One sure sign of the winter ending are the car meets popping up here and there, as it’s time to get one’s pride and joy out of the garage and out on display. One such gathering was this Slovenian eastertime meet held over the weekend, with a boatload of old classic metal on show. There are a lot of pics here, snapped by a friend of Hooniverse, Aleš.
M5 Touring with telltale Nürburgring edition colour scheme!
So good, so handsome. Such S38.
This X1/9 has lost its bumpers, but gained some presence.
Front-mid-engined Opel.
I’m sure Hooniverse loves Unimogs.
But how about FWD Skodas?
Understated Rekord cool.
A tuned Manta is flashier.
But I enjoy a good Ascona.
Taunus goodness.
V12 BMW, as one would expect from the plates.
Brown! Manual! Wagon? Maybe.
Vorsprung durch blue piping.
A Scirocco, as edgy as ever.
This Merc wagon is the official Old and Rusty thing here.
Saab 99 on Minilites.
The flat discs look enormous under a Mk1 Golf.
Wait for a bus and several come along.
A humble Corolla is worth parading around.
I like the 404 plates on the Yugo.
I haven’t seen a J-Car this tidy since … ever.
And you never see Renault 19:s anywhere ever.
Great colour for this Renault 4.
And finally, TURBO BERTA.
[Images: Aleš Z]
Weekend Edition: Old & Rusty Meet in Slovenia
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That first R4’s brown…wow! Very beautiful. But what would I’d want to take home? The 99, I guess.
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Same here, although that big, purple Bavarian wagon is a close second. Haul ass while hauling stuff!
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Stance and wheels are too much for me with this one, but this sure is a neat wagon.
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Those wheels would be replaced immediately, probably sized down an inch. I’m OK with the height – looks like stock camber, no stretched ‘n’ stanced BS.
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R4 is my 😉
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Nice – you painted it yourself?
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No, it’s painted by my friend
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Is that lineup as interesting and unusual and offbeat in Slovenia as it is in the US?
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Except for the Škoda and Yugo, most of these cars were probably not sold new in Slovenia. That is, the post-1990 cars were, but who could afford new cars right after the breakdown of Socialism? Have a look at this fabulous page and compare Slovenia, Luxembourg and Lithuania – even today, 26 years after regime change, these numbers are telling!:
http://www.acea.be/statistics/tag/category/average-vehicle-age-
LT registry is just very tolerant and keeps all the old crap rusting under the tree registered. If you look Passenger Car Fleet Per Capita data there’s huge difference between LV & LT which explains that situation. LT as a country is more successful than LV so more than 10 yo car % is probably around 65 or so. That doesn’t mean theres no huge differences between EU countries, LT data there is just a bit low quality maybe.
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Excellent inside knowledge…you know, I am a statistician by trade and I suspected something like this might be the case here – because that’s a solid outlier.
But…I’m still actively looking for a GAZ 24. This one here is being sold with some sort of catch phrase like “registration is expired” – how’s that, then?
http://en.m.auto.plius.lt/ads/photos/gaz-24-2-4-l-saloon-sedan-1982-petrol-4065541.html?first=1&make_date_from=1900&make_date_to=1988&make_id%5B109%5D=11729#photo_0-
If I translate it with Chrome’s built-in transl. tool to ENG, it says tech. inspection is expired. That interior though, someone has bought custom made covers and carpet. Never seen this kind of interior before. If it was taxi or low level state car before it had awful vinyl interior which asked for seat covers (furry or leopard print), here owner has gone 1 step further and replaced vinyl/old textile with completely new set. What are your requirements, I could keep my eyes open. Chrome- grill 24? 24-10? Condition?
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Oh, you’re right, sorry! Yes, it’s pretty rare to find a 24 in good and original condition – and sellers know how to get paid for that, too. I’m definitely looking for the chrome version first and foremost. Originality is a plus, but the popular gas conversions are fine. Condition: Best for a low dime, next to no rust is an advantage. My war chest keeps diminishing itself all the time, I can’t currently afford one – but I’m sort of in the market anyway. 🙂
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All these cars were sold new in Slovenia, in 1990 (one year before independance), we had 600.000 registerd cars and population of 1.8 millon (in 1965 – 55.000 cars, population 1.6 million) Our socialism has been a little bit different, we were not behind “iron curtain” so we/they could afford new cars (except american)
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Wow, that was new to me. How did that work out currencywise? I’d assume they were expensive? GDR citizens could also buy Western cars through Genex, but they were unattainable for most.
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Offcourse not everybody could afford a new car, but every family has had at least one (since `70 I think). Cars were not so expensive, especially Yugo (and other Zastava models) but were difficult to get (in early `80 you had to wait up to one year for Yugo). Problem was also inflation, you could sold 2 year old Yugo for more than you paid for 🙂
Otherwise French makers were and still are very popular in Slovenia (we have factory Revoz since 1973 for Renault models) in `60 DKV and NSU were quite popular too… then, Fiat, VW, Opel, Ford, M-B… and Zastava – thats what I know…for exp.my dad bought Renault 4 in ~1968. -
This is truly fascinating. How did Slovenia get all these car perks?
in early `80 you had to wait up to one year for yugo
…sigh, waiting timesfor a Trabant were about 15 years at most. Totally grotesque. -
Yea, luna’s right, basically every family could afford a cheap car (late 60s up to early 80s were qute economically okay in yugoslavia), with full employment and all. Domestic cars – including Renault and Citroen becouse certain models were built in slovenia, and other socialist cars like lada and skoda were quite accesible to most pepole. More expensive western cars were not rare, but high import taxes made a young couple who were, for example building a house, think twice, becouse comparatively you could get two Zastava 101s for the price of one Opel Ascona 🙂 Consequntly, a lot of populart models of the 70s like KAdett C and Golf mk1 were fairly stripped down versions with smaller engines. 🙂 For example, there were much more 1.2S asconas driving aroudn here than in germany, compared to 1.6 and 2.0 versions 🙂 (i should know, I’m the owner of the red 2.0 in the first picture 😀 ).
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Really cool of the owners to chime in! That setup actually reminds me more of Norway than other Eastern bloc countries. After WW2, Norway had restricted markets due to currency concerns. Until 1960, the only cars to be purchased freely were Eastern bloc cars, and Volvos, after a deal with Sweden in the late 50s. This ad for the Moskovich* 408 sums up its perks by being robust enough to be beaten on…:
http://huskerdudenbilen.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/moskvitch-408-reklame-norge_1.jpg
After the markeds were opened, Eastern bloc cars couldn’t compete for very long. Even pricewise, there were strong offers from other countries:
https://huskerdudenbilen.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/hillman-imp-reklame-norge_3.jpg
*= Note how even the import company can’t agree with itself how to write their name right. -
link to a few pics from the centre of Ljubljana ` 50 – `70
http://89.143.249.235/trendi/potovanja/novice/2016/03/ljubljanski_promet_nekoc_in_danes.aspx
First Slovenian who owned a car was baron Anton Codelli, he brought first car to Ljubljana in 1898!
And about popularity of brands in `70 and ` 80, I didnt mention Škoda, Saab, Volvo, I think there were quite a few Wartburgs, a lot of Ladas and in the ´80 there was more Japanese brands. And I also have to mantion Simca and Talbot.
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Nice assortment, and all rather tidy.
The Rekord looks sweet!
at first I mistook the skoda for a lada samara. sorry skoda.
Great gathering w excellent photos. Love those Opels
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Renault 30 like the one in picture 2 next to the ‘Daytona Violet’ M5. By now the autos are all stuffed and the manuals have all been pulled out for kit cars.They do have a lovely loping ride that today’s French cars seemed to have forgotten.
And has there ever been a more minimistically trimmed and nicely proportioned car design than the lovely airy Rekord D, the quintessential seventies Euro sedan range seen in pics 12 &13. One of the best styled cars of all time, anywhere.
One or two of the South African Chevrolet Ranger badged versions made it over here with the 250 ci OHV Chev iron six that Toyota copied for the LandCruiser motor,a big bonnet bulge, and even nicer front styling with a quad round halogen headlight treatment.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Opel_Rekord_D_Break_in_Cambridge.jpg/1280px-Opel_Rekord_D_Break_in_Cambridge.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Opel_Rekord_D_1975.jpg
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn240/dqp-sammy/andere%20rekords%20etc/1016c6h_20.jpg
That Rekord has me drooling.
I had a 1972 Rekord in brown. Nice car that I crashed in black ice in WGer. in the service.
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