Car-spotting in Athens Greece
- Thread starter Zephyr
- Start date
Those e30s could be worth saving?
A jaw dropping find yesterday. More than rare Buick Roadmaster (four ventiports) Fastback Sedanette Dynaflow Fireball straight eight all original. Not the Super, nor the Riviera. A one year only model with a combo of engine and colour that makes it probably one of four alive worldwide.
Had a chat with the owner, he can not afford to fully restore it and intends to sell it.
Way out of my league, asking what its really worth and on top of that it will need more than 30k to be concours. We are looking at a 100k + finished car, that in the US would be the item of desire for many motor museums.
Had a chat with the owner, he can not afford to fully restore it and intends to sell it.
Way out of my league, asking what its really worth and on top of that it will need more than 30k to be concours. We are looking at a 100k + finished car, that in the US would be the item of desire for many motor museums.
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This is a sad photo, my grandfather owned one back in late 60's and early 70's.
Surprised to see a plastic pig over there.
Once we were full of them. No1 among handicapped people, as it was a provision for the ones who lost members of their bodies during WW2.
The first provision was a Morgan 3cycle but later on they got too expensive and Greece was once again into civil war, so money were not enough to feed and give privileges to war heroes. (As always).
Based on an old law also, three wheelers did not pay taxes, so when the veterans passed away the Robins were sold to individuals.
It is not a Reliant in the flesh by the way, it is a MEBEA, produced under licence.
MEBEA was a Greek vehicle manufacturer, producer of light trucks, passenger automobiles, motorcycles, motorbike engines, agricultural machinery and bicycles.
Quite important back in the day, they designed Reliant Fox and after it was no longer being built in Greece, Reliant reused the design for itself instead of shelving it.
Believe it or not, during the years, this little Countries industrialists, tried hard to build cars, ships, trucks and trains, but as always along the ages of our existence, every twenty years or so, civil wars, “revolutions”, or corrupt parties bring the economy back to zero, so even the idealists among us, just dont bother anymore and spend their money elsewhere.
So MEBEA had the same fate as Nissan Greece, NAMKO, Attica, Neorion (that made electric vehicles in the 80s), DIM and C.Ar.
I will put some photos of them in the next post for you to see.
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@Althulas
C.AR was an automotive company, founded in 1970. Originally it was called ARCO, both names being formed from the name of its founder, Constantinos Argyriadis, an engineer and architect.
Attica was a brand name of vehicles produced by Bioplastic S.A., a company (originally involved in fiberglass panel manufacture, later expanding into fiberglass boat manufacture)
DIM Motor Company, was created by Georgios Dimitriadis as a successor to his earlier company, Bioplastic S.A., which had produced the Attica automobile. The DIM represented one more effort by Mr. Dimitriadis to design and develop a modern car entirely by his company's own means.
In 1972, under the ownership of the Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris Neorion incorporated Enfield Automotive, originally a British company, then owned by Goulandris, involved in the design and construction of electric cars. This led to the establishment of a new company that undertook vehicle production, "Enfield-Neorion E.P.E.", headquartered in Athens and production of the cars (which had been designed in the UK by British and Greek engineers) called Bicini.
and finally NAMCO that used Citroen 2cv engines to produce a light truck that was a mega hit during the 70s and 80s
but as usual syndicates that wanted to control the companies, corrupt governments that wanted a share of the money, civil unrest and financial instability made these billionaires angry, so they moved to London, took their shipping companies and money there and lived happily ever after.
C.AR was an automotive company, founded in 1970. Originally it was called ARCO, both names being formed from the name of its founder, Constantinos Argyriadis, an engineer and architect.
Attica was a brand name of vehicles produced by Bioplastic S.A., a company (originally involved in fiberglass panel manufacture, later expanding into fiberglass boat manufacture)
DIM Motor Company, was created by Georgios Dimitriadis as a successor to his earlier company, Bioplastic S.A., which had produced the Attica automobile. The DIM represented one more effort by Mr. Dimitriadis to design and develop a modern car entirely by his company's own means.
In 1972, under the ownership of the Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris Neorion incorporated Enfield Automotive, originally a British company, then owned by Goulandris, involved in the design and construction of electric cars. This led to the establishment of a new company that undertook vehicle production, "Enfield-Neorion E.P.E.", headquartered in Athens and production of the cars (which had been designed in the UK by British and Greek engineers) called Bicini.
and finally NAMCO that used Citroen 2cv engines to produce a light truck that was a mega hit during the 70s and 80s
but as usual syndicates that wanted to control the companies, corrupt governments that wanted a share of the money, civil unrest and financial instability made these billionaires angry, so they moved to London, took their shipping companies and money there and lived happily ever after.
Cheers that is a bit of interesting history, who knows what the Greek industry could have further developed if it wasn’t for all that corruption and instability.