Burial & Resurrection: Toyota Crown Custom (Part 1)

When I first saw this car, I couldn’t identify it for quite a while. Judging by the appearance, it was a model of the late 1970’s, which had a logo seemingly belonging to Lexus. As far as I know, this company started the production of cars in 1989. Even the internet couldn’t help me with the identification of this strange vehicle, and there remained no choice but to find the owner. I managed to find him through social networks and was finally told the story of this car.
In reality, It appeared to be a custom-version of the model called Toyota Crown, which is the oldest model of Toyota and was intended only for the domestic marked of Japan.

It took 5 years to build this car. A Toyota Crown MS 106 of the 1979 production was chosen as a donor car to fulfill this unique project. This car has an interesting story. It is said that, in the 1980’s, it was owned by one of the most influential and well-known criminal bosses in the USSR. According to the legend, he received this car as a gift from representatives of the criminal world of Russian Far East. For many years, this respectable hardtop sedan served its respected owner travelling across Armenia without any registration and license plates, because in those times such cars could be counted on the fingers of one hand and all the police knew their owners preferring to stay away from them. Such a state of affairs was undoubtedly in the owner’s favor, who, taking advantage of his “authoritative” influence, unrelentingly led a lawless lifestyle, by the end of which he acquired countless enemies.
One day, arriving home, he parked the car in the yard, got home and died of heart attack shortly thereafter. In panic, the family started to hide all his illegally acquired property: gold, jewels, weapons, etc.
Late at night, it came to the strikingly elegant car. The relatives couldn’t invent anything smarter but to bury the car right in the yard. In haste, the Toyota Crown was partially buried. The upper part was simply covered with bricks. As a result, it turned out an imitation of a small hangar, which kept the car away from the eyes of subsequent foes.

Over the years, the car got completely forgotten. Many of the participants of all those troubled events must have already gone to the next world.
In 2009, the current owner discovered the car quite by chance and immediately decided to buy it. It took a few days to remove the Toyota from the ground. The car was finally towed into a dry and warm garage, where the process of resurrection began.
To be continued...

The Very Special GAZ 13C

When coming across a rare car, of which there are only a dozen left throughout the world, particularly, if we are talking about a soviet limousine, about which the entire male population of the USSR could not even dream, you start to experience a weird feeling.
The GAZ 13 Chaika was produced by Gorky Automobile Plant between 1959 and 1981. During that period there were released 3.200 units of various modifications, among which 15 convertibles with an index GAZ 13B and 20 ambulances with an index GAZ 13C. 
Today we know about, at least, 12 survived models of the medical modification, one of which will be introduced in this article.

Originally, this extremely rare modification of Chaika was designed to satisfy the needs of senior party officials that ruled the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Only very rarely, these cars could be seen in governmental motorcades. Interestingly, this modification was built by hand at the RAF factory in Latvia. The Latvian factory was supplied with ready chassis and engines from Nizhny Novgorod, after which the workers manually produced the body and made the final assemblies of the car. Since all Chaikas of medical modification were assembled by hand, they all differ from each other in terms of equipment and facilities in medical compartments. But, of course, there are also some common features, for example, they were all painted in black color and the windows of the passenger compartment, in contrast to regular ambulances, were not covered with white-opaque color, instead, they were equipped with dark curtains that could be tightly closed. Externally, these vehicles had no identification marks and could not be differentiated from one another.

Produced in 1973, this Chaika (chassis No. 002327 and body No. 002415U) is one of the first exemplars of this type. Initially, it was intended for the 4th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Health of the USSR and, at first, was used in Moscow. Later, in the early 1980’s, in the Central Committee of the Armenian SSR there arose a need for such a car. By that time, the production of GAZ 13 had already been discontinued and on May 19, 1983, this car arrived in Yerevan. In the next 11 years, this Chaika had its special medical staff and served nearly all secretaries of the Communist party of Armenia, including Karen Demirchyan, who was especially keen on this unique vehicle. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, this Chaika did not remain in “retirement” for long and very soon, in 1994, it was legally obtained by a doctor named Vardan Janoyan.
At that time, the mileage of this car was about 10.000 kilometers. Fortunately, I managed to get to know the owner long ago, back in the 2000’s. At that time, the car had an amazing preservation. The body had never been repaired, nor had it been re-painted. The original paint shone like new.
After the acquisition, the owner almost has not driven the car. The mileage has not exceeded 12.500 kilometers so far.

Avetik Pandeyan the restorer

Another talented restorer is Avetik Pandeyan, who is known for his passion for European classic cars, particularly for those from the early 1930’s. Pandeyan’s collection includes real jewels of the German pre-war automotive industry.
 This master started his career in the 1970’s with restorations of trophy cars and motorcycles, the most prominent of which was the BMW 327 depicted in the photo with its new and happy owner from Europe.

 The next project was personal and planned to be implemented in the mid 1990’s. Back in 1984, Mr. Avetik managed to get a trophy convertible BMW 320 of 1938 production. After the war, the car was brought to Rostov, where it was used by an officer’s family. After some time, the car was in Shushi, a city in Nagorno-Karabakh, where, after many years, it was found fallen into decay. The restoration works on this car started in 1995. The body of the convertible was in critical condition. The doors, front wings and side steps had to be newly made in accordance with original drawings. The aluminum side panel of the hood with its tilt control mechanism and ventilation hole patterns, as well as the gills of the radiator grille, which has always been considered as the trademark of the BMW, had also to be reconstructed from scratch.
It should be mentioned that despite the pitiable state of the body, the original components were almost in an excellent state of preservation. In technical aspect, the car virtually remained 100% original, including the engine, manual transmission, drivetrain, front and rare suspension. Now, add to all this a lovingly restored interior and we have a perfect classic BMW, the owner of which will be looked at with envy.
The restoration works of this car, with some pauses and delays, lasted about 15 years.

Presently, Pandeyan is engaged in restoration of another pre-war German trophy convertible. This time this is an Audi produced in 1934. This model Mr. Avetik acquired in the territory of the former Soviet Union, but he refused to go into details about the exact country. The restoration project, which started 16 years ago, now is nearing to completion. The works on the body and its wooden structure is already completed.

The master complains that it takes quite a long time to find the original missing parts of the interior. Similar to the BMW 320, this instance also pleases with its completeness. All the elements of the technical part were produced more than 80 years ago and belong to Auto Union AG, the immediate predecessor of today’s Audi.

A Master of Many Talents

Continuing the theme of famous Armenian car restorers, it would be inappropriate not to remember one of the highly revered figures among the local car enthusiasts. Everyone who has ever been interested in classic cars, has met or, at least, heard of the famous restorer Zhora Petrosyan.

Zhora is a truly versatile personality. After graduating the Terlemezyan Art School, he, for 22 years, worked as a sculpture teacher at the Abovyan Shool of Art. In the mid 70’s he became addicted to repairing classic cars, and starting from 1982, he got completely immersed in this craft as a professional. It should be mentioned that, only quite recently, Petrosyan discovered his gift for poetry. Well, the talents of a true man of art manifest themselves in everything.

This master has always preferred to deal with cars of European origin, particularly those from the beginning of the 20 century. The cars restored by Mr. Petrosyan were filmed for many soviet movies, that is why they are so well known to not only car connoisseurs, but also to the general public.
I also would like to mention that this master has a serious hobby, for which he has very little time- he is able to create a car with his hands.

Unfortunately, he has developed only two examples so far. The first one is a mini car made in the style of 1920’s. The author named it “Titernik”, which, translated from Armenian, means a butterfly. The improvised radiator grille flaunts a handmade logo in the form of a butterfly. The car has rather tiny dimensions- the interior can accommodate no more than 2 people. It is no wonder that the basic design of the car mainly consists of parts of soviet production: the engine, gearbox and electrics are taken from the VAZ-2101; there are also motorcycle parts widely used in the design of the exterior. The car is still kept in the personal collection of the master.

As for the second car, the author sold it long ago. It was a convertible strongly reminiscent of the Morgan Plus. There is an action story about a trip on this car across the country to an exhibition in Moscow. There were only 2 days before the exhibition opening at VDNKh (permanent general purpose trade show and amusement park in Moscow¬¬¬), so the choice was made for the shortest route, through Gazakh (a town in Azerbaijan).

It was the spring of 1989, so the trip to Moscow started with an armed chase, from which the “Morgan” managed to safely escape. In hot pursuit, Zhora was able to accelerate the car up to 180 km/h!!!
Having reached the final destination without a single damage, the car stood at the exhibition for six months, after which it was taken back to the native village of the master, Balahovit.

Onik the Master

Caucasia has always been famous for its talented craftsmen and inventors. Every town and village, every district and almost every street had a tinsmith who was able to do magic with shapeless pieces of tin. Armenia, where manual work has always been appreciated and used to be handed down from father to son, has also been rich with such virtuoso artisans. By adding the boundless love of Armenians for technology, especially cars, to the above mentioned, we might get quite an interesting result.

Many of the car restorers started their “creative career” as ordinary tinsmiths. On occasions, they had opportunity to mend jalopies and, thus, they gradually turned from tinkers into skillful restorers. The history of Armenian car restorers goes back many years, and, probably, it is impossible to find out who first restored a classic car in our country.

However, it would be at least improper not to mention one of the oldest, unfortunately now deceased, Armenian restorers. Onik Terterian started his first restoration of a classic car in 1968. The master had to revive some remains of a Mercedes-Benz (or to be more precise, remains of the body).

Terteryan did a great job- from scratch, by using only a few available photos, he managed to create new front fondles, side-frames of the hood, footsteps, a bumper and radiator grille as well as other missing elements of the exterior. The interior was also restored from nothing. The enthusiastic restorer even managed to get the original paint of the German manufacturer from the pre-war period.
However, along with all the pluses, it is impossible not to notice some obvious downsides. For instance, for all soviet restorers, it was a routine occurrence to equip foreign cars with parts of the “iconic” GAZ-21 Volga. That Mercedes was not an exception. But let’s not talk about sad things. Once the car was ready, it was taken to the Russian city of Sochi.
After his first work, the master became quite popular and started to receive numerous orders, mainly from abroad. After many years spent on restorations of various vehicles, Terteryan finally got his own retro car. In 1995, he acquired a VW Beetle of 1970 production. Initially, it was a completely dismantled blue Beetle. After lengthy restoration works, the car received a burning yellow color and gained a perfect technical condition.

During his lifetime, Onik Terteryan with his Beetle often participated in many retro-festivals always standing out among all participants due the bright color of his car.

Regret (or a sad story about a VW Type 3)

Our today’s story is about the first and only Volkswagen Type 3 in Armenia. This car can often be found both in Europe and in the USA, where it was delivered throughout all the twelve years of its production from the factory in Wolfsburg. From the period 1961-1973 the Volkswagen group released over two and a half million copies of this model with different body types and various configurations. It is worth noting that the “Typ-3”, which had a rather nondescript design and based on the components of the popular VW Beetle, has not left an appreciable trace in the history of the global automobile industry. Nevertheless, this model has lots of fans all over the world and it is appreciated by admirers of classic Volkswagen models.

By a stroke of good fortune, one of the 1.339.124 cars that had a fastback body found itself in Armenia. Unfortunately, we have not yet found the person who brought this car to Yerevan.
We first met this car in very strange circumstances: in the summer of 2014, from Ukraine, a member of the local retro-car community came to Armenia in order to find a certain car. Having found the car, we decided to spend the rest of the time with our Ukrainian guest at one of the graveyards for cars, because sometimes there can be found very interesting examples of rare cars. Among many crumpled and rusted remains, we noticed an unusual body shape- we could not immediately identify which brand it belonged to. Judging by the shape, it was clear that the car was of European origin and was made in the 1960s or 1970s. At the time, it was impossible to learn more about the car from the extant remains of the exterior. Then we left the junkyard with some anxiety, since we were aware that with time all bodies are to be gone under a multi-tone pressing machine.

Two years later, I happened to be at one of my friend’s place, where there were many retro car hunters. We started to talk about who and where had noticed abandoned rare and interesting classic cars. In conversation one of the guests mentioned about a golden fastback Volkswagen 1600 also known as Type-3. The car had been unattended for a long time in the backyard of a car workshop. As it turned out, during a relocation of that workshop, due to uselessness, the remaining property had to be consigned to the junkyard, where we saw it. We compared the photos we had, and only then we managed to identify the car, which we had not been able two years ago. It was the Volkswagen 1600 Fastback (Type-3), produced from 1965 to 1969. We immediately left for that junkyard to save the precious remains of the VW, but when we arrived, a terrible disappointment was awaiting us there…
The car had already been recycled- not a single detail was left of it- only miraculously preserved photos can remind us of it.
It is very sad that this car, which is a rarity in our little country, faced such a grim fate.

The First Caucasian Homemade Vehicle (Part 3)

In unfamiliar town parts unequipped for such a parking method, Arshak was using another trick- he was blocking the fuel flow, which was also stalling the engine.
On a flat road, the car was able to accelerate up to 21-22 km/h. The fuel capacity was enough for a few hours. The growing entrepreneurial activity of “Avdo” was not very much pleasant for those whose only source of income was the transportation of passengers. They eventually ran out of patience, when a few months after the successful business launch there started to circulate some rumors that “Avdo” was going to build another car for one of his relatives. There was ripening a family business and then the coachmen decided to annoy their rival. One day, after “Avdo” left for another trip, they simply removed the stone-brake from the square. After a few hours, “Avdo” as always was alerting citizens to his arrival through loud sounds of klaxon. And then a complete surprise- the block which had to serve as a break system had vanished. The “surprise” was so unexpected, that the driver simply did not have time to orient himself, and chaotically spinning the wheel, he eventually crashed into a house near the parking space. There is no mention whose house it was (or to be more exact, to what officer the house belonged). We only know that he had to face a severe punishment. After the arrest, he was sent to prison for a long time, after which there is no information on the fate of the tragic taxi-driver and failed inventor.