Devrim (, meaning ''Revolution'' in Turkish) was the first ever automobile designed and produced in Turkey.
Automotive Industry Congress
On 15 May 1961, the ''Otomotiv Endüstri Kongresi'' (Automotive Industry Congress) was opened by President
Cemal Gürsel
Cemal Gürsel (; 13 October 1895 – 14 September 1966) was a Turkish army general who became the List of Presidents of Turkey, fourth President of Turkey after a coup.
Early life
He was born in the city of Erzurum as the son of an Ottoman A ...
. In his inaugural speech, he said:
After the congress, Gürsel issued his order to build a prototype engine and car meeting the requirements of the country. These prototypes would be compared with the best cars of the time, the shortcomings would be identified, and project development work would be undertaken in order to produce the best possible car in Turkey.
Design and production of Devrim
In 1961,
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Cemal Gürsel
Cemal Gürsel (; 13 October 1895 – 14 September 1966) was a Turkish army general who became the List of Presidents of Turkey, fourth President of Turkey after a coup.
Early life
He was born in the city of Erzurum as the son of an Ottoman A ...
ordered 24 engineers, working in various companies, to build a car fully designed and produced in Turkey. It was to be demonstrated during the
Republic Day
Republic Day is the name of a holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they became republics.
List
January 1 January in Slovak Republic
The day of creation of Slovak republic. A national holiday since 1993. Officially cal ...
celebrations on October 29, 1961.
After 130 days of hasty labor at the workshop in
Eskişehir
Eskişehir ( , ; from "old" and "city") is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...
, which later became the
TÜLOMSAŞ
TÜLOMSAŞ ( tr, Türkiye Lokomotif ve Motor Sanayi Anonim Şirketi) is a locomotive and wagon builder in Turkey. It is the main locomotive supplier of the Turkish State Railways and is one of the 2 companies that designs and assembles locomotives ...
factory, the engineers managed to make four prototypes of the automobile. One was black, and the others were cream coloured. It was named ''Devrim'' (the Turkish word for
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
.)
![Devrim at Tülomsaş-specs](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Devrim_at_T%C3%BClomsa%C5%9F-specs.jpg)
The schedule was extremely tight; nonetheless, four cars could be completed and two of these cars (cream and black coloured) were shipped to
Ankara
Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...
for the
Republic Day
Republic Day is the name of a holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they became republics.
List
January 1 January in Slovak Republic
The day of creation of Slovak republic. A national holiday since 1993. Officially cal ...
celebrations. The polishing paint of the black car was done while it was on the train to Ankara. None of the cars had
gasoline
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...
in them, as a safety precaution, and the cars were filled with little fuel, only for maneuvering. Since the compression rate had been increased to boost engine performance, high octane fuel was needed to run the engines without engine knock. High octane fuel was only available in Ankara back then. On the day of the celebrations, President Cemal Gürsel got into the black car before it was refuelled for a ceremonial ride. After proceeding approximately a hundred meters, the vehicle came to a halt. Then the President got off from the black car and got onto the cream colored car at the back (which had been filled up earlier) and went to
Anıtkabir
Anıtkabir is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the leader of the Turkish War of Independence and the founder and the first President of the Republic of Turkey. It is located in Ankara and was designed by architects Professor Emin O ...
with it. The two cars then completed the ceremonial runs without any problem. The newspaper headlines in the following day were, "Devrim went 100 meters and it broke down." The car became the subject of jokes for many years.
Devrim was never mass-produced, possibly because the cars were
craft
A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...
ed prototypes and the production process was not well-documented, with only a few technical drawings remaining from the production phase. Another possible reason was the limited demand for cars in Turkey back in 1961, which made it difficult to feasibly accomplish the mass production, distribution, dealership services, maintenance services and spare parts production of a new car brand.
Conversely, the
Otosan
Ford Otomotiv Sanayi A.Ş. (''Ford Automotive Industry'') is an automotive manufacturing company based in Turkey that is equally owned by Ford Motor Company and Koç Holding. It was established in its current form in 1977, with original relation ...
factory in
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
was established in 1959 as a joint venture between
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
and
Koç Holding
Koç Holding A.Ş. () is the largest industrial conglomerate in Turkey, and the only company in the country to be listed on the Fortune Global 500 as of 2016. The company, headquartered in Nakkaştepe, Istanbul, is controlled by the Koç family, ...
, and Turkey's first mass-produced automobile brand,
Anadol
Anadol was Turkey's first domestic mass-production passenger vehicle company. Its first model, Anadol A1 (1966–1975) was the second Turkish car after the ill-fated Devrim sedan of 1961. Anadol cars and pick-ups were manufactured by Otosan Oto ...
, started the serial production of the
Anadol A1 in 1966.
Conspiracy theories
A popular conspiracy theory about the failure of mass production suggests that the
American automotive companies, which sold most of the cars in Turkey back in the early 1960s (e.g., the police cars in Turkey were mostly
GM,
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
and
Chrysler
Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...
models, especially
Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
and
Dodge
Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...
, until the
mid-1970s) had approached the Turkish government to cancel the project, and due to political and economic reasons, the latter gave priority to maintaining the close bilateral relations between the two
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
allies at the height of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
.
Five years later, in 1966,
Anadol
Anadol was Turkey's first domestic mass-production passenger vehicle company. Its first model, Anadol A1 (1966–1975) was the second Turkish car after the ill-fated Devrim sedan of 1961. Anadol cars and pick-ups were manufactured by Otosan Oto ...
became Turkey's first mass-produced automobile brand. Anadol vehicles were produced at the
Otosan
Ford Otomotiv Sanayi A.Ş. (''Ford Automotive Industry'') is an automotive manufacturing company based in Turkey that is equally owned by Ford Motor Company and Koç Holding. It was established in its current form in 1977, with original relation ...
factory in Istanbul, which was established in 1959 as a joint venture between
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
of the United States and
Koç Holding
Koç Holding A.Ş. () is the largest industrial conglomerate in Turkey, and the only company in the country to be listed on the Fortune Global 500 as of 2016. The company, headquartered in Nakkaştepe, Istanbul, is controlled by the Koç family, ...
of Turkey. In 1960 Otosan started the production of the
Ford Consul
The Ford Consul is a car that was manufactured by Ford of Britain from 1951 until 1962. The name was later revived for a model produced by Ford in both the UK and in Germany from 1972 until 1975.
Between 1951 and 1962, the Consul was the four-cy ...
, which was the first passenger car to be produced at the factory in Istanbul.
Legacy
Three of the prototypes were scrapped due to the bureaucratic restrictions, their engines converted to diesel generators, but the last one (body no:002, engine no:002) is kept, in working condition, inside the
TÜLOMSAŞ
TÜLOMSAŞ ( tr, Türkiye Lokomotif ve Motor Sanayi Anonim Şirketi) is a locomotive and wagon builder in Turkey. It is the main locomotive supplier of the Turkish State Railways and is one of the 2 companies that designs and assembles locomotives ...
factory in
Eskişehir
Eskişehir ( , ; from "old" and "city") is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...
, where it was built.
In 2018 when the automobile hit its 57 years, it was completely disassembled and thoroughly maintained by its original manufacturer
TÜLOMSAŞ
TÜLOMSAŞ ( tr, Türkiye Lokomotif ve Motor Sanayi Anonim Şirketi) is a locomotive and wagon builder in Turkey. It is the main locomotive supplier of the Turkish State Railways and is one of the 2 companies that designs and assembles locomotives ...
in order to preserve Devrim for many decades. Since it is preserved in a closed showroom very little rust was observed; though paint and vinyl interiors had to be replaced according to original specifications of the car.
Devrim is open for visit at the
TÜLOMSAŞ
TÜLOMSAŞ ( tr, Türkiye Lokomotif ve Motor Sanayi Anonim Şirketi) is a locomotive and wagon builder in Turkey. It is the main locomotive supplier of the Turkish State Railways and is one of the 2 companies that designs and assembles locomotives ...
factory in
Eskişehir
Eskişehir ( , ; from "old" and "city") is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...
every day between 08:00-17:00.
In popular culture
The story of the building process and hard efforts of the 24 engineers who worked on Devrim automobiles became the subject of a film, which was released in Turkey in 2008 with the title "Devrim Arabaları" (English: ''Cars of Revolution'').
In late 2010, students from the
National University of Science and Technology in Pakistan developed a
hybrid car
A hybrid vehicle is one that uses two or more distinct types of power, such as submarines that use diesel when surfaced and batteries when submerged. Other means to store energy include pressurized fluid in hydraulic hybrids.
The basic princip ...
with inspiration from Devrim and named it ''Devrim II''.
References
External links
Official page of Devrim
NTVMSNBC Article on Devrim*
Turkish Wikipedia article
*
Turkish Wikipedia article about the movie
Official movie page of Devrim (archived html)
{{Turkish automobile brands and manufacturers
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Turkey
Cars introduced in 1961
Cars of Turkey