A young Siberian used a historic car as a tractor for years: then, the incredible discovery of its value.
It is said that luck helps the bold and sometimes, we add, even the unaware, because the story that comes from Russia it is truly incredible.
To explain well what happened, however, we must take a step back starting from a great premise and a name: Ronald Kooyman.
Kooyman is the owner of a Dutch historic car museum, within which we can have the good fortune to view some of the rarest models in the world. Of course, a museum of this kind must have pieces that are more unique than rare, impossible to find elsewhere: this Kooyman knows it well and for this reason he has started a hunt worthy of a cinematic story.
The Dutchman was in fact looking for a very simple authoritarian, one Toyota AA which dates back to the times of the Second World War. For various events, including the consequences of the conflict, fewer than 2,000 were produced soon becoming a rarity impossible to see around.
It was 2008 when Kooyman and a group of private investigators set out in search of an example of this car which, surprisingly, was located in the very distant and cold steppes of Siberia. The owner? A young and unsuspecting farmer.
The priceless vintage car hidden on a farm
This person’s name was not disclosed, but his story was. The boy has inherited the car from one of the relatives, the original owner who bought it at the turn of the thirties and forties of the last century. Living in a remote area of the world, the young man probably never imagined that his sales ad would appeal to such a wealthy client.
After all, his use of the car was very simple indeed. Preserved on a family farm, he used it just like a small tractor for the plow and to carry out other small chores for the cultivation of its land. At some point he must have thought that he no longer needed him, hence the decision to sell it.
We do not know how much it cost Kooyman, if he took advantage of the peasant’s ignorance or if he was in any case generous driven by the happiness of having found the desired object, but it is certain that the Russian bureaucracy she got in the way to complicate his plans.
It took about seven months to convince the country’s bureaucrats to grant the purchase and export of this beautiful Toyota to the Netherlands.
Today, we can admire it in all its authentic and fantastic period splendor: rest at Lowman Museum, more than 80 years after its first production. Seeing it live will be a great honor for anyone who professes a passion for historic cars.
