(first posted 1/18/2017) I came across a series of photographs of life in Poland in the early 1980s by Chris Niedenthal at vintage.es. Not many have cars in them, but there’s a few gems, like this one at a used car market in Poznan. Is it a surprise that the Grand Prix, with Illinois plates, is getting all the attention?
Here’s another one from the same place. Ironically, these would all be rather coveted today, a great cross-section of Iron Curtain cars all in one place.
And the folks walking or riding this battered mini-bus can dream about what they’d like to have.
The parking lot.
The trunk is being put to good use.
Not exactly a car, but an example of how the traditional past was intersecting with the modern life in Poland at the time. Mom wouldn’t have dared take off her outer clothes 10 or 20 years earlier.
The bride and groom have just exited the Polski Fiat. Not a lot of other cars on the streets; bet it looks different today.
Here’s the rest of the gallery, with lots of non-car photos.
Lots of Fiat and Renault based (Dacias?), eastern-europe built cars, and the two Syrenas, both white, the only Polish based model. Had it not been for Wheeler Dealers, I would have never known of that car.
Poland looks depressing, the pics look depressing, rainy, and dungeon like.
But this was 80’s Poland. I’m sure it might look drastically different today.
It`s still shitty, believe me – I`ve spent here in Poland many years….
If you have ever been to a crumbling (old) city or town that was mostly concrete and various shades of gray. It does make you mentally depressed after a while. Reminds me of a sterile, sad, suicidal place.
However, if you throw in a bunch of flowers, color, greenery, a splash of huge decorative colorful outdoor art sculptures. Then the same city or town becomes vibrant, youthful, and gets a huge dose of “happy place” feeling..
I was going to write something like that. Add color. It gets better. Also, those pictures shot with traditional film sometimes alter the color and contrast a little to create a certain look. I used to shoot/develop alot of slide film and occasionally my pictures would look like that – very drab and depressing. Other times, the pictures would be very colorful, bright and vibrant.
So many variables – camera settings, film choices, and developing details…
The same place today: Rynek in Wrocław
It’d like that Wartburg, in a wagon.
Happy Motoring, Mark
I always hated haying but it appears that the Polish people know how to take a lot of the drudgery out of it. Would that be a Polska Grand Prix in the first picture?
+1! Ha ha ha!
I think the car on the mural in the third picture is an FSO Polonez. I’ve been interested in those since riding in a taxi version in Monrovia, Liberia in the mid-80’s. It was the only one I had ever seen up to that point, or since. The cab driver was jamming to some 80’s electro-funk that was cranked up super loud.
Great collection of photos. That ’76 GP looks all the more dramatic compared to the cars around it.
Yes it’s definitely an FSO Polonez. Someone in Troy, Michigan drives one of those during summer occasionally. I just have a feeling that indicates some Polish connections. Not bad looking, compared to a Fiat 131 nearby.
The Grand Prix, is very capitalistic and “Western”, I wonder how Berlin Wall failed preventing its entry, considering the countries around Poland.
It has an Illinois registration so it must have a rich tourist owner.
Crossing the Berlin Wall (or East-West borders in general) was usually no problem for Westerners – they were allowed to visit east (and, more importantly, to then go back again). It was the easterners who were kept behind bars, umm I mean in their countries.
As for the Grand Prix, I could speculate it perhaps came with a Polish American who was visiting his old country and brought the Pontiac along with him to Europe…?
Even though I’m not that old, I can vaguely remember how fearful the Eastern regimes were about the western influence, and the “western” lifestyle, symbolized by Playboy magazines, 007, and big American cars. I wonder how the government handled that big pile of the “western” iron, and the people traveling inside. Probably similar to the situation when an American travels to North Korea these days.
It’s interesting to see the Grand Prix in Poland and FSO Polonez in the US, what a contrast. Such a pity the New Jersey plate wasn’t shown in the picture.
http://bringatrailer.com/2015/01/29/1982-fso-polonez-1500-in-the-us/
Eastern regimes were probably not particularly worried about big American cars, very few of them entered 🙂
Also, Eastern countries were not all the same in this regard – for example, Yugoslavia saw many western cars entering – either by tourists from Western Europe, or Yugoslav economic migrants working in West Germany who regularly visited their home country. If anything, the authorities were pleased with Westerners visiting as they were spending their valuable Deutschmarks and dollars in the country…
Yugoslavia was officially non-aligned; it wasn’t in the Warsaw Pact.
It was much more open to foreign / Western influence than the Iron Curtain countries and had a convertible currency. Viz. the Yugoslav airlines (JAT), who flew Boeings and Douglases rather than Tupolevs.
I can attest to that as well; Yugoslavia was the least depressing of the E. Bloc countries I visited. Marshal Tito walked a fine line, distancing his regime from Moscow while also keeping a lid on latent ethnic quarrels which broke out during the War & after his death.
The Germans were appalled by Yugoslav intramural atrocities during their occupation.
The pigs are resting in the trunk of an FSO Warszawa, which was a license-built version of the Soviet GAZ Pobeda. This is the later (1962-) model with a notchback roof an conventional trunk.
I sent this post to my friend Dan Michaels, who was the WSJ’s man in Warsaw from 1990 to 1997. Apparently Chris Nidenthal is quite the photographer over there – he won a Pulitzer for this picture he took during the Marshal Law crackdown in 1980. Yes, that is “Apocalypse Now” playing at the cinema!
He’s met him a few times and another friend told him how he was walking through the main square in Krakow in the pre-selfie era, and some tourists randomly asked him to take their picture with their camera. I wonder if they noticed a difference when they developed the film?
I visited Dan in Warsaw in 1992 and the thing that stood out was the really poor quality of the asphalt paving – there were grooves gouged in the road at every stop sign and light. Also, the entrepreneurial Poles had not only painted an ex-Soviet tank pink, they’d turned it into an ad for a safe company…
Warsawa trunks weren’t cut like this. Looks like a Syrena trunk to me.
D’oh, you’re right, it is a Syrena. The Warszawa trunk wasn’t flat on the later models. Distracted by the piggies!
That’s a Syrena without its front wheel in the parking lot, right? And a Warszawa behind the red Polski Fiat in the 2nd picture?
Yep, that’s right. And that 2nd pic has a lot of interesting stuff in it. Polski-Fiat 125p, Wartburg 353, FSO Polonez, Skoda 100, Mercedes W114, Ford Taunus TC2 and Capri…
The one that’s got me stumped is the blue car behind the red 125p. I’m really not sure, but given the shape of the windshield and the placement of the radio antenna, it looks like a Citroen DS.
Odd to find one there, but nowhere near as outlandish as the Pontiac in the 1st pic.
DS looks very likely, though the wipers suggest a RH drive one.
Can’t find a Capri, though there is a red Ford Escort Mk.2 near the top left. Loads of Fiat designs, but is that a beige (actual) Fiat 131 behind the green 125P?
The “mini-bus” under the Polonez billboard is a Nysa. The signage on it advertises a “Leda Fashion House”. Nysa vans were more often used as delivery vehicles, in Poland as well as in Russia. I have some memories of a Nysa delivery van on my block in Moscow in the 1970s.
The older white car in the second photo is a Warsawa, based on the Soviet Pobeda. It has the same engine that was used in the Nysa.
Looks like a very pretty place, despite the cloud cover and the piggies in that trunk are adorable. I’d choose a 126 or a Wartburg, and I’ll also take the lean body I’d acquire by walking everywhere while I wait five years FOR said car.
Surprised there were no Moskvitch Alekos; actually, one rarely sees pics of them in Comecon-era Poland. And come to think of it, there are no Skodas seen in these pictures (my fav of the Eastern Bloc cars).
I guess distribution of cars in that time and place was a lot more localized.
There’s a yellow Skoda in the second picture, far left, middle row.
You’re right; right next to the Lada.
I’d love to know how that GP got there, Illinois plates and all!
Times changes everything… Last picture is view of the Kościół Garnizonow from Wroclaws Rynek – today no more cars and dirty gray, building were renovated and there are only clubs, bars and restaurant. And no free park space ?
Today FIATs 125 and 126 are very rare but I see Porsches every day, Bentleys or Ferraris also can be encountered in city centre, I was more impressed by 4 axle KrAZ truck.
However you can still find buildings with war scares on elevation and German inscriptions.
The picture with the boy and girl is just plain cute.
Can somebody identify the blue motorcycle for me?
In the second picture I noticed a blue Ford Taunus with Polish license plate and a Mercedes Benz with an oval German customs plate. This oval plate has been replaced with rectangular export plate. —-Export plates (also known as “Ausfuhrkennzeichen”, customs plates) are used for exporting vehicles abroad. The plates are the only ones which do not have the blue Euro strip on the left and the owner does not have to be a German resident to register the car. The date on the red strip on the right hand side does not show the expiration date of the plate; instead it shows the expiration date of the vehicle insurance. After this date the vehicle must have left Germany (wiki).
The motorcycle on the first picture is DDR produced Simson, not sure if S50 or newer S51. Given the fact this picture was taken in the 80’s it could be any of them. But considering the shape of the fuel tank, I would go for S50
Thank you, Greg.
As I have relatives in Poland I’ve made a few visits over the years. Being there in 1973 was a real eye opener and I soon learned communism is evil and a political system that does not work. The country has certainly come a long way. One of the guys in the pigs in a trunk photo looks like a cousin who fled in 1989 eventually settling here in western Canada.
The Grand Prix reminds of a man from Chicago who in 1973 when I was there, brought his big Pontiac Bonneville convertible and travelled to where I was visiting my relates. He was pursuing a young gal and clearly had the bucks to put the car on a shipand travel for a while in Europe. It was quite a contrast to the Trabants, Polski Fiats and other sheet metal riff-raff on the roads.
Can we expect continuation of the “cars in Soviet Union” series? The two installments we got were wonderful!
My first guess about the Grand Pricks is that it’s stolen.
Thank you for this window into time .
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I know a bloke who moved to Poland after marrying a Girl 40 years younger than he…..
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I wonder how that all worked out ~ they seemed happy enough the last time I saw them .
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-Nate
“I’d love to know how that GP got there, Illinois plates and all!”
Chicago has the largest population of Poles outside of Warsaw. Though many are moving to the suburbs or other states nowadays.
The GP [a ’77] has a dealer sticker of a defunct Chevy dealer from NW side of the city, where Polish immigrants congregate.
Pre-Jeremy Clarkson Top Gear visited Poland in 1983, It really was like the pictures Paul posted.
Some Polish immigrants in the US would return to the old country in retirement because their money went further; it’s possible they would be allowed to bring their US cars with them.
Having grown up in Chicago, I have a great deal of respect for the Poles. I grew up with many. Milwaukee Avenue is still a great place to see Polish shops and Pole Town.
When I was living in Italy in the 90s for a few years I used to occasionally see big American cars used for wedding limousines. These are not altered cars – just four door 70s and 80s Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles, sometimes Cadillacs in their stock forms being used as VIP wedding transport. I don’t recall any ChryCo or FOMOCO vehicles used this way.
Maybe that Grand Prix was important that way. A special occasions vehicle.
I did a driving tour of Poland and Czech Republic just before COVID. Poland reminded me of the US during the mid 60’s. New or improved highways all across the nation with Burger Kings and at every exit. We got a tour of the Skoda factory which was straining to keep up with demand. Modern three and four story apartment complexes were popping up as decrepit brick building were torn down in older parts of each town visited. Skodas and Hyundais ruled the highway. Only saw a handful of Communist block vehicles like a Fiat 126P.
Was told that no one cried when the Russians packed up and left town.
I wonder if my Parklane trunk, full of pigs for sale, would be useful today.
The large FSO Polonez wall illustration appears drawn in a marker rendering style, popular in the 1970s and 1980s. A broad-tipped Pantone marker (by Letraset) could be used freehand, or with a ruler, to create the illusion of depth in the paint work. Initial colour would appear translucent on Pantone paper. And layering additional marker strokes, would darken the colour. Thin, horizontal line left white, representing a reflected highlight.
Popular technique with manufacturer design studios, and magazine art departments, at the time. Artwork, obviously enlarged here.
What is the “oddly patterned” surface the cars are parked on? (first two-three pics)
Those are perforated concrete slabs. They provide a hard surface to drive on but allow drainage into the soil rather than rain running off into a storm sewer or ditch. Grass helps stabilize the soil.
In 1971, Dad drove the family Fiat 125S (on New Guinea licence plates!) through the former Yugoslavia.
Speaking of American cars behind the Iron Curtain, in Belgrade I saw either a Plymouth Superbird or Dodge Daytona in a bright Orange.
Surrounded by a a 3 deep crowd of curious locals. Compared to the drap coloured Fiat knock offs it was a space ship. It remains my most vivid memory of Belgrade.
Skodas and Ladas were sold in NZ even that tiny Polish Fiat exists here, very few of the Ladas exist anymore and old rear engined Skodas have all evaporated, strangely enough Fiat 125s and its Lada knockoff were on the market here new together, the Lada was about half the price of the Fiat some magazine did a comparism test between them, the Fiat weighed less and performed better of the two. the Fiats had a rep for good handling and needing regular maintenance on the finnicky twin cam engines, Ladas just needed petrol and oil.