My Escapes Portugal Another Lovely Trip to Portugal! Porto Exploring Vintage Porto Porto Road Vehicle Spotting

Porto Road Vehicle Spotting

Porto has a pretty amazing park of old road vehicles. Besides the vintage trams, I encountered a number of old cars as well.
It's an old city with lots of old vehicles... The two seemed to go together well.

Here are shots of various road vehicles that I came across when exploring Porto...

But I created a special - separate - section dedicated to the old trams of Porto, so refer to that for photos of the trams.

Climbing the slope of Rua Ferreira Borges when I spotted this nice yellow Citroën 2CV.

It seems, nowadays companies resort to buying vintage vehicles for their fleet. I wonder whether they really use it for operational reasons or, whether they're mere marketing objects.

The name "2CV" comes from the French "deux cheveux", meaning "two horses".
But, in reality, these had versions of 9, 12, 18 and 29 hp engines. Hamster-power, really.

A mere 600 kg (1,300 lb) heavy.

They were produced in very large numbers between 1948-1990 in various countries, including Portugal and Spain.

The one I photographed is the cargo version, but the typical passenger versions are far more common (like the ones I saw last year in Valencia).

The old trams of Porto have my heard. I couldn't stop myself from taking a vintage tram ride.

Lisbon's trams were different in terms of design - but their age is similar.

Take the opportunity and ride them, there are very few places in the World where such old trams still circulate.

The BMW C1 motor scooters can be spotted here and there in Europe, but they're almost inexistent in other parts of the World.

The first time I came across one of these was in 2008, in Barcelona.

With its 185 kg (408 lb), it's not very heavy, but I've heard passengers complaining about the awkward feeling on the back seat.

What is this?

Never seen anything like it. It's hilarious by design.

Well, this one is a Reva car, built by the Indian manufacturer, Mahindra. And, it's electric!

If I had to work with one of these little pocket-boxes, it would feel humiliating.

A bicycle would feel better. Also, more manly!

To me, it didn't seem like Porto's streets were very narrow, I guess the electric engine was rather more attractive.

Porto's light metro system runs mostly underground, but to me it felt more like a tram than a real metro.

Here's a light metro crossing the Ponte D. Luís (photo above).

Brussels, Madrid similarly have a subway network relying on light tram-like vehicles and yet, they're called metros or subways.

Several vintage cars crossed in front of me and I wasn't quick enough to immortalize them.

I guess the vintage city that has old trams must also have vintage vehicles...

Not many large cities in Europe has this special vintage feel that Porto has.

Just like in Lisbon, there were a bunch of tuks in Porto.

The area around the Cathedral and the São Bento Railway station seemed to be the roaming area of these scooters "gone carwise"...

As new inventions spread fast in Europe, these might soon appear elsewhere as well, making them less special and less Portugal-specific.

A beautiful Honda Shadow motorbike with a nice matte black paint job.

These nice cruises are in production since 1983. Of course, various versions exist. This one looks especially beautiful, elegant.

Hilarious, already present almost everywhere in Europe are these "road trains", that are essentially based on a car engine.

Several were waiting there as if they were deserted. No-one seemed interested.

Comments

comments powered by Disqus