Tuesday 7 July 2009

Classic vehicles around Warsaw's Powiśle

Three classic vehicles caught my eye around the office these past few days. Below: An UAZ-69, a 'Russian Jeep', produced at the Ulyanovsk Avto Zavod between 1955 and 1972, the standard four-wheel drive light truck used across the communist world. Mechanically unreliable, uneconomical on the fuel and prone to leak oil like the Exxon Valdez, nevertheless the UAZ-69 was simple to repair and capable off-road.

Below: A Nysa 522M minibus. This is the smaller of the two Polish designed and built light vans (the other being the more commonly seen Żuk). The example below is local and in recent weeks the owner's replaced the panelling around the radiator grille. I hope this presages more investment into this shapely old timer.

Meanwhile, across the Iron Curtain, even a moderately well-off West German could afford an Opel Kadett fastback coupe(below). In production from 1967 to '73, it was rolling off the production lines at the same time as the Nysa and the UAZ-69.

1 comment:

PolishMeKnob said...

Great pics from Powisle!
All you're missing is a Trabi.

I rather like Powisle for being kind "off the map." It's right next to Srodmiescie, but there's never any crowds or tourists wandering.