Today I saw a classic and took a pic thread!

Max_Damage wrote: »

After doing a bit of investigating, it turns out that it's a Guernsey plate.

http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/world/AT_GUER.html

studiorat wrote: »

Runs on Beer, Probably.

[/gets coat]

DaveCol wrote: »

Austin 1300GT that my Dad was given. I posted this up before when he got it after it was stored in a garage for about 25 years. He has it up and running and had it out driving last week having done a fair bit of work on it. Bodywork is in quite good shape

peasant wrote: »

This fella obviously wasn't short of a few bob ...why pick a Granada?

jos28 wrote: »

Did you spot this one in Nolans carpark in Clontarf by any chance? I saw it there last week but did not have a phone or camera with me at the time.

PaulK_CCI wrote: »

Correct the tiny "1" in the number plate, would mean the registration document might have been lost at some stage and a new Vehicle certificate issued at some stage

PaulK_CCI wrote: »

Since the last two years, the regs now have a 3 letter combination in the middle...
I get all the specific car info from the equivalent of the Irish Cartell, but the Dutch one is free :-) https://ovi.rdw.nl/

bijapos wrote: »

Bulloch Harbour yesterday.... probably on a stake out of some sort...

The House at Checkpoint Charlie displays an Isetta, an Italian-made mini-car so small that it was exempted from the usually meticulous examination at the Checkpoint.

Although the Isetta looks barely large enough for a driver, it had been modified to hold an escapee in the space once taken up by the battery and heating system. One at a time, nine refugees escaped to the West huddled in those cramped quarters.

As time passed, guards became harder to fool. They began to search cars more carefully, using calibrated rods to measure the dimensions of all types of vehicles. Mirrors to examine the underside of vehicles were added to their arsenal.

But the courageous kept trying. Heinz Meixner, an Austrian, began working in East Berlin in April, 1962. His passport enabled him to travel through Checkpoint Charlie at will. Then romance entered the picture.

One evening Meixner met Margarete Thurau at a dance in East Berlin. As love grew, they made plans for marriage, and Margarete asked permission to emigrate to Austria. East German authorities denied her request.

Undeterred, Meixner decided to drive under one of the steel beams that stretch across the narrow exits in the Wall. He chose Checkpoint Charlie, and riding a borrowed motor scooter, stalled it while the guard checked his passport. Meixner managed to measure the height of the barrier. It was only 37 1/2 inches above the pavement.

Meixner began a painstaking survey of West Berlin`s car rental agencies to find an automobile low enough to slip under the barrier. He selected a sports car, a red Austin-Healey Sprite. Without its windshield the sports car measured 35 1/2 inches in height. He chose a Sunday, shortly after midnight, for his run.

A few hours before starting he removed the windshield and, for added insurance, let some air out of the tires to lower the car even further. Margarete huddled in the tiny section behind the driver`s seat. Meixner`s future mother-in-law was crammed into the cramped luggage area. For protection against possible gunfire, Meixner had surrounded her with 30 bricks.

Sunday, May 5, 1963. It was time for the run. In the early-morning darkness, Meixner drove to the first barricade on the East Berlin side of the checkpoint. He displayed his passport to the guard, who motioned him on to the customs shed. Instead he gunned the motor, whizzed around the vertical bars and skidded past the startled guard.

Before the guards could fire their submachine guns, Meixner raced to the last steel bar, ducked his head, floored the accelerator and rocketed into West Berlin. He was traveling so fast that when he finally hit the brakes the tires left 96-foot-long skid marks.

After the American guards recovered from their shock at this apparition that had materialized out of the early-morning gloom, they welcomed Heinz Meixner, Margarete Thurau and her mother.

Meixner told the Americans, ``I figured it would take the guards three seconds to draw their weapons once they knew what I was doing. I knew Margarete`s mother was protected by the bricks. I felt I could make it with about three inches to spare . . . Now we can get married.``


The exploit, and the Sprite, received international publicity. Several months later Norbert Konrad tried the same stunt. Although born in Germany, Konrad had an Argentine passport. He had fallen in love with an East German woman, Helga Werner, but the authorities refused permission for her to emigrate. Although concerned that the guards at Checkpoint Charlie might be particularly suspicious of sports cars, Konrad rented an Austin-Healey Sprite at a West Berlin agency.

As Helga huddled in the trunk, Konrad drove toward the East Berlin checkpoint. En route, an East Berlin policeman stopped him; Konrad was certain he had been discovered. He relaxed when the policeman pointed to a loose fitting on the exhaust pipe and told him to have it repaired. Konrad gladly fixed it, then resumed his drive.

At the checkpoint Konrad showed his passport, and the guard directed him to the customs office. Instead, Konrad stepped on the gas, raced for the barrier, ducked his head under the 37 1/2-inch-high horizontal pole and skidded into West Berlin. Konrad later returned the car to the rental agency and was incredulous when he learned it was the same vehicle Heinz Meixner had used. Several weeks later Konrad and Werner were married.

The trick worked twice, but no more. To prevent a third Sprite escape, the East Germans embedded steel bars in the concrete beneath the barrier.

bijapos wrote: »

Its from the Chicago Tribune, note that they say the Isetta is Italian.

The car’s origins were with the Italian firm of Iso SpA. In the early 1950s, the company was building refrigerators, motor scooters and small three-wheeled trucks. Iso's owner, Renzo Rivolta, decided he would like to build a small car for mass distribution.

mustang68 wrote: »

Well he found a good "plaice" to park.