Greta as a Saab driver, in 1951
Greta is probably best known as a
works Saab driver from the 1950s. She competed from the 1930s to the 1970s, but
was most successful in the ‘50s, winning many Coupes des Dames.
She was born Greta Ohlson in Ystad,
Sweden, in 1908. Her parents ran a hotel. They both died within months of each
other in 1927, leaving a considerable amount of money and possessions to their
daughter. Sadly, a poor investment meant that she had to sell most of this,
keeping only one car.
Unusually for the time, she had
learned to drive as a teenager, and entered her first rally in 1929, driving
her father’s La Salle car. It was a women’s event, and she was last. Four years
later, she won the Swedish Rikspokal for rallying, in a borrowed Plymouth.
In 1934, she started her first
major international rally, the Monte Carlo, from Umeå in the north of Sweden.
Her car was another Plymouth. She repeated this feat in 1935, and was rewarded
with a finish, in 30th place. On her fourth try, she won her first
Monte Carlo Coupe des Dames, finishing 24th in her Plymouth. In a
particularly strong year for female drivers, she was third in the 1938 women’s
standings, despite coming 19th overall. During the 1930s, she was
active in Plymouths and other American cars in Norwegian rallies.
In 1938, she married Kaare Barth
(Petrus), a Norwegian writer, and settled in Norway. She always competed under
the name “Molander”, seemingly the name of a first husband, despite enjoying a long and
happy marriage to Petrus.
She switched from American cars to
a DKW for 1939, but does not seem to have finished, and rallying then halted
for World War II.
Norway was occupied by the Germans
for much of the war. Greta is said to have been jailed at one point, for
insulting a German officer.
Rallying returned to Monte Carlo
in 1949, and Greta came with it. She was 52nd, in a Dodge.
Her relationship with the Saab
marque began in 1950, in the Monte again. She was one of the first works
drivers they employed. The Saab 92 had just been launched, and Greta drove one
to 55th place, starting at Stockholm. She was actually the first of
the two Saab finishers that year.
1951 saw her compete more widely
in Europe, driving the Saab in the Tulip and Midnight Sun rallies. She won the
first of six Midnight Sun Coupes des Dames that year, and was again the leading
Saab driver
.
In 1952, she was second of four
Saab drivers in the Midnight Sun Rally, behind Rolf Mellde. Her co-driver was
Helga Lundberg. Their partnership lasted for many years.
Other rallies she entered included
the 1953 Lisbon Rally, where she was third in the Ladies’ standings. This, and
her performances in the Northern European rallies, were enough to earn her a European
Ladies’ Championship title.
The Tulip Rally became one of her
regular yearly fixtures. She normally drove the Saab, but she accepted a drive
in another car for 1954, a DKW, and was 33
rd. Her arch-rival,
Sheila van Damm, driving for the Rootes team, had got into the top ten, so the Coupe
des Dames was out of reach this time. The Tulip was not her only DKW outing in
1954: she won another Midnight Sun Rally Ladies’ prize that year.
The Saab team did not enter the
1955 Monte, so Greta drove the DKW again, but does not seem to have finished. She
continued to rally the DKW in the Viking Rally, and was thirteenth. In the
Tulip Rally, she was back in the 92, and went one better than Sheila van Damm
last year, finishing ninth overall.
There seems to have been a hiatus
in her Saab involvement in 1956, when she used a Mercedes 220 for the Monte,
and a Peugeot 403 for the Midnight Sun Rally, in which she was 56th.
After that, she drove the new Saab
93, which would become a successful car for the manufacturer, and was the
beginning of Saab as a major rallying contender. Her team-mates that year
included
Ewy Rosqvist and Erik Carlsson.
By 1960, she was winding down her
competition career, although she still accepted invitations to drive for Saab
in major rallies. She drove the 93 on the Monte between 1960 and 1962.
When she retired from professional
rallying in 1962, she was 54 years old. Although she became somewhat of an
occasional competitor, she carried on making appearances in rallies until the
1970s, and also rallied historic cars. In 1973, she made one last appearance on
the Monte, her nineteenth attempt at the Monaco classic. Her car was a Saab.
Away from rallying, she was an
intrepid traveller, who wrote about her experiences, such as crossing Africa and
America by car. The American trip, during the 1940s was partly funded by
Chrysler, who used it as a promotional opportunity. Whilst in America, Greta worked
as a film stunt driver.
As well as writing about her own
experiences, she translated English works into Norwegian, including some of PG
Wodehouse’s novels. Wodehouse and Greta were friends. She also illustrated
books, including two children’s books, which she and Petrus worked on together.
She died in 2002, at the age of 94.
(Image from http://www.saabsunited.com/)
