Hello Arjan, 
 
congratulations!! Your website is very fine and much useful, with all the info one can find there.. 
 
My name is Massimo Follaro, I live in Rome, Italy.

 

I'm 50, not old enough to have lived in the 50's.. anyway since I was kid, I was fascinated of that 'outfashioned' cars with fins and chrome. In the late 60's there were still some of that cars here in Rome: Opel Rekord P1, Ford Taunus 'Barock', Ford Consul/Zephir/Zodiac, even some Vauxhall Cresta, and others.. and obviously Fiat 1100/1800/2300 etc. 

But the preferred was always the P1!!  

 

Then I grew up, and bought my first 'alldays' car (an used 1979 Volvo 244) but never forget these..

In early 90's, I saw on a classic car magazine (no Internet yet) an advertisement about a Rekord P1. Even if quite far from Rome, with my father we took the train to Trieste to see it, and I bought it.

This was my first P1, but I own it not for long time, as shortly after I found another P1 in Rome, better preserved. So the Trieste one went to Turin (to another fan of P1) and I bought the Rome one, that I still own.

 

The car is very nice, you can see it in italian magazine 'Ruoteclassiche', May 2013 issue, page 28  Ruoteclassiche Maggio 2013 Opel rekord.pdf    , or also at http://classiccarpoveremabelle.blogspot.it/ . Attached also some pix. I did only minor works (brakes, battery; some months ago the water pump) and bought whitewall tires from USA. All original and preserved (interiors, paint, trim) with original 1959 Roma plate and documents.

 

But there was also another car in my dreams: its 'big sister' Opel Kapitaen P2,5, the 'only-one-year-built' also called 'Schluesselloch' by the germans.. Very few were sold in Italy, so the search was hard..

Many years ago, following some rumors I found one in a field, but it was too damaged to be restored.. so I only took some parts (but I should have saved the whole wreck, damn!!)

Some months ago, after a long sought, I found another one, quite fine, only 34K Km! It's 'almost preserved' (fifty years stored in a barn, but last five years outdoor) so damages are light and superficial.

Now I'm slightly reconditioning its body and interiors, and rebuilding brakes.  Attached some pix, other will follow as works progressing. 

 

Hope all above would be interesting..

 

Best regards

 

Massimo Follaro - Rome, Italy