Military Fiat 126p

The military version of the Fiat 126p was derived from a small passenger car. In the collection it represents a use different from family journeys or commuting. The Maluch remained its basis, but the customer for this version was a military institution. It was prepared for the British Army, rather than being a standard Polish military vehicle or an ordinary civilian car with a military nickname. The overseas customer is an important part of its identity.

Fewer than twenty were made, in a batch numbering in the teens. This was a small batch, quite separate from the large-scale production of civilian 126p cars. The modest number helps explain why this version is less familiar than the cars once seen throughout Poland.

Between 1973 and 2000, Polish factories produced more than 3.3 million Fiat 126p cars. Bielsko-Biała and Tychy manufactured the model on a vast scale; the military version was a numerically small episode in that history. The contrast is between a mass-market passenger car and a special batch intended for one customer.