FSC Żuk

Polish roads have seen many "beetles." In this case, however, we are not talking about the popular Volkswagen Beetle, but about the Polish "van" - the Żuk. The name covers an entire series of Polish delivery vehicles, produced by the Fabryka Samochodów Ciężarowych (Commercial Vehicle Factory) in Lublin from 1959 to 1998. The Żuk was a favourite of farmers, served postmen from Poczta Polska (Polish Post), and sometimes even played the role of a fire truck. Like the iconic "Maluch", the Żuk was a hero of everyday life for many Poles.

The T-shirt features a Żuk from 1967, which is a version with a wooden cargo box that gave it a payload capacity of 950 kg. Other variants of the Żuk were mainly used for transporting food products or clothing, but passenger models, i.e., minibuses, were also produced. In 1970, Żuks even began to be assembled in Egypt, and despite the obvious analogy, they were not called "Scarab", but Ramzes. Egyptian ELTRAMCO plants assembled their Żuk-Ramzes until the 1990s, with many modifications introduced along the way.

The production of the Żuk was stopped in 1998 when the number of units released reached 587,818. And although in terms of numbers and sales it was far behind the "beetle" Garbus, it does not mean that it was not a car that particularly served the common man. Its sharply outlined rectangular silhouette and the sad expression of its front bumper became iconic, and will be remembered for many years by working Poles of the Polish People's Republic era.

The author of the drawing is the Wrocław artist Paweł Grabowski.