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Warszawa was a Polish automobile marque manufactured from 1951 to 1973 by the Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych of Warsaw. The car was manufactured under license of soviet made GAZ-M20 Pobieda.

The Warszawa was the first mass produced Polish car built after the Second World War.

Origin
The first plans for mass automotive manufacturing in post war Poland were drawn in the year 1946, when the committee for development of Polish automotive industry was formed in Central Planning Office (polish: Centralny Urząd Planowania). At the beginning of 1947 the negotiations with Italian conglomerate FIAT have begun, regarding the purchase of rights to assembly and then in the future, manufacture of passenger car under licence. After long bargaining, on December 27th 1947 a Polish-Italian trade agreement was signed, under which FIAT has declared building the factory and to set in motion a production of Fiat 1100 car. The Polish counter-party was to pay for the license with contingents of hard coal, food and industrial products. The construction of factory was committed in August of 1948. The construction of the factory was cancelled after several months due to decision of Joseph Stalin, who declared that socialist states should back each other rather that use help of capitalist states.

According to some sources, the one of the reasons for breakdown of Polish-Italian relations was due to Italian participation in Marshall Plan, under which Italy was to receive large quantities of relatively cheap coal from the United States.

The Soviet side has provided Polish authorities with license for GAZ-M20 Pobeda. The cost of design documents amounted to 130 million contemporary polish złoty (PLZ). The press tools and factory instrumentation costed additional 250 million PLZ. The production quota was planned to reach 25 000 units per year. On January 25th 1950 Polish-Soviet licence agreement for production of GAZ-M20 Pobieda automobile was signed. Under the agreement, the Soviet side offered help in designing, construction, equipping and launching mass production of vehicles.

GAZ-M20 Pobieda, produced since 1946, was a development of pre-war car GAZ-M1, produced between 1935-1941, under the licence of Ford Model A. Body style was modelled on contemporary American cars. It was planned, that the launch of production would coincide with October Revolution anniversary.

M-20 Warszawa


In October 1950 Soviet enterprise GAZ donated the technical documentation of licensed car to FSO's Bureau of Research and Development, where it was translated and adapted to Polish conditions. The first Warszawa was assembled using part imported from Soviet Union on November 6th 1951 at 2PM. Initial plans assumed production of 250&nbsp000 pieces per year, but by the end of 1951 only 75 cars were assembled. In the following years, the planned production levels were never achieved. Innitially the cars were assembled with parts imported from the Soviet Union, not until September 19th 1953 the first M-20 engine was assembled from parts manufactured solely in Poland. In March 1954 the first body was manufactured with Polish stampings, whereas in July of that year the line production of drive axles, steering gears and drive shafts. In the same year the export of the cars began. Initially, the cars were exported to China, Romania, Albania and Bulgaria. It was expected in 1955, that 12&nbsp000 units will be produced. The actual quota was three time lower. The firs M-20 Warszawa, manufactured entirely from Polish components left factory in 1956.

Similarly to GAZ-M20, Warszawa was equipped with a self-supporting frame, with supporting frame located below engine. The car was powered with inline-four flathead engine with a capacity of 2120 ccm, which generated maximal power of 50 hp (36,8 kW) and torque of 122 Nm.

The drive was transferred to the rear wheels via a 3-speed manual transmission (1st gear out of sync), dry single-disc clutch and one-piece drive shaft with two universal joints. Independent suspension consisted of two control arms supported on Coil springs and hydraulic shock absorbers. On the back the rigid drive axle suspended on elliptic leaf springs, additionally supported by hydraulic shock absorbers were used. The top spead of M-20 Warszawa was claimed to be 105 km/h.

One of the first modifications were made already in 1955, when the pull gearbox control system was introduced and bipartite rear drive axle. In 1956 the development of new 4-speed gearbox was committed. It proved to be impractical however, and the development effort was put on hold. In the same year, work began on overhead valve engine for Warszawa. The design was largely based on Etendard drive unit qith a capacity of 2141 ccm, used in Renault Frégate. The first drive unit was manufactured in 1958, and line production began in 1962. The new unit received S-21 designation. Since the very beginning of the production, the effort was made to reduce the vehicle body mass. For each car 114 kg of sheet metal, 8,5 kg of non-ferrus metals, 13 kg of casts, 31 kg of steel profiles and 18,5 kg of binders was saved.