Monday, May 29, 2017

Opel Kapitan (Part 1)

This Opel Kapitan is one of the few vintage cars in Armenia, which received a relatively better fate than many other samples from its epoch.
We met the owner of this car many years ago; if I am not mistaken, it was in 2001. At the time, we were involved in organizing just another retro event with participation of many classic cars. In order that the event could take place, we needed to gather a certain number of old vehicles, which were supposed to be in excellent condition both technically and externally. The event was going to be attended basically by the permanent members of the Automobile Federation of Armenia, or rather, by those car owners who had already been registered for the club of classic cars at the federation.




However, it was still necessary to find at least one car, in order to replenish the list of participants. On the eve of the event, we happened to see this Opel in the street on our way home. At first glance, the car was in a quite fresh condition, so we offered the owner a place in the convoy of classic cars. In addition, we issued him a membership of the club and federation.
The event went perfectly and we had enough time to get to know each other better afterwards. It turned out that Albert Sargsyan, the owner of the car, had owned it since 1984. According to Albert’s statement, this Opel had been brought to Armenia in the early postwar years as a war trophy, after which it was used by a family of a former army officer for many years. During that years, many native units fell into disrepair and were replaced with soviet ones; some details were lost forever. This “Kapitan” passed by inheritance to Albert Sargsyan in a dreadful condition. At first Albert did not know what to do with the scrapheap he inherited in 1984. After some time, he decided to get down to the rehabilitation of his retro-car.
To be continued…

No comments :

Post a Comment