Photos from the Cohort by L. Seddon.
Where are the old-time classics that used to be part of our neighborhoods? For us who enjoy vintage cars, the answer perhaps is, that the further away from the cities the better. After all, the quick-paced big city life consumes cars (and one could argue, lives) at accelerated rates. Some survive, naturally, but in cosmopolitan areas old cars can become rare rather quickly.
But should one look further away, like the countryside or small towns, old cars seem to hang on longer. Never mind if they’re functional or not. And if isolated even further, like an island, for example, old metal can be around in surprising numbers. With unusual samples sprinkled about too; like the rotting LHD 1960s Mini 1/4 Ton Pickup that opens this post.
This is a long way of saying that I was rather surprised and pleased with a collection of vintage cars uploaded by L. Seddon at the Cohort. The photos were taken in Kefalonia, one of the largest islands in the Greek Ionian Sea. The island’s area size? It amounts to about 300 square miles, which if I trust Google, is a good deal smaller than Los Angeles.
But that size doesn’t keep the island from being a repository for cool old metal. Because as simple as they were, few things were more charming and cool than a Citroen 2CV, even if in nonrunning condition. Like this one, sitting unused and rotting away somewhere on the island.
Before you all get the impression that this post features solely rotting iron, let’s pay a moment of attention to this ’69 4-door Opel Kadett fastback. Another no-longer-common piece of vintage machinery, and apparently still in running condition.
Elsewhere on the island, someone is putting some effort (however limited) into preserving this Ford Escort (MK1). No way to capture in its current location this Escort’s face…
… but here’s a similar vintage one. According to the original caption, sitting out “neglected behind a car rental/classic car restoration business”. Maybe belonging to some client who ran out of resto funds?
Let’s remain around this so-called “restoration/car rental” shop, where few cars seem restored, much less ready to go serve as rentals. Here’s another forlorn vehicle nearby the Escort, a ’66-’71 Opel Rekord. We’ve never covered this generation of Rekords here at CC, but an overall look at the model’s history was posted by Paul a while back.
This shape should be familiar to quite a few of you, particularly if you watched the UK show Life on Mars. A Ford Cortina (Mk3). Have they all ceased to exist outside of car shows?
Here’s an oddity, a ’59-’64 Skoda Octavia, the last FR-format model before the maker’s products went rear engine for a while. By this point, most of you must have noticed that the provenance of these cars is quite varied. A natural byproduct of Greece never being a major car producer; something that came quite clear to me while watching a Belmondo film shot in Athens in the late ’60s.
Let’s remain with cars from the Eastern Bloc with this UAZ 452 panel van. Hard to tell in its current condition, but if you squint, you can appreciate the simplicity of detailing associated with Soviet machinery. Basic, sturdy, yet filled with character. Iconic in their own way, these vans had a long-running production; from 1965 to 1985.
And here’s the interior. I hope whoever owned this UAZ knew his Russian well…
Far more ornate, this Chevrolet 1940s truck, with an expressive Streamlined nose. We featured one of these a while back in its native nation, though that one was in working order.
And to close this island tour, a look at a product from another island; a ’48-’51 Vauxhall. With no visible trim or badging, impossible to tell if this is a Velox of Wyvern. What can be seen, is the very “Advance Design” influenced face of this offering by GM’s British subsidiary.
In almost all of Greece we can see cars like this, and also several from the 80’s and 90’s still parked in the cities.
We are going to continue with old-fashioned cars for a long time, the green wave and the new SUVs are not going to prevail yet.
That looks like a 1988 to 1991 Geo Prizm photobombing your final photo. (From the non-US spec rear bumper, I’m guessing it’s actually the Toyota Sprinter hatchback that the Prizm was based on.)
I went on holiday to Greece twice in the Seventies just after it joined the Common Market. It was like a living motoring museum with examples of every make since the War you could imagine. Where else would a 57 Studebaker Estate sit beside an Alta version of the Fuldmobile, every type of Soviet Bloc car imaginable and plenty of British cars.
But best of all where the 3 wheeler trucks, a unique Greek mini-industry. Nearly 30 companies churned these out and they were ubiquitous. And also the first casualty of the Common Market as the peculiar laws permitting them had to comply with CM. Even as I holidayed, the factories started closing down. A decade later and they had all gone. https://cybermotorcycle.com/marques/greek-marques.htm
When my parents retired in 1975, from a city of over 500,000, to a very rural township of approximately 1,000, it was a CC awakening. In my former city, expired and abandoned cars, and fleet vehicles, were mostly limited to older industrial areas. Drive to the country, and it was a different story. In mid-’70’s rural Ontario, many old dirt roads, with their 1920’s to 1950’s engineering, and limited outside traffic, remained plentiful. Rather than blasting through boulders and bedrock, to straighten them, some roads curved all the way around boulders, and rock outcrops. Very common. Their appearance, and meandering routes, still largely intact from before WW2, and earlier.
Abandoned old cars and trucks were a common sight. As you often felt like you were travelling back in time, on these old roads. Rarely, explored by outsiders. Not nearly Deliverance-like in culture, but the movie gave you an idea of the rustic experience. This is where I first saw so many obscure autos and trucks, from the ’40s thru the early ’70s. I am familiar with many cars from this era, because I explored the wrecks. Not because I experienced them, in their prime. Unlike, many people here.
This was a very fun post to see. I recently got back from a 4200 mile road trip in the American Southwest. “Abandoned” cars and trucks are everywhere in yards and fields, and in the dry climate, perhaps similar to Greece, rust is mostly on the surface. It’s great to see the European equivalent. I certainly didn’t see any Mini’s or Opels or Vauxhalls, and the only Escorts I saw were front wheel drive. But I did see lots of Chevy trucks. And this (American made) VW pickup.
The Opel Kadett B fastback 4-door sedan is practically a unicorn. The 4-door was never very common, and I’d forgotten that it was available in the fastback style. That fastback roof was originally called the more expensive Olympia in Germany, and not available initially on the actual Kadett. It was never imported to the US, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these 4-door fastbacks before.
I see there’s an early Mk.3 (FWD) 5-door Escort hiding behind the Mini pick-up. Rare to see that generation now unless it’s an XR3i or RS1600i. Looks rather less rusty than the Mini.
The Mini is after 1969 if the bonnet badge is original. The little shield was introduced when Mini became a marque on it’s own. The LCV were made until 1983 and never lost the sliding door windows and external door hinges of the early cars.