This isn’t a Turkish car, but it is daughter Mo shining up her very American Ford Focus, prior to leaving for eastern Europe.
As you may or may not know, my rather fabulous daughter Mo has spent the last year living and working in Turkey, and has recently left that country to do a bit of travelling around Russia in search of my maternal grandfather’s ancestral home in what is now the Ukraine. Sharing my penchant for strange and different cars, she snapped some photos along the way and I though you might enjoy them.
This cool little Anadol coupe must have had an enthusiast owner or owners along the way, as its pretty clean, sports aftermarket wheels and fog lights, and appears well looked after.
Kind of neat that this Anadol 100 coupe owner went through the effort and expense of fabbing up a set of dual exhausts. Likely didn’t add any horsepower to the tiny Ford Kent I4’s output, but certainly made it sound a little racier.
The first batch she sent me was of this tidy little Anadol 100 coupe; Anadol is among Turkey’s oldest and longest lived car producers, many of them over time being powered by Ford engines. Anadol was never a luxury car builder (something not a high priority in Eastern Europe over time) but produced some interesting hardware along the way. The internet is full of interesting information and photos about this company and its products.
I can’t quite place the aluminum mags on this car, but they have a distinct factory look about them, likely a set of new car takeoffs from something.
Don’t let the Mustang badge fool you, as this isn’t in any way an imported or rebadged Mustang. And Mustangs were never officially imported or sold in Turkey. I can only guess that this owner was riffing on the Ford connection via the Ford engine. Note tinted windows. This model is from the early to mid 1960s.
Many of the cars in workdaday Turkey are very pedestrian; not many hot rods, Gullwings or fancy iron there; remember this is a country where many people still use a horse for transportation.
Likely the most charming and most classic car in Izmir Turkey, this two tone 2CV is charming in any land.
A face that anyone could love, and like a puppy found on the street, I’m sure Mo wanted to take it home.
This charming Citroen 2CV isn’t Turkish, of course, but something that just really appealed to Mo, so she sent me photos of it.
The lines of this little Moskovich sedan screams mid-70s Fiat all the way; these are common all over Russia and the Ukraine.
Not a Moskovich, but a real live Fiat, which are somewhat common in Turkey.
Mo bagged this little Moskovich on the streets of Kiev, the boxy lines still Fiat all the way.
While visiting Kiev in Russia, she nabbed a few Moskoviches along the way. For decades Moskovich was among Russia’s largest carmakers. Many of the cars were licensed, and only mildly revised, versions of various Fiat models.
The once proud Moskovich HQ building, abandoned but still standing, and likely not for long.
The Moskovich factory was quite the Cold War industrial complex.
Moskovich, in Moscow of course, is out of business, but in somewhat haunting tributes to the Cold War, the abandoned remains of is HQ building and factory still stand, although plans are afoot to demo them both in order to reclaim and reuse the property.
Car photos courtesy of Mo Stone.
From Russia with Rust; this sad little Moskovich is oxidizing its way back into the earth, and appears as if it will get there soon.