Murat Sirgebayev, a resident of Kapshagai, has been restoring retro cars for decades. Every car is his pride. You can touch them, or you can go for a test drive, immersed in nostalgic memories.
“The idea to assemble retro cars came to me somewhere in the 90s, because there were a lot of old cars around that were getting rid of. I was collecting abandoned cars, looking for spare parts for them. Sometimes the search took years. My comrades and I have been restoring them for about fifteen years. We were just enthusiasts. In their premises and at their own expense, they opened a museum that preserves history.
Photo by Murat Sirgebayev
Now there are 33 cars and 12 motorcycles in the museum. Today, each of the cars is our pride. Everything is on the move. We gave them a second life. We organized a small service station specifically for this. The locals wanted to scrap them. Instead, cars delight our guests,” says Murat Sirgebayev.
Photo by Murat Sirgebayev
“We have a Chaika, which Dinmukhamed Kunaev drove – a rare model. My friends called me and told me that there was a car for sale. When I called, they told me that the car was disassembled. They worked on it for eight months, trying to recreate its appearance as truthfully as possible. The interior was rebuilt. Our pride. Here, for the background, we hung portraits of Dinmukhamed Akhmetovich and his biography,” Murat proudly shares.
Photo by Murat Sirgebayev
The museum also has famous passenger cars of the USSR era – GAZ‑21 and “Niva”, “Moskvich-412” and “Moskvich-408”, the famous “Zaporozhets”. All copies have been restored with a “twist”, painted in unusual colors. Somewhere the technicians added additional mirrors, somewhere the body was changed.
Photo by Murat Sirgebayev
“We have extended one Volga by 97 centimeters. There are three sofas in the salon! I gave her a nickname – 3D. There is also a foreigner – a Cadillac convertible. There are different versions of the Volga model: pickup truck, convertible. And motorcycles with bicycles. Almost all cars are on the move here. We need to come and see everything with our own eyes. It’s not that easy to tell.
Photo by Murat Sirgebayev
The museum opened on May 9, 2019. We have only four veterans of the Great Patriotic War left for the entire Kapshagai. We invited them to the opening, and also invited akim, akimat employees, “Afghans”. Photos from that day are hanging on the wall in our salon.
Photo by Murat Sirgebayev
Our cars have already been lit up in the clips of Kazakhstani stars, at photo shoots, and applications for filming from Kazakhfilm have been received. Almaty travel agencies often bring tourists, organize retro tours. We have an atypical museum. Here you can touch many exhibits. People like that you can open it and sit in the car. Some even ask for a ride. We allow it sometimes, for free.
A lot of older people come to the salon, with grandchildren. Who has not been our guest already. Pensioners, disabled people and children under 18 years of age – admission is free. For the rest, the ticket costs 500 tenge. Guests from Europe, Russia, and the Philippines often came. Here we have a board hanging, or rather a white hood from the car, where each foreign guest leaves his signature, wish, mark that he was here,” Murat says.
Photo by Murat Sirgebayev
The salon keeps the history of the last century, the times of the USSR. There are not only cars, but also household items of Soviet times. The room is called “Welcome to the USSR”. Inside there are household items, interior items: dishes of the Kapshagai Porcelain Factory, cameras, irons, bayans, radios, alarm clocks, badges, string bags, a pioneer tie. You can rent and ride a tricycle of those times. There is a soda machine with syrup of that time. Here you can feel the whole atmosphere of the Soviet era.
“Again, we didn’t buy anything. Everything that is here has been brought and handed over by people from all over Kazakhstan. Visitors, looking at all the shelves, indulge in nostalgia, look, touch, take pictures. I had something, people bring something themselves, some even send it from another part of the country. There are a lot of things here. There are probably 200 cameras. We do not keep records of them. People bring it – we put it out. Others come and admire.
Photo by Murat Sirgebayev
A sofa is made from a ZIL car. Sofas and even a bar counter made from the bodies of old cars are placed throughout the museum.
Photo by Murat Sirgebayev
How to get there? You will not pass by: at the exit from Kapshagai, in the direction of Taldykorgan. The salon is located on the right side of the road. Come, it’s necessary to watch live here, walk for a long time and consider. We’ll show you everything, we’ll tell you,” says Murat Amantaevich.
The information is taken from the site Tengritravel.kz
