The Story of the Devrim Arabası

On our way back from Sazova, we made a quick stop to show Deniz the only remaining prototype of a car that has a bittersweet story.

Back in 1961, the first Turkish-designed and Turkish-produced car — Devrim (which translates as revolution) — was built in Eskişehir. It took 24 engineers 130 days to build four prototypes of the car at the TÜLOMSAŞ facility where locomotives and train cars were built.

Two of these cars — one cream colored and the other black — were shipped to Ankara to be officially unveiled during the Republic Day celebrations. As a safety precaution, neither vehicle had much gas in its tank during the transfer from Eskişehir.

On arrival in Ankara, the gas tank of the cream colored car was filled. But in the confusion caused by a tight schedule, the President got in the black car, which had yet to be topped off. The car traveled some 100 meters before it ran out of gas and stopped. The President switched over to the cream colored car and traveled to Anıtkabir, Atatürk’s mausoleum, for the official ceremonies.

Later, joined by the black car, both vehicles completed their ceremonial runs without further mishap. Alas, the damage was done as the newspaper headlines the next day read … “Devrim traveled 100 meters and broke down!”

The car was never mass produced. Some say this was due to lack of documentation for the production process. Others say it was because there was limited demand for cars back in 1961. Either way … it was a bittersweet accomplishment for the Turkish automotive industry.Read more