Żuk A11 — Children's T-shirt

FSC Żuk A11

Polish roads have seen many a "Żuk". In this case, however, we are not referring to the popular Volkswagen Beetle, but to the Polish "delivery van" - the Żuk. This name encompasses 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 favourite among farmers, served postmen from Poczta Polska, 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, a version with a wooden cargo box, which gave it a payload 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. The Egyptian ELTRAMCO factories assembled their Żuk-Ramzes until the 1990s, with many modifications introduced along the way.

The production of the Żuk was halted 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 person. Its sharply defined rectangular silhouette and sad expression of the 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.