Polish Cars, Pt.1 - Mikrus MR-300

[ImpishGrin]

I think it's high time for a little contribution from me. I promised to write about Polish microcars quite a long time ago, so let's start with the most popular one, the Mikrus MR-300. I hope you'll enjoy the story

Mikrus MR-300 was the most successful polish microcar (actually the only one that made it into production). It was built 1957-1960 in cooperation between WSK Mielec and WSK Rzeszów. 1728 cars were made.

THE HISTORY

In 1956 Polish politics underwent a major change. After Stalin's death in 1953 and polish First Secretary Bierut's death in Moscow in March 1956 (it is assumed he was poisoned), the polish communist party (PZPR) divided into conservatists (stalinists) and reformers. In October, in what is known as "the Polish October" or "the October thaw" a reformer Władysław Gomułka was chosen as the new leader. Amongst many changes aimed at loosening the Stalin-era terror, a decision was made to develop "a car for the masses".

At the end of 1956 two factories were chosen for this task – Communication Equipment Factory (Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego, WSK) in Mielec and in Rzeszów, both already producing airplanes and motorcycles. Rzeszów prepared the engine and Mielec the chassis and body. On July 22, 1957 (The National Holiday of Polish Revival, the most important state holiday under the communist rule) first prototypes were presented. The new car was named Mikrus MR-300, MR meaning Mielec & Rzeszów and 300 being the engine capacity. Mikrus is a colloquial and nowadays slightly derogatory word used to describe someone of a particularly small stature.

At the end of 1957 the first part of 17 cars was ready, they were used for long-term testing. In spring 1958 the next part of 100 cars was made. They were sold to private buyers, which wasn't a norm at that time. In exchange, the buyers had to make regular reports on the car's behaviour.

When the cars (one saloon and one convertible) were presented to the government, prime minister Cyrankiewicz and his deputy Jaroszewicz hopped into the convertible and, leaving stunned security agents behind, went for a ride through the city. That was a most unusual look, as communist leaders were always portrayed in a solemn, gravely serious way.

The press was ecstatic, saying that "With a price that shouldn't be higher then 25-30 percent over a price of a similarly engined motorcycle, this could become a very popular means of transport for wide masses."

Another period article stated:
"In the current year, in accordance with the plan, factories Mielec and Rzeszów will produce around 1000 vehicles. In the beginning the factories planned to sell their product completely on their own, but after a thorough calculation it was decided to give 600 cars in the 3rd and 4th quarter of the year to Motozbyt for distribution. [Motozbyt was a state company that sold polish vehicles.] The third quarter is coming near but the State Price Commision still hasn't decided on the retail price for the car, despite petition being sent a few months ago.
Price is one thing, production another. In Mielec a huge hall is being built for production of the microcars. It uses elements of a former German hangar, therefore the cost will be only one third of the cost of building a similar object from scratch. It will be one of the most modern production halls in Poland, without any pillars inside. In 1959 production of Mikrus will reach 5000 units..."

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. The mass production never started, so the costs of manufacturing made the price much higher. Mikrus cost 50,000 zł., which amounted to 50 average monthly salaries. For comparison, the "executive" Warszawa saloon cost 120,000 zł. Because of that, Mikrus never became as popular as was hoped for, although there still were far more eager potential buyers than the factories were able to produce.

In January 1960 a special council was assembled to "decide on the economic calculation of production. It didn't look too optimistic, as small series of cars produced caused in turn high costs of production."

It was decided to produce around 500 more cars to use up the components in warehouses but later during autumn of 1960 the government ordered to stop production immidiately. WSK Mielec team tried to rescue Mikrus. Since at that time the state planned to start production of a popular vehicle for transporting goods, for farmers and small enterprises (a "utility" one should probably say), in only a few days (various numbers between 6 and 11 are reported) the factory prepared a pick-up version with maximum load of 200 kg. Mechanically it was identical with the standard car. It was presented to the responsible ministers, but didn't enter production.

In 1957, together with the first part of cars, two convertibles were made, but they too remained only prototypes.

There are various theories concerning the reasons for such an abrupt end for this, rather well-conceived, small car. Officially the high costs of production were said to be the main reason, the other being the rise in main production in the factories (military airplanes etc.). But if it really was true, why wasn't the new factory finished that would allow for start of mass production and drastically lower costs?

Most probably FSO, the main car producer in Poland, blocked investments in Mielec factory, seeing Mikrus as a threat to their own production (Syrena and Warszawa), though these cars weren't really comparable in any way. Another common theory blamed (as usual in those times and not always unreasonably) the Soviet Union for halting Mikrus' production. When in 1959 Poland organised an industrial exhibition in Moscow to celebrate 15 years of existence of the Polish People's Republic, Mikrus was to be featured in a prominent way on a rotating platform. However, at the very last moment, Mikrus was replaced with a Junak motorcycle.

It has been speculated that mass production of an own Polish microcar was seen by Soviet rulers as "politically incorrect and dangerous". Furthermore, Soviet motoring press praised Mikrus highly, at the same time giving rather poor reviews to then-introduced Zaporozhets. Therefore it was said that jealous directors of ZAZ intervened with the officials to put an end to the polish car.

Suppressing industrial initiatives in satellite communist countries was a common practice back then, but the intervention of ZAZ directors seems unlikely, seeing as Mikrus wasn't really any competition to the much bigger Zaporozhets.

What most probably happened, was that the Polish government got scared by a threat of lawsuit from Glas, the company that produced Goggomobil. Glas insisted on Poland to buy a licence from them to continue production of Mikrus, as the car was mechanically very much a copy of Goggomobil. In fact, two Goggomobils (and an Isetta) were bought by the factory during development, disassembled and many mechanical parts copied. As far as I know engine parts are directly replacable between the two cars.

[ImpishGrin]

THE CAR

Mikrus was a very simple vehicle. The idea behind it was called "4x4" – 4 passengers, 4 wheels, 4 l/100 km, 400 kg.

The engine was a transverse rear-mounted, in-line 2-cylinder, two-stroke, air-cooled unit of 296 ccm. It was fitted with Bing, Jikov or Pegaz carburettors. The power was only 14.5 hp, so the performance was mediocre at best. Maximum speed was 90 km/h, acceleration 0-70 km/h took 32 s. Transmission was to rear wheels, thorough a non-synchronized four speed gearbox with double-plate wet clutch. Fuel consumption was slightly higher than the aforementioned 4 litres and averaged some 5,2 l per 100 km, so the 27.5-litre fuel tank allowed for an over-500 km range.

Handling and brakes were very good, the only problem being small 10-inch wheels, which were rather poorly suited for contemporary, often cobblestone, roads. Another disadvantage of the car was high noise level inside as well as outside.

Mikrus was small (3025x1315x1350 mm) but two adults and two children could sit inside without difficulties, if they managed to squeeze through the narrow doors. Heating was by the engine-cooling air, cooling by sliding side windows. The 200-litre trunk was in front, access to it possible only from under the dashboard. The car weighted 472 kg.

Two other engines were being developed when the production was halted. One was a 400 ccm version of the existing unit, another a new V2 500 ccm engine.

Nowadays probably less then 100 Mikruses are still around, many of them in a dilapitated state unfortunately. Around 20 have been restored and actively take part in classic car events in Poland (and sometimes) abroad. Two more live in North America, one in USA another in Canada.

Most Mikruses were modified during their life, first because of a change of laws in the 60s, which now required orange indicators and two stop lights. Other common modification included replacing engine with a Fiat 500 or 126p unit and cutting an opening in the front part of the body to serve as a trunk lid. At least one car got convrted to a front-engined specification.

Mikrus MR-300 wasn't the only Polish microcar. Around the same time other projects emerged, like Meduza, Smyk or Fafik. We'll take a closer look at them in my next article.

[Ray B.]

Eh, that's great stuff !
I decidedly feel that there is a gold mine of stories lying in all those eastern european countries.

Being the only editor around at the time, it's my pleasure to elevate you to the rank of Feature Writer, Impish.

[ImpishGrin]

Thanks

Expect more to come, probably on a bi-weekly basis

[faksta]

Great! Thanks, ImpishGrin!

[Vincent Vell Vet]

Congratulations Imp on your new Feature Writer status!!!  
Well earned as it is well written and informative.
Thank you , that was definately interesting.

I find it unfathomable there was no tunk lid. A cost thing I suppose?
Steering geometry looks interesting going by the way the front wheels tilt when they are turned.
Kind of modern/advanced maybey?

[microcars]

Steering geometry looks interesting going by the way the front wheels tilt when they are turned.
Kind of modern/advanced maybey?

It is exactly the same as a Goggomobil and what you are looking at are static vehicles sitting on display that most likely someone physically lifted the front end to shift them around. Very easy to do with the engine in the rear.
This causes the camber on the wheels to increase and they "tuck in" until the car is driven.
then the camber will return to "normal".