Tarpan Honker
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
multi-purpose all-terrain
Off-road vehicle
An off-road vehicle is considered to be any type of vehicle which is capable of driving on and off paved or gravel surface. It is generally characterized by having large tires with deep, open treads, a flexible suspension, or even caterpillar tracks...
pick-up truck
Pick-Up Truck
"Pick-Up Truck" is a song written and recorded by Belgian acid house musician Praga Khan. It is the third single from Praga's eighth studio album, Soundscraper....
. Created in 1984, it is still in production in a variety of models. It is best known as the light truck used by the Polish Army both at home and in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. Apart from the army and police forces, the company to own the largest number of Honkers is the KGHM
KGHM Polska Miedz
KGHM Polska Miedź is one of the largest producers of copper and silver in the world. The mining & metallurgy company is based in Poland in Lubin. KGHM Polska Miedź S.A...
company, which uses them for transport of mineworkers underground.
History
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
. Based on the earlier design of the Tarpan car, it was to replace it as the basic Polish-made pick-up truck in public service. However, it was not until 1988 that the serial production was started. The car was produced in two variants:
- Tarpan Honker 4012, a typical hard top with room for up to 10 passengers
- Tarpan Honker 4022, a pick-up truck with room for 2 passengers
Soon after production started, the FSR started the construction of a new, slightly shorter and more narrow (2210 mm) version, which received the designation of Honker 4032. Although the prototype never entered serial production, it was the first car to be known solely as Honker, without any indication of its relation to the earlier Tarpan.
In late 1996 the design was bought by the Daewoo Motor Polska
Daewoo
Daewoo or the Daewoo Group was a major South Korean chaebol . It was founded on 22 March 1967 as Daewoo Industrial and was dismantled by the Korean government in 1999...
company, who decided to continue the production in Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
. The interior design was slightly modified and the car received the new designation of Daewoo Honker 2324. The car did not differ much from the original version and was available in the same set of options. There were plans for creation of a modernized Daewoo Honker II with either 4x2 or 4x4 drive, but they were called off and instead the factory only modified the external design and continued the production under a new name of Daewoo Honker 2000.
After the bankruptcy of Daewoo, the license was inherited by two companies. Andoria-Mot
Andoria-Mot
Andoria Mot Sp. z.o.o. is an engine manufacturer based in Poland. The company first began in 1945 with the manufacturing of agricultural machines. Later projects added Diesel engines. Andoria is a part of GWARANT Grupa Kapitałowa S.A......
continued the production in small quantities from 2002–2003, and in 2003 created two modernized versions, both in a hard-top pick-up combination. Intrall Polska
Intrall
Intrall, or International Truck Alliance, is a Russo-British automotive company with headquarters in London, England, and manufacturing in Poland. At the end of 2003 the company acquired from Intrall Treasury factory of Daewoo Motor Poland in Lublin, then operating from January 2004 to 2007 years,...
, made the Honker from Jan. 2004-Spring 2007. In 2004, Intrall created another model, the off-road car Honker MAX. In addition, in 2004 the Honker saw yet another modification: an armored heavier version Honker Skorpion 3 was created specifically for the Polish Army forces in Iraq.
Variants
Honker trucks were produced in the hard-top versions, with a chest carrier and as a pick-up. They used gasoline engines from the FSO Polonez car, IvecoIveco
Iveco, an acronym for Industrial Vehicle Corporation, originally an alliance of European commercial vehicle manufacturers such as Fiat , Unic and Magirus. Iveco is now an Italian truck, bus, and diesel engine manufacturer, based in Turin...
diesel engines (2.5 dm ³), and from 1997 onwards used the turbo engines Andoria 4CT90 and later 4CTi90. The truck had a 3-door body, based on a rigid frame bridges driving the leaf springs.
Production
Production models of Honker was low, reaching a maximum level of a few hundred vehicles. In Poznan in 1992, FSR built 450 autos in 1992; 314 autos in 1994; and 288 autos in 1995. FSR production stopped in early 1996.In mid 1996 Daewoo
Daewoo
Daewoo or the Daewoo Group was a major South Korean chaebol . It was founded on 22 March 1967 as Daewoo Industrial and was dismantled by the Korean government in 1999...
bought the rights and established Daewoo Motor Poland Sp. Ltd. to produce vehicles. Production resumed in autumn 1996 trials for the assembly of Honkers in Lublin. In both factories, they built only around 20 autos. In 1997 they built 155 autos; 1998 - 232 autos; 1999 - about 350 autos; 2000 - about 200 autos; 2001 - about 30-40 autos; 2002 - 140 autos; 2003 - 278 autos; 2004 - about 490 autos; 2005 - 177 autos; 2006 - 245 autos; 2007 - 35 autos. In the spring of 2007, production was again suspended.
In 2008, the Ukrainian company DP Naftogazbud Polior was to begin building the Honker again, but never did.
In 2009, Syndyk DMP, the owner of the rights to Honker, sold the company to DZT Tymińscy, which then restarted production of the Honker.