The Ramses

[barrett]

(Note - this is an article I wrote recently for Autoshite.com, I have simply 'cut and pasted' the entire thing in here including picture links. If you are having trouble seeing the photos please let me know and I will repost them in the conventional manner - S.B)


Ramses brochure, c.1966

The Ramses, Egypt's first car

To describe the Egyptian car industry without making a lighthearted reference to Egypt's more traditional form of mass transportation is nearly impossible. However you try to avoid the tired stereotypes of wandering Arabs traversing the deserts on camels, you can't help but accept the fact that what the Egyptian population needed from a family car in the 1950s assumed many of the characteristics of that faithful beast, namely reliability, ruggedness, strength and great fuel consumption. Comfort for the occupants would follow tradition and be low on the list of priorities.
It was with these criteria in mind that Captain Raymond Flower,the English owner of the Cairo Motor Co Ltd, the Egyptian Morris agents, approached new President Gamal Abdel Nasser with the view to building a small affordable peoples car.
Nasser had taken power in 1956 and quickly started a campaign of modernisation in Egypt, in which Flower hoped to play a major role. He had previously attempted to kickstart a motor industry in Egypt with a Lister-based sportscar called the Phoenix 2SR6, which he planned to race at  Reims under the auspices of an offical Egyptian racing team. The project fell flat, but not before Flower had presented another, more powerful racer called the SR150 that never made it beyond the mock-up stage.
What Flower hadn't counted on was the strong anti-colonial sentiments of the new president, and in 1956 Nasser nationalised the Suez canal, and the English population mostly fled to escape the tension on the streets of Cairo. Flower, along with his brothers, returned to England and set to work producing the car with backing from Henry Meadows, and it became the Meadows-Frisky. The very same events that led to Flower abandoning his dream of an Egyptian people's car were also the cause of the Frisky's success in the UK, as demand for small economy cars rocketed in the wake of the Suez crisis.


Captain Flower sits in the Phoenix 2SR6 prototype, 1955


Car was attractive, but underpowered, using a Triumph engine


Pheonix SR150 was to use a 1.5 litre engine and race at Le Mans, but never made it beyond this mock-up

In Egypt, the project to build an Egyptian peoples car had begun in earnest without Meadows, but adhering strongly to his specifications. The car was christened 'Ramses' and some early prototypes were built that looked almost identical to the English Frisky. Unfortunately, the Egyptians had neither the technical know-how or manufacturing capacity to productionise the car, and the project stalled.
Around 1959, German car and motorcycle manufacturer NSU agreed to a joint German-Egyptian venture to produce a car, using the basic mechanical design of it's popular Prinz model, and in 1960 the Egyptian Light Transport Manufacturing Company set up a factory beside the Giza pyramids and set about building the first ever car designed and built in an Arab nation.
The result was the Ramses Ultilica, an open jeep-like vehicle similar in style to the Mini Moke or Citroen Mehari. Ground clearance was negligible and 2WD can't have helped it's success in the sand dunes. The rather severe styling, made up entirely of straight lines and jutting angles, was a product of the nascent industrial climate, as the factory lacked all but the most basic presses and tools. The car was totally hand assembled and production trickled along for a couple of years, with only a handful produced each day.


Early Ramses prototype on the streets of Cairo



Utilica brochure showing the crude sidescreens and hood arrangement


The Ramses factory, handbuilding Utilicas was a labour-intensive process

Despite the mini-Jeep looks, the Utilica was far from a practical family car either in the desert or the cities of Egypt, and in 1963 a new model was launched, borrowing even more from the Prinz, even retaining it's shrunken Corvair looks, but with a pointless and very ugly dummy grille at the front. The car was a much bigger success than the utilica, but demand was still small and only about 300 were built in 2 years. Motive power came from a rear-mounted 600cc engine producing a whopping 36hp. Monocoque construction, IFS and a curb weight of just 680kg made the car a practical choice for the unpaved roads or Egypt.


The First incarnation of the Ramses saloon

The standard saloon was joined by a strange pick-up variation, the practicality of which must have been severely limited by the rear engine, and a small convertible called the Gamila. This was designed by Michelotti whilst working at Vignale, and when viewed from the rear it could almost be a chic Italian Fiat-based car, but at the front the dummy grille of the saloon grew even more ridiculous and any semblance of style was lost.
One wonders if this styling quirk was forced on Michelotti by the factory, as it's hard to see how he could've been happy with the finished result.
Unsurprisingly, the Gamila only made up a small handful of total Ramses sales. At a time when few people could afford even a basic car, it's no surprise even fewer were prepared to pay even more for this odd contraption that lacked all of the practical qualities of the standard saloon.



Vignale's Gamila was hardly a beauty

1965 saw the Ramses given a minor restyle, with the grille now less intrusive and looking even more like it's German cousin, but the major change came one year later when Egyptian designer Abdel Wahed completely restyled the car, going some way to disguise it's origins but bizarrely now looking like the Russian ZAZ, which of course was also based on the NSU design.


The final version of the Ramses, seen together in modern-day Cairo

Despite the new bodywork, demand for the Ramses was falling fast and the car sold less each year. The plug was finally pulled in 1969, total production for all Ramses was probably less than 1500 units.
Somewhere along the line, the Ramses name was revived and a mysterious 4 door prototype was shown to the press in 1972. Exhibiting a modern, clean design and apparently front-engined, for unknown reasons the car never made it to production and this details about the project are now almost nonexistent.
Whatever the reason the Ramses name never reappeared, it's fate was sealed in 1973 when the factory was taken over by a company assembling CKD Fiats, which became instantly popular along with other foreign-designed, locally built cars.


The abortive 'big' Ramses prototype had Opel and Moskvitch overtones

Today the Ramses is almost unknown outside of it's homeland, and derided within. A small band of hardy enthusiasts still run Ramses cars but Egypt is a long way from having a classic car scene, and it seems inevitable that the few remaining cars will expire long before the general public can appreciate the importance of the strange little car, that really did have all the best attributes of that 'other' Egyptian form of transport

[Ultra]

 

[Allemano]

Love the ad of the initial post!

Let me add a rear angle of the Vignale Ramses:

[Otto Puzzell]

Very interesting! Thanks for a great article, barrett.

[Limo]

looks very familiar to my article.
I recognise the pictures i scanned and edited in photoshop...

http://www.limozine.nl/garage/garage.html

It seems translated from my dutch article.
Where else could you find all the same names, facts and production numbers?
It took me sooooo many weeks to do the research, buy old magazines via ebay etc.
I found a lot of sources everywhere.
So, that's how it works when you publish on the internet...

[Ultra]

Nice article, limo. Keep 'em coming.

Seriously though, is their any remedy you would like me to employ here?

[barrett]

looks very familiar to my article.
I recognise the pictures i scanned and edited in photoshop...

http://www.limozine.nl/garage/garage.html

It seems translated from my dutch article.
Where else could you find all the same names, facts and production numbers?
It took me sooooo many weeks to do the research, buy old magazines via ebay etc.
I found a lot of sources everywhere.
So, that's how it works when you publish on the internet...

You're right, some photos and the production figures I took from that article. Sorry for not giving credit. I took the photos from many different places over the last couple of years, some from autopuzzles itself, some from other sites. I have one book that goes into a fair amount of detail concerning the construction and production history of the car, including a couple of pictures. The Flowers connection is well-known and I recently did a write-up on the Anzani Astra/ Meadows Frisky connection which reminded me of the Frisky's origins in Egypt, so I searched for information on the Ramses and couldn't find any in English so decided to write this.

If you're accusing me of plagarism, which you appear to be, I resent that as I also spent a long time going through various sources and pooling information together for my piece (including a very boring day reading about Egypts political history). As far as I know, the photos, other than the ones of the factory and the Utilica brochure shots have all been floating about online long before your article was published.

I apologise if you feel cheated but that certainly wasn't my intention, but to claim I merely translated your article is not only wrong but also quite offensive. I think perhaps we should discuss this via PM instead of clogging up the forum with this sort of thing?

[Otto Puzzell]

It seems translated from my dutch article.

Comparing the articles, none of the text seems to be a direct translation. The general story is roughly the same, but then it should be, being an accounting of documented and anecdotal events that happened in and around this car company.

We'd love to see you to solve this amicably.

[Limo]

@ Otto Puzzell:
The problem is that my story was not an accounting of documented and anecdotal events!
That's how it is presented now.

The whole Raymond Flower thing for example: it has little to do with the Ramses story.
I only connected him to the story, to illustrate the right political context in which Egyptian motoring started.
I used a picture of a car which i personally interpreted as a possible ramses prototype, similar to frisky.
However, i didn't find any proof, it's my personal interpretation of history.

Now suddenly the Raymond Flower story is presented as a documented integral part of the Ramses history??
There is still a giant missing link between the story of Phoenix and the story of Ramses...

[Otto Puzzell]

Limo, I'm not choosing sides, or saying one of you is right, and the other wrong. As with most conflicts, I suspect there is a middle ground about which you and barret can agree.

As a matter of reference, and to add context, in 1972, Napoleon to Nasser: The Story of Modern Egypt By Raymond Flower, was published. The "About the Author Page":

[Limo]

@ Otto Puzzell

Great! thanks!
I knew Flower was involved, but there's is still this missing link, i filled in myself.
What i wrote about him was based on my inference, not an accounting of documents.
So, be aware of copying things as the truth.

Anyway, apalogies accepted, Barett.

[Arunas]

Nice article! Let me remind that we have a very rare Phoenix Flamebird here: http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=9555.0

[grobmotorix]

I´ve found some 1966 photos of the egyptian NSU production.

You can see (from top) :

- a NSU Prinz Pickup conversion  
- some Ramses convertibles waiting for completion in the egyptian sun
- the wheel shop...  

[Ashraf]

Hi barrett

I read your post about the Ramses car, thanks to you I bought the Ramses 4 door prototype which you post a picture for it, as I am going to start restore it, do you have other pictures or information about this car?

[barrett]

Hi Ashraf, welcome to Autopuzzles!

I'm really happy to see that the Ramses 4 door has survived and that someone is taking on the restoration. Unfortunately I don't have any other information about the car. The photo was found on this website (here - http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=10439.0) so maybe Allemano (who posted it originally) or one of our other members can help? Information about this car seems incredibly hard to come by. Are you based in Egypt? Perhaps tracking down somebody who worked in the Ramses factory at the time would be a good start?

I would love to see some more photos of your car, feel free to post as many as you can here! Good luck with the restoration and please keep us updated with your progress.

[grobmotorix]

I would love to see some more photos of your car, feel free to post as many as you can here! Good luck with the restoration and please keep us updated with your progress.

Dito!

[foxawy]

I bought the Ramses 4 door prototype which you post a picture for it, as I am going to start restore it, do you have other pictures or information about this car?

hi Arshraf , i like what you're doing , i knew a guy who restored  a few Ramses a while back , if u need my advice , stay away from the traditional places where u go to find old car's parts i.e.(el 7erafeyiin ,el wekala , gesr el ba7r) and u will have to manufacture most of the parts ur gonna need which is not a big prob in Egypt. anyway it's great what ur doing , and I'll be happy to provide any help.

[JonathanPoll]

Nice! There is a Frisky in our shed, we are moving it for a friend who moved down to France, we'll drop it off next time we pass.

There was an article all about the Ramses in the latest issue of RUMcars, not sure if you know the mag.

Shame they used the NSU chassis, I preferred the Frisky!

[DeAutogids]

On Autopuzzles recently a puzzle popped up of the Eltramco van, which was apparently sold in its early days as the Ramses as well. This van was based on Polizh "Zuk" design. I read in some old documents online that there have been other firms involved in Eltramco as well. Quite recently, the Lublin was to be made at Eltramco. Anybody knows more about the Ramses van?

[Oguerrerob]

Just adding a publication in original language