Unusual to see a LHD Chevette. Front detail a bit non-standard - would not normally have a name badge (only on tailgate), but should have a griffin logo. And Sandie can have the Scimitar (RHD so ex-UK?).

Unusual here, too, but they were officially sold here. As Wiki says http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Chevette from October 1980 until April 1982 were sold 12.332 Chevettes in Germany. As a cheap stopgap between the end of the Kadett C and the start of the Kadett D before the Corsa A came.

P.S. It's also said, that it was a complete Vauxhall, so at repairs problems came up, due the inch-measures, screws and so on.

As I mentioned before, the Chevette and the CF are the only models, which are listed explicitly as Vauxhall in the list of the German car insurance classification. The newer Vauxhalls, as my Vectra, have Opel-codes, all older, original Vauxhalls doesn't exist in this list.

P.S.II: no, with exactly this front badging the Chevettes were sold here. Just the "Chevette"-badge, no Vauxhall-griffin anywhere.

P.S.III. yes, the Scimitar is an UK-car. Reliant was never existing on the German market.

This one, spotted last June on the classic car even in Bockhorn, was a private import, too. But from Switzerland, if I remember correctly, what the owner has said. The "PRINZ"-badge he has mounted to tease the people. It was really funny to stand besides and listen, what the people are guessing.

That Reliant trike is probably a chopped Robin estate, but I've no idea who by. May even be a factory prototype - it would be difficult to get that shape for where the doors should be. And do you recognise where the wheel covers come from originally? (they were standard fit on Robins and Kittens but have another origin).

That Chevette badging is interesting - I suppose they did not want to confuse Germans with any hint of Vauxhall branding. But why not - UK happily absorbed both in parallel in 60s-80s?

The CF was also badged as an Opel here.

Cool find, ingo

As mentioned in the toys-thread, I've been this weekend at this location
http://www.oscherslebenbode.de/verzeichnis/visitenkarte.php?mandat=101573 , interesting for fans of DDR- and COMECON-stuff. The very most of my pics were made for you here (the K 70 are not that interesting, I know the cars since years, the owners, too).



@rjluna2: visible on the first pic:



On the scaffold a running advertising light:



This Bosch-foglight is older than the shiny classic precious item, where it's mounted on:





Sorry, the bulbs are all from Philips. I haven't found any DDR-made "NARVA"-bulbs.

Here the military stuff. The first two pics are specially made for Weasel, 130rapid and rjluna2:









which has a nice goodie for rjluna2

For Lateef pics from the only two Western thing in this exhibition. Surely purchased just for joke, because it was was cheap. Indeed you can get old police-Scorpios for a few Euro, especially in a poor condition as here. The plates are fakes.

Here some pics for walter. The Audi 100 and the RO 80 are belonging to club-friends.



This pic



was made at annother location, here: http://harzer-bike-schmiede.de/home.html
More from there soon.

O.k., now a full bunch of DDR-specialities for rjluna2
After that "Ostalgie Kantine" we drove to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmstedt–Marienborn_border_crossing which is nowadays a national memorial.

From the observation tower I've made these pics:



incl. a zoom-pic for our US-car-freaks. I cannot identify it, maybe a Plymouth Roadrunner or annother MOPAR-product?




A lot of buildings and technical facilities were demolished in the past, but the control- and switch panel for the lighting of the whole DDR-side of the border crossing point still exists, also in the control tower:



About the lighing-system there the guide told a a lot of details. It was so powerful, that the engery could supply a little town with 20.000 inhabitants (note: the DDR had always energy problems, also with the electric power). And all lights were so positioned, that not the tiniest edge of the whole area was laying in the shadow.
















On the backside I've found a dismantled lighting pole -from the big ones- and have thought "Hey, rjluna2 will like that"
See it on the bottom left:

More DDR-stuff for the lighting database, now pics from annother Cold War-memorial, from http://www.grenzdenkmal.com/







Sorry, the light was bad at this cloudy and rainy evening, so the zoomed detail-pics of the lanterns failed.

After theses masses of Eastern Block-motifs now something West German. My wife and me slept in this West German made Caravan-trailer "Eriba Hobby" from the 80ies.

You posted amazing lighting related stuff. I'll capture and uploaded to the Lighting Gallery web site later on tonight

Thanks, there is also a Jelcz 574 Z with N117 body (Star cab and chassis) at the 8th pic.

Is this the same place that you went to the border patrol from your last message?

The both memorials, the former border crossing point Marienborn and the "Grenzdenkmal" in Hötensleben (one of the very few places, where parts of the "Iron Curtain" are preserved) are both about the German Divide, the Cold War and so, but are two different locations (but only in a few kilometers distance)

The "Ostalgie Kantine", where all the pics from the Eastern vehicles are from, is something different. A restaurant, combinated with a kind of vehicle- and DDR-museum, privately owned by the owner of a junkyard in Oschersleben, a small town South of Magdeburg.

About the military trucks and vehicles: although some were used by the DDR-army, they are not DDR-made, mostly from the USSR. Some of them are from the Soviet Army, too, plus this ambulance-jeep from the Polish army. But for details we have to wait for the Eastern Block-vehicle-experts here. My knowledge about is not that big.

Now pics from annother location, now from here: http://harzer-bike-schmiede.de/home.html
These freaks, a 70-year-old man, his two sons and some fellows have made several things. Most known is the biggest motorbike of the world:
http://photographyheat.com/photography-of-biggest-bike-of-the-world/ With a 800hp-engine of a T55-tank

They have built a motorbike with a Tatra V8-engine, too.

They also own the first DDR-government limo:

(in the background)

plus this Chaika

For 130rapid, the Tatra-powered motorbike:



@rjluna2: these fellows have the obsession, to re-use all kind of old stuff, from pre-war-times and older. Not only their vehicles (they have also a large collection of COMECON-made motorbikes, mopeds and bicycles) are re-activated and repaired with other old stuff, also the buildings, old barn, artisan cottages and so on are exclusively made of old material. The have a special faible for all the makeshifts, made by East Germans in the first years after WWII, from war-scrap and stuff from the 19th century.

So the "Tatra-bike" is also a mongrel of all kind of different stuff. I forgot some details, but the semaphores are from a truck and the headlight was made from a ... paint bucket.


The frame of this war-disabled BMW-motorbike (hit by a grenade) was found and digged out in a forest in 1952. The finder has organized different parts for make it roadworth again. The engine is from a NSU-motorbike, the front wheel from a IFA F9 and so on.




In their re-built workshop they have a 140-year-old light switch still in daily use:



and masses of ancient lighting-stuff is hanging on the ceiling. The most stuff is 80, 100 or more years old:



This chandelier is selfmade from all kind of metal-scrap (if you cannot identify it: the aluminium "dishes" are Wartburg 311-hubcaps):

@ingo: It really boggled my mind to see all those cobbled up light fixtures that you have shown here

Unfortunately, I just started my summer semester class for my Computer Engineering major I can only limit my time upload a few pictures at a time and with the Imageshack's limit time period that I may have pull it off before it disappered