The first 100% Romanian car was not Dacia. It was up to world performance standards

Although, in the collective memory of Romanians, the first car manufactured in Romania could be Dacia, the reality on the ground contradicts these “legends”. It seems that before Dacia there was another car, produced in our country, but much earlier.

Of course, in recent history it has been circulated that Dacia it would have been the first car built in Romania, and this seemed an extremely convenient option for the communists, who wanted to give the impression that they were the ones who laid the foundations for the modernization and industrialization of Romania.

Yet, before Dacia there was the Malaxa 1C car.

Malaxa, truly the first Romanian car

In 1945, the industrialist Malaxa built, in Reșita, the first Romanian automobile that also bore his name.

This car was equipped with a 3-cylinder radial engine with forced cooling. What’s more, the car had the capacity to reach 30 HP.

In addition, the car looked very good by the standards of those times, with an increased level of comfort for both the driver and passengers, being able to carry up to six people. The body had a rather aerodynamic appearance compared to post-war standards.

The maximum speed of this car reached 120 km/h, with a fuel consumption of 10 l/100 km.

The communists confiscated the brand and moved it further east

As expected, as soon as the communists came to power, in our country, seized the industrialist’s factory, taking control of the technology behind the Malaxa 1C car. For two years around 200 units were manufactured.

The regime stopped production, and then moved the production line, as well as assembly, to the former USSR. This happened immediately after an official from Moscow was driven around in such a Malaxa car and was impressed by the modernism of the car produced at U.S.

Later, this machine “lost its track”, being absorbed by the “great Bear”. Unofficial sources claim that such a model exists in the collection owned by former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Since 1988, the collection has been part of the Russian national heritage. In 1982, the year he died, Leonid Brezhnev had over 1,000 classic cars in his collection.

The Malaxa example is not unique: the same happened to the Leica factory in Germany, whose photo technology was stolen and adapted in Russian style, later materializing in the “crude” Zorki cameras.

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