Melkus RS 1000
Encyclopedia
Melkus RS 1000 was a sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....

 from Melkus
Melkus
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 between 1959 and 1986. The cars used engines from Wartburgs and much of the other parts came from Wartburgs and Trabants...

. It was a sleek sports car powered by a tuned mid-mounted
Mid-engine design
A mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine between the rear and front axles. Another term for this is mid-ship.-Benefits:The mid-engine layout is typically chosen for its relatively favorable weight distribution...

 Wartburg 3-cylinder 2-stroke engine from the Wartburg 353. Most of the cars used the 992 cc version giving a top speed of 175 km/h, but some of the later cars had the 1200 cc version. The race version of the 992 cc engine fitted with a sports carburettor produced 90 hp for street version and 118 hp for racing version and a top speed of 210 km/h (130 mph). It had gull-wing doors. 101 cars were made between 1969 and 1979 in the Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 factory.

The chassis was a traditional ladder frame with a roll bar
Roll bar
Roll bar or rollbar may refer to:* Roll bar, also known as anti-roll bar or sway bar, a torsion spring bar that reduces vehicle roll* Roll cage, a vehicle frame designed to protect occupants in the event of a crash...

 integrated into the windscreen frame and behind the driver. The body was in fibreglass.

In time for the 50 year jubilee a limited series of 15 RS 1000 will be made. The first sports car of this series was presented on November 26, 2006.

An open roadster
Roadster
A roadster is a two-seat open car with emphasis on sporty handling and without a fixed roof or side weather protection. Strictly speaking a roadster with wind-up windows is a convertible but as true roadsters are no longer made the distinction is now irrelevant...

 called Melkus PT 73 Spyder
Melkus PT 73 Spyder
Melkus PT 73 Spyder was a prototype racing car built by Melkus in 1973. It consisted of a new, open chassis for the Melkus RS 1000. The design was inspired by the Škoda Metalex. It used a 1100 cc, three cylinder, triple carburetor two-stroke Wartburg engine giving 110 hp....

was built using the RS 1000 chassis, but only as a single prototype.

An updated version, dubbed the RS 2000, is currently in development. Melkus has announced the new RS 2000 would be exhibited at the Internationale Automobil Ausstellung (International Motor Show) in Frankfurt, Germany from the 17th to the 27th of September, 2009.

External links

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