Sorry, no fancy stories to tell; just want to share a photo I had a chance to take. That’s the Polish Nysa 522 van–based on the FSO Warszawa, which in turn was based on the Soviet GAZ M-20 Pobeda. This one happened to find its way back to its ancestral home.
It may be not very pretty, but its rounded body has a certain charm, and its practicality and durability are doubtless. I’ve seen several before in different stages of deterioration, even a resto-modded one, but none leading such an active lifestyle, so to speak. It seems that the owner was hired by a family moving into this newly built (and more like still-being-built) house, not far from my own new apartment. Didn’t dare to distract him while doing his job, so the details of the story are left vague.
Most likely that the original Polish 2.2 liter S21 engine, a sturdy and robust workhorse in its own right, has been substituted with the much more common, local-built 2.5 liter 402.10 from the GAZ parts bin. Otherwise it looks fairly original and intact, which is quite a feat since the last of its kind left the assembly line in the city of Nysa almost 20 years ago, on February, 2 1994.
That is charming, Stanislav. Colour and wheels are just right for this shape.
If it starts and runs (doubtful for some models) I don’t think you can help but like a good honest work truck like this. At least that’s so with me.
Here, in Poland, the common practice was to substitute the S21 with diesel engines from Mercedes.
Those were the most popular police transporters in communist Poland (and a while after that).
The nickname for a police Nysa was “suka”, which translates to “bitch”.
Also – in case it doesn’t show – the body panels were hand-beaten.
Back in the day ambulances in Hungary were Nysa trucks. They weren’t particularly fast or reliable, however. Still, it’s been ages since I’ve seen one around here; its boxier sibling, the Zuk, had better survival rate, the last one I saw was a few weeks ago, but they are also pretty much gone.
I like it and thank you for posting about this unique truck .
-Nate
Nice catch. The side view reminds me of the old Mercedes 319 series: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cohort-classic-mercedes-l319d-camper-the-globe-trotter/
That MB is hot. Recently saw a blue/white one in great but not perfect nick that looked like it was pulling around-oz duties. It was too dark to take a pic, dangnabbit.
The predecessor did indeed look like that:
http://gdywstecz.blox.pl/2011/02/Fiat-Lux-Zuki-Gnojarze-i-inne-wojaze.html
+1
My father taught me to drive in one of these. He bought it new in 1980 and had been using it in his beekeeping business well into the nineties. I took it on a few camping trips with friends in late nineties too. It was still running (albeit unreliably) five years ago when I sold it to a collector.
In the dictionary next to the word for the color “drab” should be this van.
So its the Eastern European version of the Ford Econoline. Given the cost of new(er) equipment for a small to medium size business I can see how this would by kept running as long as possible.
I remember these old work horses from my childhood well, and the RAF, the Zuk and my personal fave- the Barkas.