Moscow again faces a “breakthrough to the past”. On October 19-22 the only in Russia and the largest in Eastern Europe specialized exhibition of oldtimers (vintage cars) Ilya Sorokin`s X Oldtimer-Gallery takes place at the international exhibition centre Crocus Expo.

The Oldtimer-Gallery gives a rare opportunity for professionals and the audience interested in vintage technologies to see hundreds of unique exhibits displayed at the same hall. For the 10th oldtimers gallery the collectors have brought several absolutely exclusive technical exhibits which the audience is going to see for the first time.

Amongst the wheeled mechanisms presented at the spacious hall the visitors can see a “white crow” – a small military boat. This is a relic of WW2 – a boat (constructed in 1922) from the fascist cruiser Emden that happened to be bombed by the allies in April 1945. The boat that “survived” the bombardment was brought to the USSR as a trophy and later was presented to the famous nuclear scientist Abram Ioffe by Stalin.

Due to the 80th jubilee of the company Volvo the famous Swedish car manufacturer has brought a number of their old autos from the museum in Göteborg to the exhibition in Moscow, including the very first automobile of this mark produced in 1972 - Volvo OV4 Jacob.

The visitors can also see several rarity cars produced in the USSR. Amongst them is a pick-up truck GAZ-415. Such mini-vans able to carry 5-6 people or 400 kilograms were produced in limited quantities up to 1941. The majority of these cars were destroyed during the war. Half a year ago the exemplar presented at the exhibition was a pile of metal but now it looks fully reconstructed.

Near the GAZ-415 is situated its closest “relative” – an off-roader GAZ-61-73 – the world’s first closed car jeep. The off-roader`s reconstruction has not finished yet, and the visitors can see only part of the car now.

Old exclusive sport cars are also presented at the exhibition: for instance, the fastest Soviet car amongst those manufactured in the pre-war period. The racing GAZ GL1, produced in 1938, could pick up a speed of 162 kilometres per hour. There is also a “colleague” of this car at the exhibition hall – a two-seat Moskvich-407 “coupe”, manufactured in 1962 for circular racing. On the whole only two cars of this type were produced by the manufacturer and unofficially were called “Cyclops” because of their cabin shape.

Amongst the other most interesting exemplars are two armoured limousines of the Stalin’s period ZiS-115; an executive-class cabriolet ZIL-111B that was used to carry Yuri Gagarin to the Kremlin in Moscow in April 1961; the reconstructed first Soviet dump truck GAZ-410; a favourite car of Standartenführer Stirlitz (hero of a popular Soviet film) - Mercedes 230 W143; also Rolls-Royce, Buick, Cadillac, Ford, and many other cars produced in the period 1909-1970.

Source:
    www.mk.ru

Lavrentyeva Natalya