FSC Żuk

Polish roads have seen many Żuks. In this case, however, we are not talking about the popular Volkswagen Beetle, but about the Polish "delivery van" - Żuk. This name refers to a whole series of Polish delivery vehicles, produced by the Fabryka Samochodów Ciężarowych (Truck Factory) in Lublin between 1959 and 1998. The Żuk was a favorite of farmers, served mailmen from the Polish Post Office, and sometimes even played the role of a fire truck. Like the iconic Maluch, the Żuk was an everyday hero for many Poles.

The T-shirt features a Żuk from 1967, which was a version with a wooden cargo box, providing it with a load 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 plants ELTRAMCO assembled their Żuk-Ramzes until the 1990s, with many modifications introduced along the way.

The production of Żuk was halted in 1998, when the number of units produced reached 587,818. And although in terms of numbers and sales it was far behind the "beetle" Garbus, this 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 communist era.

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