My Mb Carrera Collection

[austollie]

Dear Montblanc lovers,

 

I do realise that the Carrera/ Caressa range is not everyone's cup of tea. However, I absolutely love these pens. I fell in love with the Carrera line (not that I could afford to buy one, being double the price of the equivalent Pelikano), long before I became aware of the Montblanc brand. It was probably the clever marketing and the (frankly a little silly) tyre stand that got me into these, when I was a school boy in Germany. At school, I wrote with a Pelikan (at first a Pelikano 4 and then a Pelikano 5) and I did not acquire my first Montblanc Carrera until a couple of years ago. The only 'Montblanc' in my collection prior to that was a Monte Rosa, that was not even branded Montblanc.

 

I use one of the Montblanc Carrera fountain pens as a daily writer. Whilst most people do not notice me writing with a Parker, Lamy 2000 or Pelikano (all of which I have as daily writers), they do notice the Montblanc Carrera. Unfortunately, I think that has more to do with the logo (and I am not a fan of displaying 'prestigious' logos), than it has to do with the rich yellow/ orange colour, that just screams '1970s' to me. If anyone has pictures of the 1970s advertisements for these pens, I'd love to see these posted here.

 

For those, who are interested, I have attached a couple of pics of my collections, which is modest by the standards of others shown in this forum. If your sole interest in Montblanc pens is the 149 or 146, please look away now!

 

I made the box in wood inlay with removable trays. The three stripes are similar to those that appeared on Carrera boxes.

 

 

The second shot is of the open box, showing the two removable trays of Carrera pens. Don't all those clips with six holes each look wonderful? They do to me.

 

 

Below the trays are the original boxes. I have two Montblanc Carrera Sets plus a Montblanc Caressa (VW promotional sets). I can't say enough how much they appeal to me. Also in the shot is my one and only Monte Rosa.

 

 

Finally, there has to be a shot of a Carrera pen with the tyre stand. I do realise now that as a kid I was a little shallow when I fell for the marketing and the tyre stand. The tyre stand is of little practical use. It has been designed to work with Pelikano 3 and 4 pens (which were made at the same time as the Montblanc Carrera/ Caressa range.

 

[specialk0449]

Thank you for posting pictures of your impressive collection. I enjoyed your pictures.

[Chandon]

Thanks for this really interesting read. I am a Carrera fan as well, as I think that Montblanc was making some great pens (from high end to school pens) in the 1970s, before it got sold to Dunhill. Like you, this was a pen I always coveted, but could never afford in the 1970s. I now have one, as well as a Carressa (both acquired from E Bay). Both of them are great writing pens. Another much under-rated pen you might like is the Montblanc 622, "Junior", of the same decade. If you like, I will lend you one to test out. Let me know.

[austollie]

Hi Chandon,

 

Good to see that there are other fans of 'lower end' Montblanc pens in this part of the world. I thought I was alone, because I've never seen another person write with one of these in Australia (and I would have noticed). Thanks for the offer to lend me your MB 622. I won't trouble you at this point in time, but the offer is very much appreciated.

 

The other pen from the era that I really like the look of is the Montblanc Turbo. I've read too many horror stories of breakages of the ABS plastic on the grip section for me to purchase one.

 

Cheers, Ollie

[Brandywine]

deja vu!

 

Again someone mentions the Carrera!

 

I really must start searching for the one I mislaid some years ago

or I will end up buying one on Ebay!

[Michael R.]

Great collection!

 

Looks like you have a piston filler version already? You don‘t see those much often.

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[austollie]

Hi Michael R,

 

Well spotted. Yes, I have a piston filler with a black knob. There's also a version with a yellow knob. I'm yet to see one at a reasonable price. For me, the piston filler Carrera fountain pens are a bit of a curiosity, because no school child that I ever came across in Germany wrote with a piston filler (and certainly not a Carrera piston filler). I am told that the Carrera piston filler is an export only model and that makes perfect sense to me. There wouldn't have been a market for piston filler student pens in Germany.

 

Of all the versions in my collection, the standard yellow/ orange fountain pens are my favourtites. That's purely driven by nostalgia, because that's the one that I wanted (and didn't get) when I was a child.

 

While I'm not big on ballpoint pens, I do like the gravity selector four colour ballpoint (for which you can still get refills). I remember as a small child first using a Montblanc 4 colour ballpoint (I think that it was my uncle's), trying to work out how the pen worked. I was told something like (in German, of course) "just look at the colour that you want and then press the button". I was just old enough to work out that the pen couldn't know which colour I was looking at (but that one naturally tilts the pen when looking at the colour). After a fair bit of experimentation (perhaps I wasn't the brightest?) I worked out that the pen used gravity to select the colour. That's a powerful memory for me.

 

I also enjoyed making my own adapters for the regular ballpoint, to allow me to use a modern refill.

 

Regards,

 

Ollie

[Chandon]

Hi Ollie,

 

I had a Turbo, but gave it away. Mine was fine, but I have heard stories about cracking on the grip section. It was a good pen, but my least favourite of these lower, student pens. I thought that the Carrera was a much more "stylish" pen but then I enjoyed the 1970s. I am sure a decent one can still be found, so would not worry about the cracking issue.

 

Interestingly, the 622 is a piston fill pen, despite being a school pen. From what I have read, the nibs were available in fine, medium and oblique broad. It was probably the last piston filler school pen made by the old (pre 1977) Montblanc pen company. Pelikan carried on making school grade piston fillers, with pens like the M75 Go, until the 1990s.

[KAC]

Very interesting pens. The box you've crafted is also quite nice!

 

Maybe - if you have time - you can post some closeup photos of those pens.

 

Thanks!

[siamackz]

Lovely box, well done!

[dascott]

Great collection and homemade box(!), I would love to see some writing samples.

[Rafiki76]

Beautiful collection! I just got my Carrera Extra Fine back from tuning and I can't wait to ink it. Do by any chance know if a converter would fit in a Carrera? Mine is cartridge right now but I was told the schmidt K5 fits.

[austollie]

The Carrera takes standard international cartridges so any converter for standard cartridges (e.g. Montblanc, Pelikan, Faber-Castell, Kaweco etc.) will fit. The only converters that won't fit are the ones designed to replace proprietary cartridges (i.e. avoid Parker, Lamy etc.).

 

Good luck with your pen.

 

Cheers,

 

Ollie

[austollie]

Hi Rafiki76,

 

Further to my previous post, I looked up the Schmidt K5 converter. According the the website that I saw, it's been designed to replace standard international cartridges, i.e. it should work in your MB Carrera.

 

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one interested in the MB Carrera range.

 

Cheers,

 

Ollie

[zaddick]

I'm a sucker for the tire pen stands too! You are lucky to have a collection so meaningful and that you can enjoy.

[Rafiki76]

Hi Rafiki76,

 

Further to my previous post, I looked up the Schmidt K5 converter. According the the website that I saw, it's been designed to replace standard international cartridges, i.e. it should work in your MB Carrera.

 

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one interested in the MB Carrera range.

 

Cheers,

 

Ollie

Thank you, I ordered the Schmidt K5 a couple days ago then I heard on reddit they don't fit slim pens so I worries. Once I get it I'll post if definitely fits or not.

[kazoolaw]

I think I pulled a yellow and a stainless Carrera of 'bay and a Montblanc converter in a box arrived with them. No model number but stamped "Montblanc Germany" on the converter. There is a price tag (store not MB) for $2.75, and a date of 2-20-84.

[majzej]

I have a Carrera which I would like to change out the nib. Any suggestions on how to do this? I have taken apart the front section but not sure if the nib comes out by itself (similar to Lamy) or gets push into the front section. I do not want to damage and afraid to use too much force.

 

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

thanks

[austollie]

The best way to change the nib is to take apart the section (rather than using force to pull the nib out of the section). The clear part of the section unscrews. If the screw threads are gunked up, you will need to apply a bit of torque, so be careful not to crush the section as you do it (I've been able to unscrew the sections on every one of my cartridge filler Carrera pens). If you do find a bit of resistance, it should help to soak the pen in water first, to allow water to soften the dried up ink in the screw threads.

 

Once you've unscrewed the clear part, you can push the nib and feed through the section. The nib is then easy to pull from the feed.

 

If you want to see what all that looks like, have a look at my post titled "DIY Feed Repair" in the "Repair Q&A" section of this forum. You'll see pics of the Carrera nib section, as it is being disassembled and reassembled.

 

Good luck with your nib change. Let me know how that went for you.

[Zarus]

I love the wooden box you made for your collection! That goes so nicely with the Carrera series.

Very lovely of you to share this with us. You appear to have quite some nice Carrera's!

 

I'm an avid collector of Montblanc Carrera and Caressa (and Monte Rosa, Junior, Turbo, Leonardo, Collection Madame, ...) myself. Do you have Caressa's too? Or any of the 'rainbow colored' Carrera ballpoints seen in my profile picture?

 

I've made a post 10 years ago (didn't know it was THAT long ago) where I discussed my collection. I just checked it and noticed that unfortunately all the pictures are gone. I was able to find those pictures however and mage a repost in the same thread with images fixed. Check it out if you like:

 

Anyway great to meet another Carrera fan!