Talk:FSO Syrena Sport

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Corrections

I corrected a number of misconceptions: firstly that Syrena engine was made of joining two Junak engines. It would be difficult to imagine how two motorcycle engines with inseparable gearboxes could be put together. Then the engine cubic capacity: many sources indeed quote the incorrect figure of 750 cc. However, the Junak S03 engine has 350 cc, not 375, so it adds up to 700 cc, not 750.

I would be very tempted to remove the photo captions referring to similarity with this or another car (Aston Martin DB4, VW Karmann). First of all, this similarity is never striking – the body design of Syrena Sport is unique. Syrena Sport body was a sports car of its era, so it does remind of many other sports cars, or shares some stylistic elements with them. On various fora, a whole list of cars could be complied which in contributors’ opinion are similar or could be an inspiration for Syrena (Triumph Spitfire, BMW, Falcon Mark III Caribbean, Fiat 800, BMW 507, etc). That is subjective, not substantiated by sources and eventually, not useful in an encyclopaedic article.

Most importantly, Cezary Nawrot in his interview from 2000 only quotes Mercedes 190L and more generally, Ferrari models, as a source of his inspiration.

Much more interesting is the question of "political reasons" for which the car was not produced. Firstly, I was wondering whether reasons of not producing a car could at all be political. But there is a good example from the very history of FSO. When the factory was built, a license was purchased from Fiat to produce the 1400 model at FSO. With relations with the West deteriorating and the Iron Curtain falling down, the entire project was scrapped and the Soviet Pobieda license was used instead. So, Fiat 1400 was not produced at FSO for political reasons, indeed. But in case of Syrena Sport? There was an intervention from the political level (the Party leadership), after which further tests were abandoned (that was described by Nawrot himself and other authors, e.g. in Automobilista). Or another interpretation: the reasons were political in a very general sense: the political situation of Poland, being a part of the Soviet block, rather low living standards, the (at least theoretically) egalitarian social model. So, in such a political situation, it was not possible to produce a beautiful, impractical and expensive car. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.221.209.17 (talk) 20:57, 19 March 2011