Cyprus chod, early 1970’s. Now with car adverts!

[danthecapriman]

Going through some old photos and slides of my grandparents and came across a few photos of cars. These were taken in 72 and 73, just before the Turks invaded and caused a load of shit.  My Grandad was in the RAF at the time and was posted to Akrotiri air base, the family went with him as he was there for a few years. Most of the photos were taken of the area around Limassol, which is where they all lived, firstly in a flat then a house until everyone was evacuated as the Turks invaded. There’s an interesting story with the last two pics!

Some of these are a bit dark and blurry, it’s just the age of the photos/slides sadly.

Firstly a few street scenes.

These are of some sort of party and parade at Akrotiri. Most are of RAF vehicles.

 

This one is of a trip up Troodos mountain in a family friends Triumph. Not exactly ideal transport up a snowy mountain road!

 

My Grandad actually didn’t have a driving licence when they first arrived in Cyprus. He passed his test while there and he bought a battered Renault 12 as his first car. After a while he replaced that with a brand new Morris Marina, it didn’t last long though as he came off the road in it and hit a big road sign which basically sliced straight through the front of the car writing it off. He had actually intended to ship the Marina back to the U.K. after his tour in Cyprus was over but sadly it didn’t last long enough.

Ive got another photo of the Marina somewhere but can’t find it at the moment.

 

These two pics are of the Marina’s replacement. The Renault 4 was bought cheap as a replacement just to last until the end of Grandad’s tour at which point it was to be sold and not shipped home.

This car was what they had when the Turkish invasion of the island took place. At the time it happened the UN had told all the service personnel family’s to prepare for evacuation, my grandparents piled packing cases and mattresses up against the walls of the house they were living in to protect against incoming rounds as the Turkish uprising became more and more violent. My mum actually remembers the bullets hitting the wall of the house! She can remember looking out towards Limassol and seeing smoke and bombs going off during the fighting. That night my Grandparents, mum, uncle and auntie all had to sleep in the central hallway of the house (most protected bit of the building) along with the next door neighbors whose house was much more exposed. The next day they were evacuated from where the housing estate was, back to RAF Akrotiri. They had to take what they could, load up the car and form a UN escorted convoy from the housing estate near Limassol back to Akrotiri. This trip apparently usually took around 30 mins but on this day because of the fighting it took 3 hours!

The little Renault 4 made the trip, despite repeatedly cutting out. The cars in the convoy were told not to stop for obvious reasons! But each time it cut out it restarted and managed to get the family back safely, where they were flown home. In the photos there’s a hand drawn Union Jack in the window of the Renault, this was preparation for the evacuation as nobody was allowed to drive down the Limassol bypass without one as part of the convoy. So this photo was taken very close to the evacuation.

The poor little Renault was given to one of the locals by my grandparents as they left. It’d be interesting to know what happened to it.

 

If I find more pics later I’ll post them up.

 

[JeeExEll]

All interesting stuff there Dan.

[danthecapriman]

9 minutes ago, JeeExEll said:

All interesting stuff there Dan.

First pics I found were of the 4, but there were also the street photos so thought I’d put them up. I don’t know why, but I love seeing old pictures of things as mundane as a street or car park. It’s nice to see what things used to be like I suppose! And how shit things are now!

Anyway, there’s more slides and photos I’ve not been through yet so hopefully I’ll find more yet.

[danthecapriman]

Found an old newspaper in with the photos too, it’s an English paper printed for service personnel. Quite a few adverts in it for cars though, most are for the 1974 models.

You can tell it’s pre Turkish invasion as many of the adverts have addresses for Famagusta. Famagusta was a popular city on Cyprus but suffered severe damage from the fighting. Afterwards it ended up inside the UN ‘green line’ no-go zone. Nowadays it’s completely uninhabited and you can’t go there unless your in the peace keeping forces. Much of it is left as it was in 73 when everyone left, there’s even car dealerships still there with new cars left inside unsold! There are vids and pics online from people who have been inside.

[chaseracer]

Hillman Avenger AND Sunbeam 1300/1600!

[danthecapriman]

Last ones for now!

Dodge branded! Not exactly what most people would have in mind when buying a new Dodge. One of these would be a bit of an oddity if someone brought it back to the U.K. 

This ones in Greek and I can’t read a word.

 

These two are my favourite!

[danthecapriman]

Btw, the ads are clearer and easier to read if you click on them.

[somewhatfoolish]

And the prize for 'most glaringly obvious cut and paste job' goes to...

[r.welfare]

Fairly mind boggling to see the Avenger available as a Hillman, Sunbeam and Dodge in Cyprus, seemingly all at the same time.  Fiat 127 seems value at £695.

[danthecapriman]

Just been reading about the Dodge Avenger, seems it was a South African variant using a Peugeot 404 engine. No idea why Cyprus needed the full family line up of Avenger’s though?

[eddyramrod]

Excellent work Dan!  Good to see these old photos preserved, and especially posted here.  Many of Limassol's streets still look very much like the photos...

Re the range of Avengers: the pickup I had over there was a Vauxhall Brava, but it wasn't uncommon to park it among Chevrolet and Isuzu variants of the same truck!  So it looks like something they've always done on the island, and probably always will.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

4 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

......Famagusta was a popular city on Cyprus but suffered severe damage from the fighting. Afterwards it ended up inside the UN ‘green line’ no-go zone. Nowadays it’s completely uninhabited and you can’t go there unless your in the peace keeping forces. Much of it is left as it was in 73 when everyone left, there’s even car dealerships still there with new cars left inside unsold!....

Now that would be interesting to see - pristine shite in as-new condition.

Google search says the cars are Toyotas: - just look at that Celica ST with not much more than delivery mileage....

[danthecapriman]

12 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Now that would be interesting to see - pristine shite in as-new condition.

https://barnfinds.com/abandoned-toyota-dealership-in-cyprus/

https://sometimes-interesting.com/2011/07/19/abandoned-mediterranean-resort-varosha-quarter-in-famagusta-cypress/

have a read!

[bigstraight6]

Great pics and story Dan, I first visited Cyprus back in 2005 and at that time there were loads of abandoned vehicles about most of which were British and I took loads of pics with the camera I had back then which I must scan and post up here one day. I’ve been back many times since and most of the old stuff has gradually disappeared, mainly due to the rapid pace of redevelopment in recent years and waste land/run down areas where the derelict vehicles could be found is built on, the back streets of Limassol is still a good hunting ground though....

I took this pic in 2015 having originally found these MK3 Zephyrs back in 2005, I really could use a pair of those rust free front wings!