Immo's First Car

Hills, mountains and rocks are in Immo Engelhardt's blood. He's a proud owner of his grandparents' photo album, with images from the mountains dating back to the 20s and 30s. He was a hiker and a hill walker from a very young age, and started climbing in his mid-teens.

Aid climbing in steep terrain

Of course back then, that is from the early 60s, it was aid climbing - as well as an incredible number of games made up on the spot and implemented for a day, often not repeated before. If they practiced any particular ethics in climbing, it was freedom and playfulness: having the best time possible.

Doing silly things is fun and fun has always been on Immo's agenda. Here are two non-climbing snapshots from his trips.

Although Immo comes from Nürnberg, his first experiences on rock weren't in the Frankenjura but in the Dolomites instead. The reason was simple: nobody treated the comparatively short Franconian crags as "real climbing" back then; so Immo's uncle took him to the real stuff to show him what it's all about: into the mountains.

Immo soon joined the German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein). Although he remembers that the tendency among some members was to commit themselves to the consumption of alcoholic beverages more than to climbing, he still joined at times - in climbing you need a partner after all.

One of the club events

But what did a climbing day in Franken look like back then? Enthusiasts of the trending ecopoint movement will probably be amazed - and maybe even a little jealous. Immo recalls there were more train connections than today so getting to the villages nearest to your crag for the day was somewhat easier. From there on, a journey on foot would follow. The choice was simple: either the closest crag to the station or a long approach, possibly extending into hours. With heavy steel gear, it was on the adventurous side. At the crag, they'd climb 2-3 routes, then the journey back would begin... which means all of the above in reverse, of course.

You wouldn't really have visited some crags unless you or someone from your climbing partners had a car.
Immo had no motor vehicle back then but enjoyed visiting Franken by any means available to him. One weekend, he joined a DAV meeting in a hut not far from the town of Egloffstein (which consisted of drinking on Saturday and climbing on Sunday). During the travel, an elderly lady (not a DAV member) started a conversation with him. It went more or less like this:

"What are you up to?"
"Visiting the Frankenjura for the weekend."
"Without a car?"
"Well, yes."
"I have a car in my backyard, it's after the grandfather. Nobody drives it anymore. You could have it if you want."
Immo thanked her, saying that it would probably wouldn't have started if it's not used and it wasn't worth it for the weekend.
"No, you can have it. You can keep it."

It turned out to be an old convertible Fiat 500. Just as expected, it took some work to start it. The floor was rotten, completely through in places, owing to the constant humidity in the car that stood outdoors for too long. Needles to say, it lacked MOT (TÜV) and wasn't insured anymore.

The clutch barely worked, but Immo managed to drive off and fill fuel up. Later, when he came to a red traffic light, he would drive in circles across the whole street to avoid having to stop (and start again!). Back then there was so little traffic in the country side that he got away with it.

The little vehicle needed some help at times

After the adventurous weekend, Immo started preparing the car for an MOT, but he was doing it on a budget. Lacking money for the special filler, he used cement and wooden blocks to hold the floor together. ​

On the day of the Fiat's technical examination, the mechanics' first attempt to lift it ended with "we're going to break through the floor". The second attempt was successful: they readjusted the lift in a way that the second time round it was under one of the covered up wooden blocks. The block held. "What do you want, it's nicely welded", came from Immo.

​He waited for the TÜV sticker to be safely on the car before he pushed it for the engine to start (which was still the only way). Upon leaving the garage grounds with a signed document, the rear part of the exhaust fell off. Immo didn't stop to pick it up; he'd rather keep his paper. He was soon stopped by the police: as loud as the car now was, it was really easy to spot.
"What do you want from me? I've just gotten my MOT and everything was fine", Immo said - and somehow got away with this one, too!

LEFT: preparing the Fiat for holiday
ABOVE: meadow cruise in style

The Fiat 500 ended up being a very loyal companion on Immo's adventures. It went far beyond the less accessible Franken crags. It made it all the way from Nürnberg to Chamonix. Another time, packed up to the very top with people, food and gear, it drove into the Dolomites and back. All the above achieved with the impressive power of 13 hp. Sure, it needed a quick repair from time to time, but that was always easy to perform. To provide good access to all parts located at the bottom of the chassis, Immo used to just flip the Fiat on its side.
​The rest is history.

At the campground. You can spot the Fiat getting a quick repair if you look closely.

When its time came, Immo brought his four-wheeled companion to the scrap yard. Thanks to the bodywork done on the car using heavy concrete, Immo got more money out of the deal than anyone could with the same model in the original state; scrap yards pay per kilogram.