In 1994 comes the legend: 1955 Chevrolet Belair Sports Coupe

My dad promised to buy me a car in case i win the university exams for a good school. I did it in 1994, and won to study Electronics Engineering in Middle East Technical University. But before that time, my hobby and interest already started tickling, and i was having tours on foot near the mechanic shops, searching for cars. Those times, my 2 candidates were a pink-white 1955 2 door sedan and 1955 2 door sports coupe, both of them priced at 250 milllion Turkish Liras, approx. 8000 USD.

When i told my decision to my father, he didn't disagree and we stared actions. Owner of the hardtop was hesitating to sell it, and my father was explaining me that the hardtop is better that the other. I, those times, liked the pink one better because of its color. Now, i appreciate that we chose the hartop. And after a sleepless night of thinking about owners decision next day, my father called me to give the good news. Yes he was selling.

We went to register the sales, and the owner just left me with a pair of keys and documents. How to drive that huge, steering wheel geared mashine? Its was in  the indoor parking of Sheraton Hotel in Ankara. That was one of the memorable days of my life driving that car our of the garage. But i did it... It was summer 1994, and i was 18, with a fresh driving license.

That year, we were attending summer English classes to bypass prep class in the university. Everymorning, i was picking my 4-6 friends on the route and going together to the class. It started becoming a famous car in my university.

I didn't have any experience on mechanics those times. Carburator was over flowing all the time, my first experience was to learn how to open it up and clean the float in 5 minutes. One day, traffic police had to stop a major one way street in Ankara so that i can push-start my car downhill in the opposite direction.

I always had time to play with it as a student, that was my luck to modify and enjoy this habbit, although some days i had to curse that i was driving an old car.

I remember 2 instances that i was stopped my routine traffic controls, and their chiefs were asking them to leave me without checking anything.