The smell of freedom, gasoline and castor oil
Created: 08/17/2022, 11:00 am
By: Friedbert Holz
This light blue Goggomobil TS 250 coupé was a delicate eye-catcher.
© Johannes Dziemballa
From the Jawa motorcycle to the Corvette: There were many motorized gems to be admired at the classic car meeting in Eicherloh.
Eicherloh
- The large meadow behind the community and fire station in Eicherloh has really experienced a lot over the weekend: first the traditional summer night festival, then on the public holiday a classic car meeting, to which lovers of historic vehicles of all kinds bring their "sweethearts" from the entire district and beyond had brought.
(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Erding newsletter.)
"It has proven itself that we organize two dates in a row," says Dieter Rath, chairman of the Eicherloh fire brigade association and head of the around 30 women and men organizing team.
“Because we only have to set it up once in terms of hospitality and children's programs.
Above all, I am pleased that many young people from our junior fire brigade team are actively helping out, even though it was late the night before.”
In fact, the members of the youth fire brigade took care of a lot: They welcomed and noted down the participants with their cars, tractors and motorcycles, helped with the distribution of food and drinks, and set up benches and tables for the guests.
Shines like on the first day: this Corvette Stingray.
© Johannes Dziemballa
Many of them had traveled with all sorts of historical equipment.
Among the 50 or so tractors of all makes, sizes and colors, Claus Emig's tiny red Steyr tractor stood out.
A dark blue, beautifully restored Hanomag Bulldog from 1962 also neatly lined up in the long queue of former field machines, which are now only driven for the amusement of their owners, primarily to meetings like the one in Eicherloh.
Matthias Hirner had traveled from Notzing in his dark green Unimog 411.
"I used to work with him on the farm and have already been on a tour of Switzerland with him," said the proud owner.
After all, his bizarre device has all-wheel drive with a lockable differential, which means it can get through almost anywhere, even if it's only 60 km/h on the road.
In the early 1960s, the beautiful Chevrolet Corvette Stingray drove almost four times as fast because of its pointed rear roof end.
"When I saw it 27 years ago in a totally desolate condition at a dealer in Munich, I immediately fell in love with this shape," reveals its owner Max Schneider from Eichenried.
He completely rebuilt the American sports car, which delivers around 320 V8 hp to the rear axle via a two-speed automatic transmission - now the beautiful piece shines like on the first day.
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Fritz Sinner, who is standing next to his rare speedway motorcycle, a Czech Jawa, reports on completely different experiences.
"When I was 64, I raced her on the oval, always to the left, with the rear wheel hanging out.
After all, this motorsport device has 50 hp from a single-cylinder engine that has to be fueled with methanol, and castor oil is required for lubrication.” Actually an environmentally friendly vehicle, if only its smell weren’t so strong…
The dark green Unimog 411 is a bizarre device. © Johannes Dziemballa
The countless Lanz and Eicher tractors, mostly with their exhaust pipes thick as an upper arm, also push partly dark clouds into the almost blue Eicherlohe sky.
New ones keep coming, from all directions, and of course their fans too.
They know almost everything about the steel steeds, exchange ideas, talk shop at a level that laypeople are completely left out.
But there are also automotive gems like that Fiat 500 from 1971 with only 24 hp by Rameez Sedlmaier from Eicherloh.
Back then, luggage still had to be strapped onto the rear carrier when going to Lake Garda, for example.
Otherwise, the interior would have been too cramped for a family of four - who still had fun on the day tour.
And so the range of mobile pedestals presented in Eicherloh was the best proof that speed and power do not have to be the only criteria that make people happy.
The discovery of slowness, it seems, has once again appealed to admirers of historical vehicles.
