Hello Mark !

I visited your homepage and thought it might be interesting for you to read 
something about the meeting we had on the 2th of july in Senden/Iller near Ulm, 
that is located between Munich and Stuttgart, in the south of Germany.

We did arrange that meeting for the first time and were quite satisfied to anyhow 
have more than 20 ascona convertibles on the parking lot.
It was a nice occassion to exchange experiences, tipps and spare parts, and of 
course to get in contact with people with the same interessts.

We mostly had visitors coming from the south of Germany, but also some from the 
middle of the country. One visitor even came all the way from Holland!

Next year the meeting will take place again. The date is not yet fixed. Again 
there will be no programm or prices.
I attached some pictures of our meeting to this mail, if you like, you might 
publish my report about the meeting.

For those who do not want to travel that far: 
Every year, on the 1st of may, there is a meeting near the Möhnesee (an 
artificial lake near Dortmund), where about 30 Ascona-convertible-drivers come 
together.

Concerning your informations about the convertible:

In the book "Deutsche Cabriolets seit 1945", Author: Hans W. Mayer/Joachim Kuch,
Motorbuch Verlag, i found this information:

Keinath built 325 ascona-convertibles, which where sold for 39950 to 42000 DM.

The opel-dealer "Häusler" in Munich sold the other version of the convertible.
The price for the changement into a convertible was about 12.600 DM. It could be 
ordered at every opel-dealer. You simply ordered an ascona and as an extra (Nr. 
74-7) the option "convertible". After 4 weeks you did get the car. 

The plans therefore where made in England, by the "Planungs- und 
Konstruktionsbüro International Automobil Design" (IAD).

The realisation of their plans was managed by an English-German cooperation, the 
engineering-office  "Hammond & Thiede", with settlements in Dover and Sulzbach am 
Main (Germany).
After several subenterprises (e.g. Michelotti in Italy and Tropic in Crailsheim 
(Germany)) failed, the carossier "Voll" (in Würzburg-Heidingsfeld) actually 
produced the convertible under the trade-mark "Hammond & Thiede". 
(In their address in the prospects you can see them firming as "Hammond und 
Thiede" but their telex-adress in the prospects was: 68879 voll d.)

(Voll also built special cars for arabian oil-sheiks and "jeeps" for the german 
police. They also built the cabins for the legendary truck "Opel Blitz".)

Between 1984 and 1988 they built about 3000 ascona-convertibles. 



Greetings from

Reiner Durst


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