Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Checker A2 model, until 2005, only one was even known to exist. Then 6 were found on a farm in Finland... why Finland? 500 taxis were bought in Chicago for use during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.


If I read the translated words correctly, they were used taxis, and when they arrived in Finland, the people in charge were not happy about the used condition... worse, the parliament refused to issue a permit for parts import. Regardless, the A2 Checkers were used for the 1952 Olympics, and after, were sent out to various small towns to be used as rural taxis. 


For some totally inexplicable reason (but I suspect profiteering), instead of looking for newer cars of better condition they purchased 1946-1948 Checkers instead of new (1951) models. They had the cars repaired and shipped to Finland.

Having little knowledge of shipping and other commercial matters, they let the cars be loaded and re-loaded two unnecessary times. That caused a large number of the cars to arrive beat up, in addition to the damages by the rough ocean voyage.




And now that we are caught up on the history, here is the present!


the Checker Ry Finland group has restored this one they found on a farm










https://www.facebook.com/groups/145497838799022/photos/
http://www.checker.fi/galleria.php?lang=en
http://checkercabclub.org/2016/06/05/3915/
http://svammelsurium.blogg.se/2012/january/checkers-i-forskingringen.html
http://checkercabclub.org/2017/04/25/unique-restored-checker-taxi-car-presented-finland-known-world/
https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hcc/2005/03/Lost--amp--Found--3-05/1281157.html
http://checkercabgroup.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-1947-checker-model-a2-checker.html

3 comments:

  1. Now that right there is a happy story! Who knew?

    ReplyDelete
  2. One of those taxicars was kustomised between 1953-56 and is one of the first, if not THE first kustom car of Finland.
    It was made 2 door coupe bodystyle. Now under restoration.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here's a blog on the Finland custom Checker http://www.icta.club/custom-checker-yes-custom/

    ReplyDelete