The Nysa

van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. There is some variation in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, microvans, are used for transporting either goods or ...

was produced in the town of

Nysa, Poland Nysa ( or ''Neiße'') is a city in southern Poland on the Eastern Neisse ( Polish: ''Nysa Kłodzka'') river, situated in the Opole Voivodeship. With 43,849 inhabitants (2019), it is the capital of Nysa County. It comprises the urban portion of ...

, from 1958 until 1994. The Nysa was based on the same chassis as the angular shaped Żuk van, but had rounded body lines, especially the two-part rounded windshield, and was considered more comfortable and a better fit for carrying people. The basic body variant was a universal van, for cargo or persons, with sliding doors on the right or conventional doors (marked with a letter T - ). At the rear, most variants had a single door opening to the left side. A few variants existed: a cargo van (letter F - ), a

minibus A minibus, microbus, or minicoach is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, the word "minibus" is us ...

(letter M) and an ambulance (letter S), and some others. A rare variant was made in the form of a light truck. At the time, the Nysa was practically the only van-size ambulance used in Poland. Many vans were sold to the

Militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

, which was the only form of police during the Communist era in Poland; blue Nysa vans became a kind of "trademark" of the Militia (Militia variants had slide doors on both sides, most had also a two-part door at the rear). The peak of its popularity was in the 1970s, with 18,200 made in 1978. In the 1980s the production decreased. When Poland became a democracy again in 1989 the future was bleak for the Nysa. Development work had been minimal for the past 20 years. Most customers, including the Police, chose more modern, faster and safer vans of Western manufacturers, that became widely imported instead. The production was closed in 1994, after manufacturing 380,575 vehicles. Both Nysa and its sibling Żuk van were heavily based on the

Warszawa Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at 1.86 million residents within a greate ...

, itself a licensed version of the Soviet

GAZ-M20 Pobeda The GAZ-M20 "Pobeda" (; ''победа'' means ''victory'') is a passenger car produced in the Soviet Union by GAZ from 1946 until 1958. It was also licensed to the Poland, Polish Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych, Passenger Automobile Factory and pro ...

. Among others, it had the same wheelbase and engine. Its transmission and suspension were modified. Early variants of the Nysa were powered by the M20 petrol engine (R4 flathead, 2.12 L, 36.8 kW), most common was the newer S21 petrol engine (R4

OHV OHV may refer to: * Overhead valve engine * Off-highway vehicle, aka off-road vehicle * Off-roading * California State Parks California State Parks is the state park system for the U.S. state of California. The system is administered by the C ...

, 2.12l, 51.5 kW), used from 1964 onward. A big part of production was exported (in some years, 70%), mostly to

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

countries, especially

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, but also to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and some Asian and African countries. In

Nysa vans were almost exclusively used as ambulance cars; 777 of them were in use in 1987. In 1968 the front end styling was changed, and the most numerous model 521/522 entered production, which remained in a largely unchanged form until the end. Nysa models included: N57 (1958), N58 (1958), N59, N60, N61, N63 (not produced), 501 (1964), 503 (not produced) and 521/522 (1968).

Gallery

Nysa N59M in Kraków - bus stop.jpg, Nysa N59M Bieszczady68-91-Rabe.jpg, Nysa N61-K Filmmaking_of_"Black_Thursday"_on_ulica_Morska_in_Gdynia_-_72.jpg, Nysa 501 ZSD Nysa 522 M during II. Vasút - Vasútmodell és Technikai Modell Fesztivál.jpg, Nysa 522, Hungary

References

External links

Nysa and other Polish trucks
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nysa (van) Cars of Poland Vans FSC vehicles Science and technology in Poland Nostalgia for the Polish People's Republic Polish brands