Published: 17 September, 2009, 15:11
Edited: 17 September, 2009, 11:32
An exhibition of elegant vintage cars – ranging from a one-of-a-kind Mercedes-Benz to unique Soviet armored cars – opens on Thursday in Moscow.
Nowadays, while Germany’s Frankfurt am Main welcomes the latest innovations in the automobile industry, Russia’s “Old-timer Gallery” has made a retrospective exhibition of the last century’s classics. It is not limited to just classic cars – luxury sport cars and military vehicles are also in the mix.
The “rarest” car that will be presented at the show is the Mercedes-Benz 290 W18 Stromlinien-Limousine (1936), the only one of its kind. This car had been designed specially for high-speed driving on highways, but remained a prototype, and no models were ever constructed. After the Second World War it ended up in the USSR.
In addition, the Soviet ZIS-110P (1956), which belonged to Nikita Khrushchev – leader of the Soviet Union, serving under the title of First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 – will be shown to visitors.
The “most stylish” automobile at the expo is the wooden “Moskvich-422” which has been nicknamed “Buratino” (the Russian equivalent of “Pinocchio”), also a representative of the post-war generation of the domestic motor industry.
A vehicle mostly unknown to public will be the armored car “Russo-Balt”. These machines were built in a Russian-Baltic carriage building factory in Riga from 1909–1917 in various modifications. Only a few models remain, however.
It will be the 14th exhibition project to be held in the Russian capital. After the exhibition has closed these legendary cars will go back to their respective museums and private collections and will never again be gathered all together in one place.
The exhibition will be on for four days in Moscow’s Crocus Expo, starting September 17.