HISTORY:   

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To whom it may concern:

This may be of interest to some of your members.

The attachments are copies pictures and documents of a GSM Flamingo that made it to the United States of America in 1967.

The car was brought to the U.S. by a car club in Orlando. The identification number was 64067. However, it was not picked up by them for some reason. Therefore, it stayed in the U.S. Custom Service's warehouse in Jacksonville, Florida, for over a year. Finally, late in 1968, there was a public auction announcement that listed the car. I attended the auction and bought the car with my one bid of $350.00 U.S. After finding a mechanic that was willing to work with me on the car, we got it running again.

Although I had some problems, until April of 1971, getting it titled and registered by the state of Florida, I drove around for a couple of years with the South African tag. You can see it in one of the pictures. You can also see the Automobile Association of South African emblem on the front of the car.

I wrote a letter to them asking if they could provide any information about the car. They responded with a copy of a page from Car Magazine showing some specifications. They forwarded a copy of my letter to Meissner who also responded saying they were glad that one of the Flamingoes finally made it to the United States.

The picture of my car on the left was taken in 1972 when my son was 2 years old.
The one on the right was taken in 1970 when my daughter was 2 1/2 years old just after the car was repainted.

I enjoyed driving it very much and was always getting great comments on it. Of course it was easy to talk to other drivers when you stopped at a stop light because you were sitting on the right next to them. There have been many times that I have wished that I still had the car.

Harold Cohen
cohenha@bellsouth.net