FSM Beskid

FSM Beskid 106 at Muzeum Inżynierii Miejskiej in Kraków.

FSM Beskid 106 at Muzeum Inżynierii Miejskiej in Kraków.

Beskid was a series of economy hatchback car prototypes in Poland designed by Automotive Research and Development Center during 1982-1986.^[1] The design team was led by Wiesław Wiatrak who later used Beskid as his daily car and finally passed it to a museum in Kraków.

The car never went into mass production; political reasons are cited.^{[citation needed]} However, it is also suggested that Beskid was in fact a back-up measure if licensing talks were unsuccessful; finally Fiat Cinquecento was produced in FSM. While all seven Beskid prototypes were slated for destruction, six were saved. One was used for crash test, and remaining six are located in various institutions in Poland:

• Museum in Warsaw - Yellow
• Muzeum Inżynierii Miejskiej in Kraków - Two, white and green
• Politechnika Opolska - White
• Muzeum Techniki i Komunikacji in Szczecin - Green
• BOSMAL museum at BOSMAL facility in Bielsko Biała - Cream

The body style was patented, but BOSMAL lacked funds for the extension of the patent. More than 10 years later the French Renault Twingo used very similar layout although the Renault officials deny any direct influence (it is suggested that Citroën AX had similar shape in its early sketches). Renault profited off of roughly 2,400,000 Twingos.^[2]

The car's body had a drag coefficient of 0.29 (one of the best, In Wiesław Wiatrak's memorial discussion held 10 days after his death member of design team mentioned that the car actually had 0.27 measured but they were afraid nobody will believe that, hence official 0.29), which resulted in a fuel economy of circa 3,9 l /100 km at a speed of about 90 km/h (engine displacement 594 cm³ , with maximum power 20.6 kW(28 HP)). ^[3]

The name comes from the Beskids mountains.

External links[]

• BOSMAL website
• Bosmal Beskid 106 prototype - history and pictures (English)

References[]

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