Retromobil
\nClub Romania, an association that has over 3,000 members around the country,
\nrecently organised together with the Contemporary Art Museum in Bucharest an
\nexhibition entitled Socialist cars. Several dozen cars were on display on the
\npedestrian area in front of the museum, affording visitors a glimpse into Romania’s
\ncar making past. The cars on show all belonged to Romanian private individuals
\nor state institutions and were in circulation between 1964 and 1989, during the
\ncommunist regime. This explains the title of the exhibition, which is not only
\nabout cars, but also about this historical period and the lives of the Romanian
\npeople at the time. <\/p>\n
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We caught
\nup with \u0218erban Cornaciu, the deputy president of Retromobil Club Romania and
\nthe organiser of the exhibition, who told us why the Contemporary Art Museum
\nwas the perfect venue for this event:<\/p>\n
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The exhibition
\nis a counterpart to the collection of socialist realist art hosted by the museum
\nand consists of a selection of cars made between 1964 and 1989 and which were driven
\nin Bucharest. The idea was to try to recreate the atmosphere in society and the
\nlives of the people at the time through a series of exhibits and the cars that
\ncould be found in the city. We are trying to tell the story of how these cars
\ncame to be owned by people, how they were bought, who drove them and how people
\nwho used these cars during socialism used to live.<\/p>\n
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20 cars,
\na van, a bus, a truck and 4 motorcycles were on display in the exhibition
\ndedicated to socialist cars. Most of them were manufactured in Romania. Seven
\nof the cars were the Dacia 1300 model, which was the most popular car in Romania
\nbefore 1989 and which used to be made at a factory in Pite\u0219ti. Three of these
\ncars were the standard Dacia 1300 model, one the sports version, a Dacia 1100
\nmodel and a Dacia 1300 model that was used by the police, as well as a Dacia
\n2000 used by the communist president Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu and senior party figures
\nduring official trips. Other Romanian brands in the exhibition is the Oltcit
\nSpecial model manufactured in Craiova before 1989 and the Aro off-road vehicle,
\nof which three models were on display: two Aro 243 cars, an Aro M461 C car and
\nan Aro Dacia 10 model.<\/p>\n
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Foreign brands also featured in the vintage car exhibition,
\nincluding three Soviet brands, namely the famous Moskvitch, Volga and Lada. A Volga
\nM 21 car made in 1961 used by high officials was one of the highlights of the
\nexhibition. The Moskvitch 403 model was one of the earliest mass-produced cars,
\nand the Lada 1200 model was one of the most reliable. The famous Trabant 601
\ncould not have missed from an exhibition dedicated to socialist cars. Trabi,
\nas this car was lovingly named by its many fans, used to be manufactured in the
\nformer German Democratic Republic and was in high demand in its heyday,
\nincluding in Romania. Western brands were represented in the exhibition by a
\nMercedes 2200, two Volkswagen Beatles and a Fiat 850, all of which were very popular
\nin those times. <\/p>\n
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A TV van, A Roman Diesel bus and a Carpa\u021bi truck, all of which
\nwere manufactured in Romania, were the most unexpected exhibits. Organiser Serban
\nCornaciu explains:<\/p>\n
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Each
\nexhibit has its own special story. They were owned by the state. I’m thinking
\nof the Roman Diesel bus, which is 11.3 metres in length, and the cars exported
\nby Romania during the socialist period and which were bought back by some of
\nour club members in an attempt to preserve the technical heritage of Romania.
\nThese cars had been exported to Hungary and France and my colleagues bought
\nthem back and restored them. The exhibition also contains a rare exhibit, a TV
\nvan which used to be driven in the 1970s and was one of the first to be used by
\nthe Romanian state. You can also see a Carpa\u021bi 4 X 4 army truck, whose every piece
\nwas carefully restored.<\/p>\n
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Two
\nBMW German motorcycles and the Romanian counterparts, the famous Mobra and Carpa\u021bi,
\nwere also on display at the exhibition dedicated to socialist-era cars. Organiser
\n\u0218erban Cornaciu tells us more:<\/p>\n
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I
\nbelieve it is the duty of us from Retromobil to show the cars in our collection
\nto the public and our communities. Our greatest joy is to be able to bring them
\nall together.<\/p>\n
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The exhibition
\ndedicated to Romanian socialist-era cars was also an opportunity to find out more
\nabout the Romanian car-making industry before 1989. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A report from a somewhat unusual exhibition hosted a while back by the Contemporary Art Museum in Bucharest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":169919,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[32792],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-cars"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n