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.

The First Caucasian Homemade Vehicle (Part 2)

The car got its final form in the spring of 1913, when “Avdo” dared to take the first run of his brainchild. The inventor was so much impressed with the ride on the horseless carriage, the roars and rumblings of which could be heard miles away, that he decided to use it for commercial purposes. For a fee, he was eager to transport passengers and goods. As a matter of fact, this vehicle was the first Armenian taxi.
On certain days of the week, mainly in the mornings, the main square of the town was crowded with curious onlookers, who was gathering to not only watch this technological miracle but also push it at the owner’s command, so the engine could start.
By the way, the first Armenian homemade car had two major design flaws, one of which turned to be fatal for its owner. The car did not have a mechanical engine start system (in those days there were not any electric starters at all- cars had to be started by using the so-called magneto or special handles). That is why all gathered and pushed the car.
The second problem was that the car had no brakes!  Now you might be wondering how this car could be stopped then. The answer is so simple- Arshak had put a big cobblestone at the main square of the town, so whenever he was returning from a regular trip, the car was colliding with the granite block and the engine was stalling.
To be continued...

The First Caucasian Homemade Vehicle (Part 1)

In the early twentieth century, the old Yerevan was only a little town. The most common form of transport were carriages in those times. However, there was an odd vehicle awkwardly rumbling through the muddy alleys of the town. Built by some Arshak in 1913, it was the first homemade car in the entire Caucasus. So, in Yerevan appeared the first car, and its master got the nickname “Avdo” (the provincial pronunciation of “Avto”, which means an auto or, simply, a car in English).

As for “Avdo”, very little is known about him. He had secondary education received in tsarist Russia. Having reached manhood, he became an avid techie, to which the periodicals named “Motor” and “Automobil” contributed largely. Once he returned to Yerevan (1905-1906), Arshak began work on creating his own car. Since our hero did not have any engineering skills, and there was no one to ask for advice, he had to build the car in the image and likeness of the already existing and popular samples, or to be more correct, the car had to be assembled with the components taken from other stock cars. The chief goal was that the future “Frankenstein” had to be able to independently overcome long distances and have a roomy interior. At the down of motorization, the quality of cars was not particularly shining out- they constantly broke, some samples secured a place at the junkyard a few months after the acquisition. According to some reports, Arshak took seven years to travel all over the junkyards of the different Russian cities in search of necessary parts for his car.
To be continued...

Leonid Brezhnev’s GAZ-13 “Chaika” (Part 2)

This color was chosen for practical reasons, since in regions with predominantly hot climatic conditions it would be simply unbearable to have long rides in a black vehicle.

That is why the serial number has a special prefix “1117-Ю”- the last letter in this context is from the Russian word “Южный” (Yuzhny), which means Southern, as if pointing to the fact that the car must be used in the southern regions of the great Country of the Soviets! Before each Brezhnev’s visit, the car underwent full maintenance works, which is witnessed by numerous entries in an appropriate journal secured with appropriate stamps.

In 1973 the car was discarded and was brought to Armenia. Over the next 22 years, this “Chaika” was used by several ministers and served as an official vehicle for the highest officials of the Communist party of Armenia. And finally, in 1995, the current owner, Ashot Sargsyan, managed to buy this car and keep it in pristine condition with all its technical documentation.