Fancy a bit of sunshine in the middle of winter? Then perhaps a visit to the RMK classic car museum in Istanbul is worth considering.
Where does the Orient begin and the Occident end? Istanbul combines the cultures of Europe and Asia and offers many a gem that gives the metropolis on two continents a great attraction.
Linking cultures
The Rahmi M. Koç Museum (RMK Museum for short) also links the cultures of Europe and Asia. This museum is dedicated to the history of transportation and exhibits more than a hundred American, European and Turkish classic cars.
Turkish classic cars? Yes, Turkey's automotive industry dates back to the early sixties, when the first attempts were made to develop and manufacture a Turkish passenger vehicle.
Family tradition and key roles in Turkish automotive history
And the Koç family - representing one of Turkey's richest dynasties - played a key role in Turkey's automotive industry. Vehbi Koç (1901-1996), the founder of Koç Holding, launched the first Turkish car brand Anadol in 1966.
Rahmi M. Koç, the son of company founder Vehbi Koç, managed the company from 1984 to 2003 and was also involved in the cultural sector, e.g. with the RMK Museum on the Golden Horn in Istanbul, the largest technology museum in Turkey.
Rahmi M. Koç is said to have been inspired to set up the RMK Museum by a visit to the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan.
Turkish and other classic cars
In addition to Bentley, Rolls Royce, Mercedes, Cadillac and Chevrolet, the museum displays various Turkish classic cars.
The oldest Turkish car is a red Anadol A1 from 1968. These Anadol models equipped with Ford engines were built from 1966 to 1984. The shape of the plastic body of this first mass-produced Turkish car brand was designed by the English design studio Ogle.
With English assistance
The Anadol was developed by the English small car manufacturer Reliant. The vehicles of the first Turkish car brand were built by Otosan Otomobil Sanayii in Kadiköy on the Asian side of Istanbul.
The box frame of the first two-door Anadol sedans was fitted with the 1.2-liter mechanics of the Ford Anglia and, from 1968, the more modern technology of the Ford Escort 1.3-liter model.
After more than 10,000 Anadol had already been produced, a four-door version was added in 1971. In 1973, the STC 16 fastback sports coupé, designed in Anadol's own design studio, was introduced. A yellow Ananadol STC can be seen in the RMK Museum.
The five-door SV 1600 station wagon appeared in the same year, 1973, and is also on display in the RMK Museum.
Under competitive pressure from the rival vehicles Tofas-Fiat 124 and Oyak-Renault 12, the annual output, which had reached 8,000 Anadol vehicles in 1973/1974, fell increasingly.
At the beginning of the 1980s, only a few hundred cars were produced. As a result, the Otosan company continued to build the former Ford Taunus under its own name from 1985. Eventually, the production of Anadol vehicles was discontinued.
The success of the Turkish Fiat Tofa
The disappearance of the Anadol brand can be partly explained by the success of the Turkish Fiat Tofas. The RMK Museum displays a white Tofas Murat 124. The car manufacturer Tofas (from "Türk Otomobil Fabrikası Anonim Sirket") was founded in 1968 by Vehbi Koç as a joint venture between Koç Holding and Fiat S.p.A..
The foundation stone for the Tofas factory in Bursa was laid on April 4, 1969, and it was inaugurated on February 12, 1971.
From the very beginning, Tofas produced cars under license from the Italian car manufacturer Fiat. The first model was a replica of the Fiat 124, the Tofas 124 Murat. From 1971 to 1977, a total of 134,867 vehicles of this model with a 1.2 liter engine were produced. The 124 was even built as the Tofas Serçe until 1994. Later, the Fiat 131 was also produced under license as the Sahin (basic model), Kartal (estate) and Dogan (luxury version).
In the meantime, no more models are sold as Tofas. Instead, the Fiat Siena and Fiat Marea were produced and sold as such. Like the Anadol brand, the Tofas brand no longer exists today.
Automobile curiosities
In addition to these Turkish cars, the RMK Museum displays a few curiosities, such as a 1962 Türkish-Willys Jeep Overland CJ-3B built in Tuzla-Istanbul - with the exception of the previously mentioned Anadol and the Devrim, built in 1961 in only four examples, the first cars produced in Turkey were the Türkish-Willys Jeep from 1954 - and a Mini.
Turkish automotive know-how export
The developer of the Mini, Alec Issigonis, was born in Izmir on November 18, 1906. After growing up in Turkey, he decided to become an automobile designer in London. Alec Issigonis' great success was the development of the legendary Mini cult car in 1959. With the design of the Mini, he established the principle on which almost all small cars are still built today: Transverse front-mounted engine with front-wheel drive and optimum use of space in the passenger compartment with the smallest external dimensions.
Specialties from around the world
In addition to the Mini Alec Issigonis, the RMK Museum is exhibiting another ingenious car: Raymond Loewy's Studebaker Avanti.
The most striking feature of the coupé with fiberglass bodywork presented in 1962 was the missing radiator grille; the openings for the water cooling system were hidden under the bumper. But the car also had a lot to offer technically. After all, it was the first American car with disc brakes as standard.
Curiously, the sports car was even to survive the demise of Studebaker (1966): It continued to sell under the name Avanti until 2007. For Raymond Loewy himself, automotive design was only a small branch of his multifaceted work: among other things, Loewy, who was voted one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine, is responsible for the design of the Lucky Strike pack and the Shell shell.
The RMK Museum is also exhibiting Ahmet Ertegün's 1965 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud. He founded the influential jazz and pop music label Atlantic Records and celebrated many successes with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.
Together with his brother Nesuhi Ertegün, he founded the New York soccer club New York Cosmos in 1971 and signed stars such as Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer. Ahmet Ertegün became well known in Switzerland through his friendship with Claude Nobs, the director of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Nobs was still working for Montreux Tourisme when he flew to New York for the first time in 1965. There he spontaneously decided to visit the brothers Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün because he read the Atlantic Records address on a record. The Ertegün brothers initially refused to receive him, as he appeared without an agreed appointment. However, Claude Nobs told them that he had come all the way from Switzerland and had Swiss chocolate with him.
The Ertegün brothers finally received Claude Nobs, partly because their father Münir Ertegün used to be Turkey's ambassador to Switzerland. Ahmet Ertegün then made it possible for many stars such as Aretha Franklin to play in Montreux.
Migros in Turkey
Not just cars
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the RMK Museum also exhibits ships, submarines, airplanes, locomotives and railroad carriages in addition to numerous cars. For example, there are sleeping and dining carriages from the Simplon-Orient-Express on display. This ran from London and Paris via Switzerland (Lausanne, Montreux, Sion, Brig and the Simplon Tunnel) to Istanbul.
The RMK Museum in Istanbul is well worth a visit. And not just for car fans!
