The incredible story of the communist Ferrari, the only sports car made in East Germany

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Decades of waiting, products standardized to the max and a centralized economy in which nothing escaped the controlling eye of the state. East Germany seemed to offer no space for a sports car that combined speed and design. However, in times of Berlin Wallbehind the Iron Curtain existed a western-inspired car, glued to the ground and destined for a few.

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He Melcus RS 1000 it cost four times as much as the Trabant – a local symbol – and it was a masterpiece of scarcity engineering. Perhaps for this reason it barely managed to exceed the hundred units produced before the collapse of the company, shortly before German reunification. For posterity remained the legend of the communist Ferrari.

Heinz Melkus was covered in all the glory a German pilot could get in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The immediate postwar years, already with limited funding for foreign travel, were followed by a period of limited activity behind the Iron Curtain. So before giving birth to the Communist Ferrari, Melkus racks up triumphs in half a dozen countries, including his own and the Soviet Union. With the same ingenuity and skill, he later vaulted over government hurdles to build his own sports car.

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Melkus RS 1000 (photo: collector’s car)

The cars with which he raced came from his small company, which adapted to the prevailing needs: he turned other people’s garbage and auto parts into his own creations. In 1969, under the guise of celebrating the 20th anniversary of East Germany, made a two-seat coupe like no other.

There were 101 copies at a price that is only accessible to a small minority of Germans. Today they are coveted by collectors who can only soothe their Ostalgie, that particular nostalgia for the GDR, with copies taken from that different world.

The man behind the communist Ferrari and an epiphany in Yugoslavia

Heinz Melkus was born in Dresden on April 20, 1928, in the days when – although he had not come to power – Nazism was already raging. In terms of life, Melkus and his countrymen had survived. The city suffered a brutal bombing that left more than 20,000 dead in 1945. The German division left Dresden on the side of Soviet influence. Broken into pieces of what it had been, it became the industrial center of the country.

Melcus RS 1000

Melcus RS 1000

Scarcity ruled. The automotive business was not free from regulations that intruded into all aspects of life. Only two companies were allowed to produce vehicles: Sachsenring, owner of the Trabant, and Wartburg. The latter company was the one that provided the inputs with which Melkus built his own racing cars, signed with his surname since 1959. Those single-seaters planted the seeds of what would later be the only sports car in East Germany.

As a driver, Melkus has won numerous titles in Formula 3, the reference category of motorsport in his country. He was also tested in the Peace and Friendship Cup which brought together the best pilots of the Soviet bloc. He has traveled to the USSR, Bulgaria, Poland and Czechoslovakia. He became one of the top winners, with crowns in 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1972. He already ran with works of his brand, although what mattered were the national flag and the Eastern Brotherhood.

Melkus and the RS 1000.

Melkus and the RS 1000.

It was in another country, however, where he had an epiphany. The regime of Josip Broz, better known as Tito, was a peculiar dictatorship. He broke off relations with Joseph Stalin in 1948, after the Second World War, and approached the West. Perhaps from that third way, which developed parallel to the most ruthless political persecution, he escaped the English Lotus that inspired Melkus for his dream coupe in Yugoslav lands.

However, he had to overcome the biggest obstacle: the GDR restrictions on the serial production of cars. To achieve this goal he was timely and generous in his praise. He told authorities that racing was a “socially useful and necessary” activity and what better tribute to East Germany on its 20th anniversary than an innovative car on par with those in the West. Crafty, after some modifications to the initial project, the entrepreneur obtained official permission for his communist Ferrari.

102 HP engine, gullwing and floor level: this was the Melkus RS 1000

The working group was small. Together with his sons and some collaborators he set himself the goal of building twenty units a year. Production started in 1970. The car featured a fiberglass body mounted on a steel frame.

Melcus RS 1000

Melcus RS 1000

It was equipped with an engine taken from a Wartburg, placed in the rear. It had three cylinders and, initially, achieved 68 bhp at 4,500 rpm, although models up to 102 bhp were later developed. The gearbox was manual, five-speed.

One of the signature touches was inside gullwing doors: both, for the driver and the passenger, open upwards. The dimensions of the vehicle were another outstanding aspect: 4 meters long, 1.7 meters wide and 1.07 meters high, which is equivalent to saying that the driver was sitting 10 centimeters from the asphalt. The weight was only 690 kilos.

Melkus RS 1000 (photo: collector's car)

Melkus RS 1000 (photo: collector’s car)

Its design, which could not pass wind tunnel tests, allowed it to accelerate to 165 kilometers per hour, in its laziest versions, and up to 210 kilometers per hour in the more advanced models. Comparing in speed and design with its contemporaries comes the unique nickname of the communist Ferrari. But neither in power nor in speed could he compete with the Italian, American and West German sports cars. They were still two different worlds.

The Melkus RS 1000 had several flaws. The height, rear-wheel drive and weight made its behavior at high speed or on wet surfaces unpredictable. Through imperfect insulation, the roar of the engine invaded the passenger compartment. The independent suspension was too harsh, another headache for drivers.

The greatest difficulty was typical of the GDR: service and spare parts were almost impossible tasks to solve. As in the case of Trabi, the owners of Melkus have become mechanics out of obligation. Only they had to take care of the repairs, with frequent visits to the auto parts black market. Heinz and his sons also went underground to increase the horsepower of their vehicles.

Melkus RS 1000 (photo: collector's car)

Melkus RS 1000 (photo: collector’s car)

There was another challenge for those who were able to buy this coupe. Is that the government forced them to register in a register with a very particular requirement: they had to participate in two car races a year.

The end of East Germany’s only sports car and its capitalist resurgence

Tortuous production and bureaucratic control meant that only 101 examples of the Melkus RS 1000 could be built. They cost around 30,000 GDR marks, well above the Trabant estate. But the waiting list was much shorter: just two years, compared to the full decade it would take to sit in the iconic little sedan.

Melkus RS 2000 from 2006.

Melkus RS 2000 from 2006.

The last copies hit the streets in 1979. The company went into receivership in 1984 and quickly went down in history. The popular demands of the streets, in addition to the economic crisis due to the imminent collapse of the USSR, anticipated the fall of the Berlin wall (1989) and reunification (1991).

It enjoyed a brief renaissance in the new millennium. In 2006, Peter -Heinz’s son- launched the Melkus RS 2000, a capitalist homage to the communist sports car: it had Opel and Volkswagen engines -two brands of the Federal Republic of Germany-, an aluminum chassis and was sold on the market in exchange for 115 thousand euros. Fleeting, it didn’t have the charm of the original work, so the adventure lasted even less than that of the pioneer: a few dozen units distributed over three seasons.

Nothing like communist Ferrari to savor East German nostalgia. Collectors and enthusiasts know it, who followed by the 80 still existing copies with prices approaching 60 thousand euros. They are, for them, an Ostalgie piece without equivalent.

Source: Clarin

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