Chiang Mai classic cars gone south
Around 50 Chiang Mai based classic cars – including the whole Antique Cars Museum collection – have been sold to the enormous Jesada Technik Museum at Nakon Pathom, west of Bangkok.
The tiny green mystery car from the 1940’s, though to be based on a British Austin design, was a popular exhibit in the north’s only old car museum, owned by Khun Kietisak Singkra. But it was included in a the sale of some 45 cars, now among the 700-plus vehicles at Jesada on a 10 rai site with investment of some 500 million baht.
The Chiang Mai collection, sold for an undisclosed sum thought to be around 10 million baht, included a rare pre-war diesel saloon – a Hanomag from Germany – and a smart, original Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire from 1950’s England.
Visitors to the privately owned Jesada, open 7 days a week and with no admission fee, can also see a rare Tatraplan rear-engined limousine from Czechoslovakia (seen here alongside one of countless Mercedes) bought some years ago from Khun Kietisak and recently restored.
Unrestored is a former member of Chiang Mai Fire Brigade, a 4-door Magirus Deutz fire tender which has been sadly neglected since disappearing from Chiang Mai some 10 years ago. It was specially equipped for moving cars away from burning buildings. It now awaits tender loving care in a field full of fire engines and army trucks in the same condition, or worse.
Jesada was started 6 years ago on a beautiful stretch of the Vakon Chaisi River near the world famous Rose Garden tourist centre. Owner Khun Jesada Dejsakulrit exports fire engines to France and Germany and began importing cars from those countries. As a formally established museum, no excessive import duties are paid.
See www.jesadatechnikmuseum.com
Local enthusiasts need not be disappointed for long. An expat enthusiast is moving to Chiang Mai from the south in 2 months time and bringing 32 immaculate classics, a collection which it is hoped will be open to the public for a few days per year.
Article contributed by David Hardcastle, Copyright David Hardcastle 2010
