Melkus was a marque of single seat

racing car Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

s and sport cars founded by the race driver

Heinz Melkus Heinz Melkus (20 April 1928 – 5 September 2005) was an East German race car driver and constructor of sport cars. He founded the company Melkus to produce race and sport cars, his Wartburg based Melkus RS 1000 was with 101 build units the most ...

in Dresden in East Germany. The company existed from 1959 to 1986, and then from 2009 to 2012. The cars originally used engines from Wartburgs and many of the other parts came from Wartburgs and Trabants. The racing cars competed in

Formula 3 Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One driv ...

, Formula Junior and Formula Ford. The 2009 to 2012 models used engines from Toyota and Volkswagen. The only road car the company produced from 1959 to 1986 was the Melkus RS 1000. It was a sleek sports car powered by a tuned mid-mounted Wartburg 3-cylinder 2-stroke engine. Most of the cars used the 992 cc version, but some of the later cars had the 1200 cc version. It had gullwing doors. 101 cars were made. The company stopped making cars in 1986. In the early 1990s, Heinz Melkus and his family started running a BMW dealership in Dresden. In December 2006, Melkus Engineering--a German company owned by

Peter Melkus Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, son of Heinz Melkus--announced it would re-launch the RS 1000 sports car. A new model, the Melkus RS 2000 was produced from 2009 to 2012. It was originally to be powered by either an

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...

turbocharged In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...

Volkswagen engine. There is also talk about a GT model with . The new RS 2000 premiered at the Frankfurt International Motor Show in 2009. The car manufacturing arm of Melkus filed for bankruptcy in August 2012.

Models

* Melkus JAP Eigenbau (1954) * Melkus Formel Junior Baureihe (1959/60) * Melkus Formel Junior Baureihe (1961/62) * Melkus Formel Junior Baureihe (1963) * Melkus Formel 3 Baureihe (1964) *

Melkus SRG MT 77 Melkus was a marque of single seat racing cars and sport cars founded by the race driver Heinz Melkus in Dresden in East Germany. The company existed from 1959 to 1986, and then from 2009 to 2012. The cars originally used engines from Wartb ...

Melkus PT 73 Spyder The Melkus PT 73 Spyder was a prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software pro ...

* Melkus Lada ML89 * Melkus BMW MB90 *

Melkus Silberpfeil Melkus was a marque of single seat racing cars and sport cars founded by the race driver Heinz Melkus in Dresden in East Germany. The company existed from 1959 to 1986, and then from 2009 to 2012. The cars originally used engines from Wartb ...

* Melkus Zigarre * Melkus RS 1000 * Melkus RS 2000 (2008) * Melkus RS 2000 GT (2011) * Melkus RS 2000 GTS (2011)

References

External links

Company history at RitzSite

Melkus
- Dresden based BMW and

Lotus Lotus may refer to: Plants *Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly: ** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae **Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...

dealer
Melkus Motorsport

{{Automotive industry in Germany Car manufacturers of Germany Sports car manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in Dresden Car manufacturers of East Germany German racecar constructors