The story
History
The first plan was British. By the account John Meadows gave in 2012, relations between Egypt and Britain were improving in 1959, and Raymond Flower, formerly of the Cairo Motor Company, was approached about building Friskys in Egypt. President Nasser inspected a red FriskySport and approved it with changes: shaft drive in place of the chain, a longer body for more passengers, and the name The Ramses. Arabesque scrolls replaced the Frisky badges.source 3 Egypt’s Minister of Commerce, Dr Mohammed Nasr, visited the Frisky works and met Henry Stone; 25 cars were shipped to Alexandria for the celebrations of 23 July 1959, and a Ramses was shown in Liberation Square in Cairo. The first order was for the parts of 10,000 cars over two years, and a site of 100 acres was set aside near the pyramids.source 3
Then the British government refused the export licence. Egypt had been slow to free British property, and the President of the Board of Trade, in Meadows’s words, played tit for tat; Derek Flower went to see him, in vain.source 3 The Register of Unusual Microcars tells the same story of Nasser’s interest and the British veto, and dates it to late 1958.source 4
NSU, and the pyramids
The Egyptians turned to West Germany. In the spring of 1960 their representatives negotiated at Neckarsulm, and in June the first parts came from NSU; Audi, NSU’s successor, sets the deal in Egypt’s plan to build its prosperity and rely less on imports.source 1 Under a licence to supply and assemble, NSU sent complete Prinz floorpans with their engines, gearboxes and suspension (see built under licence).source 1source 2
The company behind the car was the Egyptian Automotive Company, founded in 1958 on Nasser’s orders by the account of Linz and Schrader and of Georgano, though English Wikipedia dates the state company to 1960. Its subsidiary, the Egyptian Light Transport Manufacturing Company, or Eltramco, held the NSU licence.source 2source 5source 1 The engineer George Hawi and the air-force officer Essam Abu el Ela were central to founding it, and its chief engineer was Mohammed Wali.source 2 In May 1961 the car was tried in the desert and approved for production.source 1 It was built, in Audi’s phrase, at the foot of the Giza pyramids. French Wikipedia places it at Helwan, probably confusing it with the El Nasr company’s plant there.source 1source 6source 5
Three or four a day
There were no body presses. The bodies and interiors were made by hand, often only three or four cars a day by Audi’s account, five or six by Egyptian Streets’.source 1source 5source 6 The government’s target was 10,000 a year; the best year, 1964, made 400, by Georgano’s count, and about 1,700 had been built by 1965.source 1source 7source 2 It was sold as the first Arab car.source 1source 5
The bodies changed as the years went on. The first differed from NSU’s own. From 1962 the saloon used the Prinz 4 body with a changed front; from 1963 the multi-purpose car gained doors; the cabriolet ended in 1965; from 1967, by Linz and Schrader’s account, there was a more angular body of the factory’s own, and from 1971, by Georgano’s, a four-door saloon.source 2 Beside the saloon came the Gamila, a sporting car styled by Vignale, which Georgano lists as a two-door saloon and a cabriolet; the Utilica, a doorless multi-purpose car in the manner of the Citroën Méhari; official cars; a pickup for the post office; and an off-roader for the army.source 2source 1
The end
Demand was high at first, but hand-building brought quality problems, and by the early 1970s the Ramses could not match imported cars on price or reliability; in 1972 the El Nasr company turned to Fiat licences.source 5 The Ramses business was absorbed into the El Nasr group.source 2source 6source 5 In July 1973 the Prinz 4 went out of production at Neckarsulm, the licence lapsed, and the Ramses ended with it.source 1 In 2023 Audi made it an episode of its series for NSU’s 150th anniversary.source 1
