Time capsule for old cars - mobile cultural assets in a military tunnel
The EU wants to ban the combustion engine for new cars by 2035, and the eFuel exemption will probably do little to change this. The proportion of electric vehicles is rising steadily and cities are increasingly pushing private transport to the periphery. All of this is also having an impact on classic cars and youngtimers. Traffic jams, generally heavy traffic, ever faster e-bikes, passers-by who are increasingly sensitive to noise and exhaust fumes, 30 km/h speed zones and high levels of surveillance all make driving an old car less enjoyable than it should be. As a result, classic cars often stop more often than is good for them. Some owners consider selling them, but many older cars are not so easy to sell unless they are sought-after gems.
But because all old cars are "mobile cultural assets", a Datsun Bluebird, a Ford Scorpio or Chrysler Neo should also be preserved for posterity.
A new foundation with the catchy name "Kulturgüter-Stollen" has taken on this problem. A former Swiss Army cavern in the Alpine massif has been leased on a long-term basis and now offers space for thousands of classic cars to be preserved for posterity. The Kulturgutstollen is not intended to be an alternative to the classic car hotels that are already widely available, but to enable the long-term storage of cars that are typically less valuable today but all the more important historically.
Because the foundation is well-funded, the costs for car owners are comparatively low. However, they also have to make a personal contribution. Vehicles are only accepted cleaned and prepared for long-term storage. The Kulturgüter-Stollen Foundation explains how this is done on its website. Only CHF 190 must be paid per year for a car up to five meters in length. If the owner wants his car back after ten years at the earliest, he must notify the Foundation one year in advance at the latest. This is to ensure that there is no coming and going in the tunnel. The foundation is primarily concerned with the long-term preservation of cultural assets. To this end, it also ensures that the humidity is not too high and the temperature is suitable for storage.
Just imagine the cavern filled to the brim with former bread-and-butter cars from the Alfa Romeo Arna to the Zagato Zele, pre-war limousines and post-war everyday cars. To prevent the storage facility from becoming a place of pilgrimage for wannabe YouTubers and Instagram influencers, the address remains secret and is only disclosed to the owners of the cars to be stored after the contract has been signed. It seems coherent and it has to be said that this foundation is a really good idea and could save the lives of many a classic car that might otherwise be doomed to die.
The website of the Kulturgüter-Stollen foundationexplains further details, of course.
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