Pink Cadillac

     It's a good thing that I'm widening my view of the world over the thirteen months that I'll be here. Otherwise I would have thought huge car shows were an American thing. It turns out, lots of people in Ukraine love cars and car culture. Yeah, yeah, that's a very American thing to say. But that's where I was raised. I don't know a whole lot about the rest of the world. I'm learning though.

     Today (Saturday, April 23rd), I went to a car show called Old Car Land. It's a three-day event going on this weekend. A friend of mine suggested that I go and I'm thoroughly glad I did. It was a lot of fun. The weather was beautiful. A perfect, blue sky with scattered cloud cover. The temperature was in the mid 50's. Side note, I think I got my first sun-burn of the year too.
     The event was held at the Aviation Museum. The past two times I've gone there have been by taxi or private car. This time, I took marshrutka 517. It doesn't actually go all the way to the museum. I had to get off and walk what I thought was about a mile to get there. Turns out, I got off way too early and added about another quarter mile to my walk. It's OK though, with the weather the way it was today, I wasn't going to complain about the exercise. After I left the show, the exact same marshrutka was waiting at the stop where I should have gotten off three hours earlier.

Old Car Land - "The Largest Technical Festival"

     There was only one thing I didn't like. The people. There were too many of them. Every time I went to take a picture, someone was in my way. Or I had to watch that I didn't step in the way of someone else's lens. And I really don't understand the brazenness of touching a car that isn't yours without permission. Multiple times I saw people lean on a car for a photo or touch it when the owner wasn't around. I guess I'm still not a people-person. First-world problems.
     There was a good contingent of American iron. Jeeps, Mustangs, Lincolns, Camaros, Corvettes. And since this is Ukraine, the old Soviet iron was in even bigger force. Ladas, Vazs, Moskoviches, Volgas. This post isn't big on the word count but I will include a lot of photos. Not all of them though because I have over 250. The rest can be found here. To start things off, here's a pink Cadillac.  Click on the pictures for a bigger version.

A Lada set up for drifting

Jeep data plates in Russian.

The only Carolla that I want.

A restored marshrutka (taxi-bus) from 1986.

The littlest trailer queen.

'MURICA!

 

Ferrari 430

Ferrari 430

'57 Chevy Bel Air

'72 Dodge Challenger

Mercedes 600D

Lifted Ford F-250

My lunch, a "Frantsuz" (French) hotdog and soda.

Zaz Zaporozhets

Zaz Zaporozhets

Zaz 966M Sport

A rally-prepped Mini.

I used to feel like that chicken when I rode in a marshrutka. Not any more.

     And then there was this contraption. I don't know much about it besides what is in the pictures. Obviously homemade. Rear-engine. I think air-cooled. Probably not a Volkswagen engine. Probably something from a Soviet-era air-cooled car. Perhaps a Zaz.

Thanks for looking and make sure to check out the rest of the pictures here.