The New Warsaw Wratislavia project has been widely publicised in the Polish automotive industry. This state-of-the-art and 1.5-million-PLN car will simply ignite your imagination. The work on the ready design of the car has been under way since October. The steel frame, engine and chassis are ready. Together with the body and the set of doors. Everything is top secret, and we cannot offer you any sneak preview.
"There've been some surprises. The engine has turned out to be 15 cm too high and we had to extend the bonnet. Now we can finally have a ride," says Michał Koziołek, who initiated the whole enterprise.
Other people are also involved in the New Warsaw Wratislavia project: Michał Puchalski and Adam Mally, architecture students from Wroclaw, Łukasz Myszyński, a student of the Wroclaw Academy of Fine Arts, Dawid Ozga, Jacek Śniadecki, Jacek Bodziony and Zbigniew Żelazny.
26 years of ageon average. They know the languages and travel around the world. They could just as well make their dreams come true in the US and earn tens of thousands of dollars. They have been given several tempting proposals. They negotiated with Rolls-Royce's Marketing Department. An American millionaire who owns an engine manifacturing company told them that if they failed to make it in Poland, they were more than welcome as his employees. But they do not want to leave Wroclaw. "If we make it here, we can make it everywhere. Unless we go to Uganda. But no, we would make it there as well," they say laughingly.
"This may sound a bit lofty, but we love our country and we want it to develop. Our grandfathers risked their lives for the country and we don't want to flee like cowards," says Michał.
He likes the media and he is willing to tell us more about the New Warsaw. He knows that the media attract publicity, but their project will also come under increasing scrutiny. There are people who think they are out of their mind, but they themselves know better. Tongue-in-cheek, they say they will sell their kidneys for the New Warsaw to kick off.
"We can't withdraw, we have too many followers. If they see we have failed, they will lose faith that you can make it in Poland. So we clench our teeth and grind forward," says Michał.
At times they work 20 hours a day and it's completely for free. They say they can afford to do so because they have no wives, children or family obligations, and those who did have already divorced. They have put all their savings into the project. They run a design studio together. They accept commissions to provide a variety of designs, including furniture, lamps and even bicycles and motorbikes.The project is estimated to have cost 2 million PLN so far.
Is this a joke?
Initially, they had problems with cash. After all, who would give these young people 200 or 300 thousand PLN to follow their dreams? But new investors are now flocking in. Publicity and hype have helped a lot.
"A Polish guy called us from Belgium, he ran a big company there, and he asked if the project was a joke and if not how much money we would need. I said 250 thousand PLN and we are now doing business together," recounts Michał.
Syrena gave them a kick
The New Warsaw began with a Syrena at Euro 2012. They built this 3-litre and 300-hp engine car from scratch and they painted it white and red, which are Poland's colours.
The Syrena gave them a kick to move forward. They finally realised they could do something bigger, and they took to designing the New Warsaw. The design took four months to complete. The shape and size proved to be the most important. The Wroclaw-based company e-Prototypy (currently known as Materialise) from the Wroclaw Park of Science and Technology prepared a 3D print at a scale of 1:15. This was a turning point, as they could touch the model and see all the bungles.
Next they prepared a life-size model, which took five people and 20 thousand hours, that is, roughly a year, to complete.
The design was ready in May. The polystyrene body was covered with glass fibre and resin. The New Warsaw took the Motor Show by storm in March. Later on the car was on display at the Hilton Hotel in Warsaw, and in August the luxury model of the car was also exhibited at the Sky Tower Shopping Centre in Wroclaw.
"As we worked on the project, we wanted to create a design of our own, and all the details you can see with a naked eye are ours. We can borrow the rest. We knew there was no point reinventing the wheel, and we knew we wouldn't be able to design the engine, the steering system or the suspension system."
Heart from BMW
The heart of the New Warsaw is a BMW M5 engine, with only little mileage. Once they have been renovated, all the components will look like new. This 545-hp naturally aspirated V10 engine will yield over 600 horsepower. On top of this, the car will have a six-speed automatic gearbox and a rear drive. The speed of over 300 km per hour. They will make the body and the interior by themselves. Polish companies will supply the details. They are taking no prisoners, and the interior must be lavish and Polish style, with oak and amber details.
Eight potential buyers come from Poland (off the record, one person is from Wroclaw) while others come from the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Australia and Canada. The New Warsaw is expected to cost approx. 1.5 million PLN, which is about 300 thousand EUR. The rich will not find it a lot. If we manage, we will be able to turn out only 11 cars over the next few years.
"One of our clients told us that it got on his nerves whenever he travelled to Monaco in his Ferrari and he saw ten similar cars parked in front of the hotel. He wanted something different. The New Warsaw is going to be unique," says Michał laughingly.
Completion date?
The project should be completed by now, but as new opportunities arise, the designers want to spend a few additional moths to improve quality. They do not want to talk about deadlines.
"We can finish right away, sell the product and enjoy a long holiday in the Canary Islands, but this is not what we are after. We are planning to launch yet another project, an electric-powered car, up to 1000 items a year. We want to launch a 100% Polish design. We will amass the necessary capital once we've sold our Warsaw cars. Some people may say: "the lads have managed, there's nothing to pick on," so it will be easier for us to negotiate with our future investors.
Photographs: Tomasz Walków
