by Bernie Golias
As many of you know, my wife Sara was born in Costa Rica. A while back, we visited her native country to spend time with relatives and celebrate my mother-in-law’s 95th birthday. As usual with Car Idiots, I tried to find a way to have an auto adventure on our vacation, and Sara graciously agreed.
While there, I was honored to meet with several auto enthusiasts, and they were happy to share their stories and show off their collections. I was extremely impressed at the amount of interest in the area, and even the cab drivers questioned the AACA (Antique Automobile Club of America) logo on my shirt. Quite obviously, the Costa Rican region is rich with people who share the same passion as we do in North America. Other than my mother-in-law’s party, meeting so many enthusiasts was the highlight of my trip.
Two of the men we met were members of the Club de Autos Antiguos de Costa Rica, a Region of the AACA in Central America.
With Sara acting as my translator, first we met with Gaspar Ortuno.
Gaspar’s father (who ran for president of Costa Rica some years ago) and five others founded the AACA Region in 1995. Started by his father in the 1950s, Gaspar’s collection is surprisingly impressive. His prize possession is a 1923 Avions Voison C5. A wealthy coffee plantation owner purchased the car new in 1923, and Gaspar’s father bought it from the original owner in 1955.
He also had a 1922 Dodge Touring car, purchased new in Costa Rica, as well as many other fascinating vehicles. My conversation with Gaspar was exciting; he wanted to build the club (currently 30 members) and was meeting with their Board of Directors to fine-tune their policies in order to attract new members.
We also had lunch with the current president of the Region, George Blau. He was heavily involved with microcars and loved early British Mini Coopers and Italian Isettas. He explained that the club has three main events a year. One of the events, a car show that I just missed by a week, had over 140 vehicles on display. They also hold road rallies, with the one that year running from San Jose, Costa Rica all the way to Panama!
Hector Monge was the third gentleman we visited. He sold some of the cars to Gaspar and his father in days gone by, including early Packards. Hector and his son ran a simple garage repairing cars, and he owned several interesting early VWs as well as the second Bugatti kit car made in Costa Rica. A lot of neat stuff was tucked away in the back of their garage, such as early VW sedans and a 1930 Ford Model A Coupe. I could have spent all day exploring.
What a great adventure this turned out to be! It was humbling and fun to hear the car collecting stories these men shared . . . stories that were eerily similar to those of my friends and me. Although we live in different countries and speak different languages, our passion for vintage cars is exactly the same.
Want to learn more? Visit:
- The Club de Autos Antiguos de Costa Rica Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AutosAntiguosCostaRica?fref=ts
- The Antique Automobile Club of America’s website: http://www.aaca.org/
- George Blau’s contact information: O. Box 2548-2050, San Jose, Costa Rica