2nd revolution; Etox Zafer

In 1961, 1 year after the infamous May 27 Coup-d'etat which changed the young democratic country to a semi-fascist, elitist republic, General Cemal Gürsel ordered 24 engineers working in various companies, to build a car for the use of the Turkish Armed Forces. The time given to the engineers was very short; (5 months) and after all General Gursel was the man who had ordered the executions of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, who is/was the most popular ever Turkish PM alongside Minister of Foreign Affairs Fatin Rü_tü Zorlu and Minister of Finance Hasan Polatkan .The engineers were ordered to make the car ready to be demonstrated during the Republican Day celebrations on October 29, 1961.

After four and a half months of hasty labour in the workshop, Turkish engineers managed to make four prototypes of the automobile. One was black, and the others were cream. It was named Devrim (the Turkish word for Revolution). Although most nationalists would love the popular conspiracy theory about the failure of mass production that the American auto giants, who sold most of the cars in Turkey, had approached the Turkish government to cancel the project, and it was decided to keep the relations smooth between the two close NATO allies. The reality is the Army was not interested in running a factory or building an industry at the time, all they were concerned was to present a car to the crowds to prove their anti-democratic "Revolution" came with its benefits too. Devrim never got to make it to serial production.

GM, Opel, Ford, Toyota, Fiat, Renault, Mercedes all have factories in Turkey. Turkey is the biggest commercial vehicle manufacturer in Europe but the fact remained although 46 years had elapsed after the introduction of Turkey's first car product Devrim, Turkish automotive industry has not been able to introduce a national car brand into the global automotive sector.

Even Southern Korea, through her many brands, has achieved a position to lead the whole global automotive sector. Within a sector wherein we had no right to speak, we have continued to commend each other for many years those cars which became our property after importing them.

Concerned automotive tycoon Ercan Malkoc launched the all-Turkish ETOX in 2007. After testing and surveying among hundreds of prototypes, 46 engineers have been employed during the total working course of 14 months. The latest prototype was created by 46 Turkish engineers in 2 years. The 100,000 kilometer quality tests of the Etox Zafer were completed in 2007.

All latest technology the current automotive sector have been applied during the course of the project. Starting from the designer and engineer and going further to the experienced and skilled staff that took place in this project, only Turkish staff was employed in this process.

ETOX cars are designed as family-sports car which makes it a very unique car. The car also comes with optional turbo-diesel engine and generous luggage capacity. An all-sports version with a more powerful engine and ergonomic design is also offered.

The Etox Zafer costs between 85,000 and 150,000 YTL (50,000 and 88,000 USD) depending on the model and engine type.