Melkus

The company was created by the famous German racer and automobile designer Heinz Melkus (1928-2005) . It all started in the 1950s, when Melkus, while still a truck driver at one of the Dresden breweries, started racing.

Soon, in a suburb of Dresden, Melkus opened a driving school. In addition to training cadets, he continued to participate in ring racing. At the same time, Melkus and his associates came up with the idea of ​​creating a small production of racing cars of the then new Junior formula, which could use units from Wartburg serial passenger cars. As a result, in 1959, at the Melkus driving school, a small auto repair shop was opened, in which the first Melkus-Wartburg racing car was built. Since 1960, small-scale production of racing cars for the best racing drivers of the GDR began , they were also supplied to the USSR . The name of Heinz Melkus became known not only in the GDR, but also beyond its borders. He even received the nickname "Abarth from the East" by analogy with the famous Italian race car driver Carlo Alberto Abart, who opened a factory in Turin , which produced small-scale sports cars based on serial FIAT cars. In the 1960s, success was on the side of Melkus, his race cars took first place in the competition, and he himself became the champion of the GDR in 1960, 1967 and 1968.

In the 1960s, Melkus began work on a sports car with a fiberglass sports coupe. The engineers of the Technical University of Dresden, as well as the employees of the car factory in Eisenach, were connected to the work. In 1968, a prototype Melkus RS 1000 was introduced. Outwardly, it resembled a Ferrari Dino . The start of production of a new sports car was dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the founding of the GDR in 1969 . Of the features, the car had doors of the " seagull wing " type, equipped with engines of 1-1.2 liters and a capacity of 70-90 liters. with. The maximum speed is 165 km / h and acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h in 9 seconds. The car was produced until 1980. In total, about 100 copies were built.

Melkus' son, Ulrich, followed in his father's footsteps. After the unification of the two Germanys , the company gained prospects in the field of cooperation with eminent automobile brands (for example, BMW ), as well as orders for the production of racing cars for Colombia . Alas, the tragic death of Ulrich in an accident on June 18, 1990 crossed out these plans. In 2005, Heinz Melkus himself died. In the mid-2000s, there was an attempt to revive the legendary RS1000. Several RS2000 sports cars were built, as followers of the glorious traditions of the workshop in Dresden. The cost of this model is estimated at 115 thousand Euros .

• Trabant
• Wartburg

• Melkus Heinz - the founder of ring racing
• [1] (German)