For every thought you entertain about importing a small European city car to the United States and let it loose on the endless prairie roads that will shrink it even further, there’s a counterpart trying to happen. Take an enormous American car, a station wagon as long and wide as you get, and bring it over to Central Europe where the streets are narrow and crowded, “Fun-Sized!”. On Berlin streets where a Volkswagen up! is king, you would be hard pressed to find a car less at odds with its surroundings than a 1972 Ford Galaxie Country Sedan, in wagon form.
A friend of mine, Philipp, did exactly that. A long-time fan of classic Americana, he wanted something quintessentially large and in charge, so he could ship it to his neighbourhood of Kreuzberg, Berlin. Luckily, since a fellow petrolhead will happily try to make dreams come true for another from the other side of the planet, a friend of his sourced him exactly what he wanted, gave it a once-over to see everything was in correct order, and sent it on its way across the Atlantic.
Fast forward to a couple months later, and I was in Berlin. After seeing the sights you have to, I happily took the chance to check out Lucille. Yes, that’s her name. Suits her, doesn’t it?


Parked in a tight garage, the wagon sleeps next to a dusty Thunderbird.

 
This is Philipp’s other runabout, a battered-but-proven 1979 Kadett.

There’s a 400 cubic inch Cleveland V8 under Lucille’s hood, producing some 200hp and 400Nm of torque. The car has an odometer reading of 35 000 miles and change, and for a little-old-lady car as it’s known to be, it’s fitting. There have been a couple of occasions where Lucille has been just a little large for its surroundings, even in its home land, and Philipp has strived to fix some of those marks – but not all, as patina does belong to the car.



Some lighting adjustments had to be performed to make Lucille fit to be registered in Germany, but her immigration process was largely painless. The marker lights up had a second bulb added in them for white light, but that’s probably not too big of a stray from originality.

The car’s dimensions are humbling, but the 1972-built wagon still does without the railing-sized 5mph impact bumpers. In comparison to those, Lucille’s detailing is delicate, even.


And the cargo area’s size is certainly commendable. A case of Dutch beer looks very alone in there. The seats fit eight persons, in case you need to haul something else than brewery products.


“I’d rather be sailing”, boasts the licence place frame. And that’s what it felt like, going for a drive. The car sounds great, and around the Berlin streetcorners there was a touch of possibly-clichéd Cold war feel about it all. The Beach Boys soundtrack was spectacularly out of place, but it fit the V8 bellow extremely well.

Riding around rainy Berlin in a classic Yank tank wagon with "Surfin' USA" playing. @FinalGear pic.twitter.com/5EtyknxXSZ

— Antti ”Antti Gauchonen” Kautonen (@julkinen) January 2, 2015

[Images: Copyright 2015 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]