In Trabzon, Gökmen Türkmen, a automobile specialized mechanic in suspension springs, travel on snowy plateaus with his specially modified 1977 Renault 12 tracked – which basically looks like like a Renault 12 station wagon mounted on the tracked wheels of a tank.
Now Türkmen is looking to sell its Renault 12 caterpillar, which has attracted attention of local and foreign tourists, to concentrate on another project.
The mecanic who Lives in The Akçaabat district of Trabzon bought a 1977 model Renault 12 vehicle to travel on the snowy plateaus of the region. Turkmen, in developing this project is another example demonstrating the acute intelligence of the people in the Black Sea region.
The mechanic installed a crawler wheel system caring it all work himself. He removed the wheel of the vehicle and developed braking system similar to a tank assembly. Turkmen designed the vehicle for it to spin using the braking system which naturally also work to stop the vehicle.
He tours the Hıdırnebi plateau and help save the less stuck vehicles. The robot has also attracted attention of local and foreign tourists who visit the plateau of Hıdırnebi – one of the most popular tourist destinations of Trabzon.
“I like the board in winter but my off-road vehicle couldn’t reach all the places I wanted go. So I thought, ‘let’s turn it affordable car in a follow-up vehicle”, and I bought a Renault 12,” Türkmen said. He explained that he took him six at seven months of hard work to convert the vehicle during son free time.
It now uses tank-like Renault 12 on the highlands with his friends in winter when it snows and says than the tourists also come on set and show interest in his vehicle.
‘I am thinking of sell it’
But now he says he wants to sell his pride and joy. Expressing that he saved many others vehicles who was stuck in snow, Türkmen said: “I think of sell my car for another project. I want make a smaller one vehicle. I want develop another automobile.”
He said he wanted to sell it cheap for 60,000 TL (about $4,400) for others to people can enjoy the vehicle like he has. “I go give it’s a bit cheap. I liked it, so I want others to enjoy this too. I plan to sell car I want to concentrate on new projects,” he explained.
He added that tourists, especially Arabs, love vehicle when they visit the set. “They take photos. They want to travel in this. There is interest,” he said.
