Many of you are probably wondering why a car is among the exhibits of the Aviation Museum. Who put it there? Why? After all, there are other museums with a profile strictly related to motoring, where such an exhibit would be an appropriate addition to the collection. However, the DKW-SAM is not an ordinary car. Thanks to its creator and the design solutions used, it is deeply rooted in aviation.
Its history began in the 1950s in Bielsko-Biala, a city with very rich aviation traditions. It was here in 1948 that the car’s builder, Wladyslaw Okarmus, started working at the Glider Experimental Workshop (SWD). This figure has gone down in the history of Polish and world aviation as one of the most outstanding glider designers. The designs from his hand, belonging to the Foka, Cobra and Jantar families, set national and world records and also successfully competed in international competitions.
In the times when Okarmus was beginning his professional career, private motoring in Poland was still treated as a necessary evil. Simply purchasing a vehicle was quite a challenge, not only because of the prices but also their limited, often artificially restricted, availability. It was relatively easiest to become a motorcycle owner. When it came to dreams of owning a car, the obstacles were so great that many people decided to build a vehicle themselves, using their own ideas and whatever parts they could obtain. Interestingly, the only automotive magazine published at the time, “Motor”, actively encouraged enthusiasts to engage in such activities by organising competitions for the best amateur-built vehicle under the banner “Motor Amateur Car”. It was this path that Wladyslaw Okarmus chose to follow.
The DKW-SAM project was developed on the SWD premises alongside work on gliders. Construction began in the early 1960s. The pre-war DKW F8 served as the donor of mechanical components, from which the frame, complete suspension and drivetrain were adapted, among other things. For the body construction, the designer decided to use technologies and, above all, his own experience from the aviation industry.
The car was given the shape of a two-door coupe with highly aerodynamic lines to make the best possible use of the mere 20 hp delivered by the small two-cylinder, two-stroke engine. A trained eye will spot elements adapted from the Syrena, among others, but the vast majority of the body was built from scratch using the epoxy-glass laminate familiar from gliders, concealing a lightweight steel structure underneath. To further reduce the vehicle’s weight, the floor panels were made from duralumin sheet, widely used in aviation.
Work on building the car lasted nearly a decade. During that time, Wladyslaw Okarmus improved and modified the design, as evidenced by the equipment elements sourced from vehicles available at the time — the Skoda Octavia Super, Wartburg 311, Jawa Perak, and finally the Polski Fiat 125p. However, the DKW-SAM received its final form only in the 1980s, when a drivetrain with an engine of nearly twice the power was installed, along with front suspension, brake system components and wheel discs from the Model 96 of the Swedish SAAB brand, which has very strong ties to aviation.
After the designer’s death, the car became the property of his daughter, Grazyna Okarmus-Gogala. In 2009, it was acquired by collector Jacek Kowalewicz, who carried out its restoration. The Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow acquired this unique vehicle in 2023, thanks to funding from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the state budget, as part of the National Museum Institute’s own programme “Expanding Museum Collections”. After the Buick Riviera belonging to General Donald Kutyna, this is the second passenger car that can be seen in the permanent exhibitions of our Museum, whose history is intertwined with aviation.
