The Malaxa was a car designed and built in 1945 in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, as the national machine industry had to convert its wartime output to civilian items. This model was designed by a team headed by engineer Petre I. Carp, of "Nicolae Malaxa Studies Society". Few prototypes were built in various aircraft factories in Romania (

IAR Brașov IAR may refer to: * IAR Systems, an embedded system technology company *The Institute of Asian Research, an institute under the Faculty of Arts in the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada *" Ignore all rules", a policy on Wikipedia ...

, ASAM Cotroceni etc.), with the financial support of

Nicolae Malaxa Nicolae Malaxa ( – 1965) was a Romanian engineer and industrialist. Biography Born in a family of Greek origin in Huşi, Malaxa studied engineering in Iaşi (at the University of Iaşi) and Karlsruhe (at the Polytechnic University). Lat ...

– hence the car's

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

. The final number of cars produced in Romania is unclear. The production was stopped when the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in th ...

decided to move the production line in the Soviet Union, allegedly after a high-ranking official from Moscow had a ride with the car in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

.About Malaxa

Description

Malaxa had an

air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...

3-cylinder 2-strokes rear

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ca ...

, rear wheel drive (

RR layout In automotive design, an RR, or rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout places both the engine and drive wheels at the rear of the vehicle. In contrast to the RMR layout, the center of mass of the engine is between the rear axle and the rear bumper ...

), and was capable of developing 30-35

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. The top speed was 105-120 km/h and the

gas mileage Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, wh ...

was 10 L/100 km. The

gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

had four speeds with auto-blocking special differential and hydraulic

gear stick A gear stick (rarely spelled ''gearstick''), gear lever (both UK English), gearshift or shifter (both U.S. English), more formally known as a transmission lever, is a metal lever attached to the transmission of an automobile. The term ''gear sti ...

. The

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

was tubular. Wheels had a dual hydraulic and rubber suspension. The body had a steel tubes skeleton, covered with steel, aluminum and wood panels. It was fixed on the chassis through four "saddles" and had a special vertical stabilizer. ''Malaxa'' offered a high level of comfort, and could carry five persons with four suitcases in all.

Further developments

The producers intended to adapt the model for a small, 1-ton truck and a small 20

two-seated car intended for middle-class families, who would have cost approximately 100000 lei of 1938.

References

Bibliography

* ''Primul automobil românesc'' in "România aeriană", XX, nr. 1 from January 1946, p. 25. * Brebenel A., Vochin D., ''Din istoria automobilului'', 2nd edition, Editura Sport-Turism, București, 1976. Cars introduced in 1945 Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Rear-engined vehicles Radial engines Cars of Romania {{Classicpow-auto-stub