144's in North Korea
 

FYI - https://www.npr.org/sections/paralle...tic-difference

I wonder if any are still on the road?

All are late-model 144s lacking in quarter-lights on the front doors, having big Armco-style bumpers and high-level front indicator lights. They look a bit neglected - badly fitting boot lids and bonnets, and a front bumper obviously bashed at some time!
Do we have a Volvo-spotter out there who can do some research (or would he be classed as a journalist?).

P

I agree Paul - they all seem a little 'warped' shall we say....bit like the country itself

the fronts seem to slope down a lot - just look wrong

I see that those capitalist Volvo hubcaps have been removed.
Many of you may know that 264s were sold to the GDR back in the day for the apparachiks to ride about in.

Apparently the north Koreans "adjusted" the fronts of the 144 cars claiming the western engineers who made them were less worthy than their better and more experienced engineers thus improving on a flawed western designed car.

If you see them close up the gap between the wings and the door posts under the screen scuttle is huge big enough to get your fingers in

the first photo shows cars with hub caps they probably have just gone missing over time on some of them, there is 1000 of them and the first photo is from 2012

https://www.npr.org/sections/paralle...tic-difference

They’ve been improved by DPRK scientists. The front slam panels seem to have been lowered and the wings hinged down from their top rear mounts until they make contact with the doors, resulting in revolutionary panel gaps.

My theory is that they were all refitted at some stage in the 1990s and relaunched as superior DPRK-built cars. They’re all painted the same shades of dismal green and maroon, and they’re all similarly patinated inside and out.

Hubcaps have been remanufactured using advanced methods.

Here are some photographs I took in Pyongyang a few years ago. Sadly, I was removed by ‘NO PHOTO!’ guards before I could fully investigate the revolutionary improvements.

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And yes – there were still plenty scuttling around Pyongyang in 2012.

Is there a sanctions busting scandal about to break here?
Cheap 175 Stromberg diaphragms being shipped to the North Koreans in breach of international embargoes?
Happy new year!

Judging by Sam's fourth photo North Korea manages to obtain copious quantities of P38 bodyfiller despite any sanctions!