’”

Jennie and Conny jumped into the Honda, and Jennie’s mother and father came along as well. When they arrived in Trelleborg, they met a family deep in grief.

“The owner, known as ‘Johnny Cuda,’ had recently passed away. That’s why the Dodge had to be sold. There was so much emotion in the air, and we all stood there with tears in our eyes as the Charger was backed out of the garage. The whole family had grown up with that car – attending shows together – with the kids falling asleep in the backseat on the way home. It wasn’t all that different from our own family’s relationship with American cars.”

The Charger was a family matter on both sides. For Conny, Jennie and her parents, it all became too emotional. They couldn’t decide right there, despite the long trip – over 800 kilometers – from Åland to Trelleborg. They drove north and stayed overnight in Växjö.

“The next morning, Dad asked: ‘Should we head up or down?’ We went down. Back to Trelleborg – and back to buy the Charger,” Jennie says.

What followed was a long but exciting journey up to Kapellskär to catch the ferry back to Åland. Both Jennie and Conny had work the next morning, so the schedule was tight. Since the car had sat unused for some time, a few problems appeared on the way home – as they do. At one point, smoke started rising from the hood. Thankfully, it wasn’t a fire.

“The family in Trelleborg told us wonderful stories about the father – Johnny Cuda – and we still have a CD with music that came with the car. We often play it when we’re out driving, and we like to think that Johnny Cuda rides along with us,” Jennie Hellström says.

The Charger was originally imported to Sweden by a man named Magnus Söderkvist. He bought it while living in Los Angeles in the 1980s. At that time, the Dodge had been sitting in a backyard in Pomona for 7-8 years – becoming a home for … black widows. In large quantities.

“Conny talked to Magnus, and he says he kept pulling spiders out of the car for a long time after buying it. It had also been a gang car among Mexican crews, and he had some trouble registering it when he bought it. Magnus also said the car originally had a build sheet – something we didn’t get with the car. Conny contacted the family in Trelleborg and asked them to look for it. Three years later, we got a message: they’d found it. We were so happy! Funny how a crumbled piece of paper can make you that excited,” Jennie says with a laugh.

Rest your eyes on all the details until part 2 of this story is out on DodgeGarage in about a month. Stay tuned!