Click on photos to enlarge (Leica D-Lux 4) |
A couple of Soul Cars - and English friends wonder why I came to live in Poland! |
Autonostalgia this year is a really impressive effort. I do hope the government and private enterprise make it easier for classic cars to be registered and insured at a moderate cost in Poland. As it stands regulations prevent us having what is an enthusiastic even passionate classic car movement in this country. This display is incredible when I think
of the impoverished car situation in Warsaw in 1991 on my first visit to Poland!
Miraculous. Certain Teutonic marques predominate of course among
the newer vehicles - a few superb Mercedes Benz and Porsches but there is some rare and interesting very old stuff. Great
sense of humour and delectable ladies in evidence on some of the displays.
As usual I will let the photographs and captions do the talking.
Nostalgia for a holiday in the 'good old days'. Trabant and holiday paraphernalia including a sprawling child on a deck chair at the back and roof luggage
A Citroen DS Pallas barn find with a vengeance
Attention!! Attention! Les flic...
If only Britain was still as sweet and innocent as this.....
The engine of a Warszawa
The interior of the same Warszawa - a lovely restoration in white but incredibly inconvenient to photograph
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Much modified racing Alfa Juniors |
The same type of FSO 125p I drove during my 'Project Years' in Poland (1991-93). I knew it would become a classic and said so when I sold it but no-one believed me!
A great car for Polish conditions with an almost pre-war feel.
The team's trusty FSO 125p outside the Tatar mosque at Kruszyniany in 1992
Note the green International 'IWA' (International Warszawa) Registration plate which alerted thieves to a foreign-owned car just begging to be robbed - which it was many times!
Now for me this was the most interesting exhibit at the Autonostalgia.
On
display was an original and a replica of a Polish car known as a CWS (Centralne
Warsztaty Samochodowe - Central Car Works). Created
by the Polish Ministry of War Affairs in 1918, the privately run company was
initially entitled to service all the mechanical equipment of the Polish Army,
including tanks, armoured cars, motorcycles and lorries.
With
time, the CWS also started to produce its own designs of cars and motorcycles.
Among the most notable designs were the CWS T-1 (the
first Polish-made car to be serially built), T-2 and T-8 limousines,
as well as the extremely successful Sokol motocycle series.
The chassis for the T-1 was designed by the great Polish automobile engineer Tadeusz Tański (1892–1941). It was the only motor car that could be completely dismantled and again put together with one tool! How amazing is that! All its screws and bolts had the same diameter. Although the car was designed in 1922, it was not until 1925 the prototype tests were completed. Between 1925 and 1932 approximately 500 CWS T-1s were manufactured in a variety of coach-built versions.
In
1930, the CWS works were absorbed by the Polish state-controlled industrial
giant Państwowe Zakłady Inżynieryjne - National
Engineering Works or PZInz but
production was continued under the previous name. However, in 1932, a license
for the Polski Fiat was purchased from Italy and the
Italian head of the Fiat holding demanded that the sale of CWS cars be
suspended. The Polish authorities obeyed and the CWS-T1 was withdrawn from
production.The chassis for the T-1 was designed by the great Polish automobile engineer Tadeusz Tański (1892–1941). It was the only motor car that could be completely dismantled and again put together with one tool! How amazing is that! All its screws and bolts had the same diameter. Although the car was designed in 1922, it was not until 1925 the prototype tests were completed. Between 1925 and 1932 approximately 500 CWS T-1s were manufactured in a variety of coach-built versions.
A replica of
the prototype of the CWS (Centralne Warsztaty Samochodowe) T-2
of 1925
The cockpit of the CWS T-2
An original CWS T-1. Those fabulous wheels are reminiscent of the equally rare Bucciali!
Lovely period photographs of the CWS living in luxury and racing anger.
Ah Warszawa before World War II! Those wonderful cabaret years when Warsaw rivalled Berlin for exotic entertainments
(as the opening photograph to this set might testify).
(as the opening photograph to this set might testify).
Brass-work on an American Mercer
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1964 Jaguar S Type and 1964 Ford Mustang |
A Military gent
A great pity there were not more interesting historic military vehicles in the exhibition as there are some terrific examples in Poland.
Michael 'Moranowicz' meets an old friend, the highly amusing and characterful Tomasz Skrzelinski whom he met and who organised the dramatic 1993 Rajd Dookola Polska. Michael drove the Rolls-Royce in that rallywhich he still owns. It caused a stir in those days! Now Poles are rather more blase....well Varsovians anyway.
Interestingly, the car on the left (WU 43V), was the first car to drive across Australia from Perth to Sydney!
A Polish mechanic of the best type giving a live demonstration of various restoration techniques
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Mercedes Benz 300 SL Roadster |
A young lad wonders at such colours on this wild yellow VW produced by Soul Cars who also provided the decorative attractions in the first photo to lure a purchaser
A Tatra 603 - note the air intakes at the rear
In Communist
Czechoslovakia only high ranking party officials and heads of factories were
driven in 603s
The Tatra
603G V-8 air-cooled 2474 cc, 77,5 kW engine
(I am not
an expert on this engine but it must
be something like this)
The business end of the Tatra 603.
The next time you are driving thorough the Czech Republic you must visit the Tatra Technical Museum in Kopřivnice. This unique museum covers the nearly a
hundred and fifty-year-old history of the Tatra car factory since the time,
when in 1897 the first car called Präsident was manufactured in
Austria-Hungary. Passenger, sport and freight vehicles of the Tatra brand, car
frames, engines, sport aircraft and other extraordinarily interesting items are on display. The inventive Czech technical mind of genius at its apex. This is without doubt one of the greatest car and motor museums in the world.
Kopřivnice is not far from the Cieszyn crossing point on the E 75 highway on the Czech-Polish frontier.
Kopřivnice is not far from the Cieszyn crossing point on the E 75 highway on the Czech-Polish frontier.
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| The new Morgan 3 Wheeler |
There are also some beautiful motorbikes at Autonostalgia including this Harley Davidson. In the early 1990s I saw no motorbikes on the road at all. How times have changed!
Tomasz Skrzelinski showing MM the only steam car in Poland. It was manufactured in America in 1899 and is called a GROUT. Still running well.
An ultra rare 1930 BMW 3 A Special
The characterful older lady who owns it said it took her 5 years to restore.
She started it up and revved the engine regularly and enthusiastically much to the delight of everyone.
A great exhaust note!
No-one else would dream of doing such a thing.
The cockpit of a this tiny 1930 BMW 3 A Special
The Austin 7 engine in the above BMW.
One cannot help but reflect that here we have a German BMW with an English engine and the current English Rolls-Royce has a German engine
The formidable mascot on a pre-war Cadillac
American cars both vintage and more modern are popular on the classic car scene in Poland. It has been an education for me going to shows here as not many appear in the UK.
A 1929 Cadillac but I did not take note of the model or provenance
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