The Dartz Motorz Company is a crazy car manufacturer from Latvia and is regularly and invariably in the news in a controversial way. In its marketing communications and product names, the company remarkably often refers to the history of the Russian car industry, so let’s do that too.
If it were up to Dartz founder Leonard F. Yankelovich, the connection between his country and the immense neighbor is still very much alive many decades after the Soviet Union. Dartz therefore profiles himself as the builder of “Bullet-resistant opulent cars, trusted by billionaires, tsars, superstars, generals and dictators”.
It does that with a big wink, because Dartz certainly does not take herself too seriously. The clear link with Russia undoubtedly has to do with the potential clientele for the ridiculously opulent Prombron, but certainly also with Dartz’s history.
That seems strange. Dartz has only existed since 2008 and is a typical product of our time with its muddy SUVs and options that are as lavish as gaudy (whale penis leather) and ridiculous engine power (1,500 hp).
Terrifying
Still, the haunting logo of the brand shows a completely different date: 1869. That is the year in which Russo-Balt (or Russo-Baltique) was founded, a vehicle manufacturer that started building cars from 1909 onwards. It did so in a factory in the current Latvian capital of Riga, then part of the Russian Empire. Dartz now builds its monstrous high-legged animals in the same factory and that history is only too happy to put forward by the brand.
A 1909 Russo-Baltique
Yakovlev Freze
Russo-Balt came early as a car builder, but is not responsible for Russia’s first car. That honor goes to the Yakovlev Freze from 1896 (photo 1), eleven years after the appearance of the Benz Patent Motor Car, which is known as the first car with a combustion engine.
The Yakovlev Freze is so called because it is the result of a collaboration between coach (work) builder Pyotr Freze and engine builder Yakovlev. Just like the later Benz Velo and unlike the first Motorwagen, the first Russian car was already a real four-wheeler, although the visual connection with a horse-drawn carriage is logically greater than that with a modern car. A motor with 1.5 hp delivered a top speed of over 20 km / h, quite a bit faster than running.
FreZe Nikrob EV
Electric
However, Pyotr Freze is not only responsible for the first Russian car, but also for the first electric Russian car. At the beginning of the 19th century, this talented engineer was already experimenting with battery-electric propulsion for ‘cars’, just like many other early car builders. Freze’s experiments led, among other things, to the production of trolley-bus-like vehicles that served, among other things, for the fire brigade.
It is precisely this second period of car production under Pyotr Freze that led to the name of the latest Dartz product. Dartz apparently does not like to see his own name associated with a miniscule electric city car that is being built at Nirkob in Lithuania, but thinks the name ‘Freze Nikrob EV’ is very appropriate. We now too.
Source: forpost-sz.ru