Towarzystwo Budowy Samochodów AS was an

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarde ...

and mechanical parts manufacturer based in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, that operated from 1924 to 1939 in Second Polish Republic.

History

The company was founded in 1924 by

-based businessman Jan Łaski, and an engineer Czesław Zbierański, who was an owner of Warszawskie Autowarszaty (Warsaw Car Repair Shops), a group of the assembly halls located at the 64 Złota Street, Warsaw, and where the product has been set. The headquarters of the company were based at the 16 Srebrna Street, Warsaw. They had begun working on designing the AS car, with Zbierański becoming the production manager and engineer Aleksander Liberman, designing 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 ...

for the car. The first prototypes were made on 4 January 1927. On 27 March 1927, the final version of the chassis was manufactured in Fabryka Powozów Braci Węgrzeckich located in Szydłowiec, Poland. After a few months of road tests, the car had been allowed to be sold. It was manufactured in 4

car body styles Governments and private organizations have developed car classification schemes that are used for various purposes including regulation, description, and categorization of cars. The International Standard ISO 3833-1977 ''Road vehicles – Type ...

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choic ...

landaulet Landaulet may refer to: * Landaulet (carriage), horse-drawn carriage * Landaulet (car) A landaulet, also known as a landaulette, is a car body style where the rear passengers are covered by a convertible top. Often the driver is separated from t ...

convertible A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a pr ...

and

panel van A panel van, also known as a blind van, car-derived van (United Kingdom) or sedan delivery (United States), is a small cargo vehicle with a passenger car chassis, typically with a single front bench seat and no side windows behind the B-pillar. ...

. The taxi landaulet version was the most popular, having around 100 cars being made, while the other version had around 50 cars made for each one. The customers could have also ordered only the chassis, paying a lower price. The car was manufactured in 2 versions, with different

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

s: S1 and S2. S1 used engine manufactured by

Chapuis-Dornier Chapuis-Dornier was a French manufacturer of proprietary engines for automobiles from 1904 to 1928 in Puteaux near Paris. Between 1919 and 1921 it displayed a prototype automobile, but it was never volume produced.Linz, Schrader: ''Die große Automo ...

while S2, by CIME. The first models of the car also used the engine made by

Ruby A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called ...

. All engines, as well as 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 ...

were imported from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The rest of the elements of the car were manufactured in Poland. The car manufacturing company was awarded the silver medal for its AS cars at the 1929 Polish General Exhibition in

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

. Its cars also arouse interest at the exhibition. AS was mostly praised for its noiseless, non-resistive, and precise way of closing its doors. In 1929, Liberman bought stock shares in the company from Łaski, and become the owner of the company. The car stopped being manufactured in 1930, due to the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. There were around 150 AS cars manufactured in total. They were made in 3 series, the first two countings respectively 60 and 80 cars. The third series was planned to count 100 cars, however, only a small number of cars that series has been manufactured. In 1932, most of the machinery in the assembly line, needed for the car manufacture, had burned down in the fire. In the second half of the 1930s, Zbierański had moved the remaining machinery and car parts to a factory in

Miedzeszyn Miedzeszyn is a neighbourhood of Wawer, a district of Warsaw, Poland. Until 1951, it was a separate village. Administrative division and borders The neighbourhood is divided into seven parts: Nowy Miedzeszyn, Miedzeszyn Wieś, Elżbietówek, Ju ...

. The company manufactured the car components for various other cars, the spare parts to AS cars, and to various other cars and planes, as well as various bevel and

spur gear Spur gears or straight-cut gears are the simplest type of gear. They consist of a cylinder or disk with teeth projecting radially. Viewing the gear at 90 degrees from the shaft length (side on) the tooth faces are straight and aligned parallel to ...

s. It ceased to exist with the annexation of Poland in the

invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity aggressively enter territory (country subdivision), territory owned by another such entity, gen ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1939, which began the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Vehicle models

* AS S1 * AS S2

Citations

Notes

References

{{Automotive industry in Poland Car brands Car manufacturers of Poland Polish brands Defunct manufacturing companies of Poland Manufacturing companies based in Warsaw Manufacturing companies established in 1924 1924 establishments in Poland Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1939 1939 disestablishments in Poland