Masini de fite in epoca comunismului - Flash cars under communism

"Masinile de fite" nu sunt deloc un fenomen modern in Romania. Obsesia de a rupe gura targlui, poate normala in primele zile ale automobilsmului sau intr-o societate care a facut prea repede tranzitia intre comunism si capitalism, nu a pierit nici in capitala comunista. Daca ne uptam la cam toate filmele din perioada 1970 - 1989, banditii conduc masini occidentale, fie ele decapotabile americane sau model nou-noute germane. Oamenii decenti, put si simplu, sunt mai modesti. Dar cat ne impresioneaza o masina tare pe strada...!

Povesti sunt destule. Tatal meu avea masini vestice si facea furori, mai ales cu un Audi 100 GL. Dar era un nimica pe langa ce aveau altii. In fiecare an sosea un italian pe litoral cu un Ferrari pe platforma, gropile fiind prea mai pentru a conduce masina distanta lunga. In Bucuresti, langa Ateneu, ceva timp a fost parcat un Rolls. Jaguar E-Type existau cel putin doua inscrise in Romania, precum un Maserati 3500GT care a mai supravietuit in stare teribila. Alfe sau Lancii sportive nu erau necesar o raritate. Iar cand veneau in bucuresti sau pe litoral turisti straini, soseau si amatori din provincie sa vada si sa fotografieze aceste ciudatenii pe patru roti. Treaba s-a schuimbat in anii 80, cand chiar un Renault 9 sau un Ford Taunus nou erau ceva miraculos. Dar fitele n-au disparut niciodata...

foto 1 - Bucuresti, 1972, Mustang
foto 2,3 - Constanta, 1971, din filmul "Brigada Diverse"
foto 4 - Bucuresti, 1974, Universitate - de pe muzeul de fotografie lui Alex Galmeanu
foto 5 - Sibiu, 1967
foto 6 - E-type american in Bucuresti, 1964, de pe muzeul de fotografie lui Alex Galmeanu
foto 7 - Constanta, circa 1970, cu un Jaguar E-type, de pe muzeul de fotografie lui Alex Galmeanu







There's nothing new about flash cars in Romania. The obsession with having something better than everyone else, perhaps understandable in the early days of motoring or in the transition period from capitalism to Communism, died down hard even under Communism. In pretty much all Seventies and Eighties Romanian films, all the baddies drive Western cars, either German or American tin. The implication was that decent people are more modest. But how people stared at them.

Anecdotes are endless. My own father was mobbed whenever he turned up with a new Western car, and most of all in a Audi 100 GL. But his car was nothing. Every year the same Italian would turn up on the Black Sea Cost towing a Ferrari, the local roads being too bad to drive the thing. In Bucharest there was for some time a Rolls Royce. At least two E-types plied the Romanian streets on Romanian plates, as did a Maserati 3500GT which still survives now. Next to them, sporting Alfas or Lancias were relatively banal. Of course, things changed in the 1980s, when even a Reanult 9 or a new Ford Taunus would create riots. But the Romanian has never lost his taste for flashy cars!

1. Mustang, Bucharest, 1972
2, 3. Constanta, 1971, from the Brigada Diverse films
4. Italian cars, Bucharest, 1974 - from Alex Galmeanu's photo museum
5. Sibiu 1967
6. American E-type, Bucharest, 1964 - from Alex Galmeanu's photo museum
7. E-type, circa 1970, Constanta, from Alex Galmeanu's photo museum