Nostalgia Sunday – Sussita and Sabra

January 3, 2010 - 10:25 PM by Rachel Neiman · 2 Comments
Filed under: General, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture 

Israel has launched a local version of Cash for Clunkers. According to Haaretz, “The Environmental Protection Ministry this weekend began the first phase of its plan to get old gas-guzzlers off the country’s roads by paying the owners for their wrecks. The first car-composting lot opened in Ashdod on Friday; new sites are planned to open across the country over the next few months. Anyone who turns in a vehicle over 20 years old – after verifying ownership at the Licensing Department, of course – will be given NIS 3,000 in exchange… Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan expects the program to rid the streets of thousands of fuel-inefficient, polluting and unsafe older vehicles each year.”

Getting rid of the unsafe and polluting is a worthy goal (though, quite frankly, there are no few sparkling new Hummers, Jeeps and SUVs that could also fit the bill) but it also means that the few Sussitas still tootling down Israel’s highways will soon find themselves in Tefen’s Classic Automobile Collection — if they’re lucky.

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The Sussita lays claim to being the first automobile manufactured in Israel in 3,000 years of Jewish history – and one of the first in human history to boast a molded fiberglass body. There’s quite a lot of information online about the Sussita as well as several fan sites devoted to the Sussita’s sexy cousin, the Sabra or Sabre sports car.

sussita_3

So here’s the gist of it, according to the Cartype blog: “Autocars; Israel; 1958-1975 – Autocars (Sabra) of Haifa, Israel, was founded in the 1950s as Israel’s first car manufacturer… In 1960, Yitzhak Shubinsky launched an Israeli-made car at the autoshow in New York. In 1961, at the New York Autoshow, the first Sabras were introduced. Reliant produced the first 100 cars. Their VIN-plates read “AUTOCARS COMPANY LIMITED HAIFA ISRAEL”, though they were actually made in the UK. The rest of the cars were produced in Israel, but only 41 of those were exported to the USA.”

Sussita

In other words, within just a few years of statehood, Israel was making cars. According to car site AROnline, “Autocars Co. Ltd started out assembling Reliant three-wheelers at its Haifa workshops, and later introduced a four-wheeled version of the Reliant Regent van. The company’s first model of its own, the Sussita, was also designed by Reliant. Available in estate, van and pick-up versions, the Sussita was powered by the Ford Anglia 105E’s 1000cc engine and was initially exported from the UK in CKD form for assembly at the Autocars plant, although production was later undertaken entirely in Israel. The Sussita quickly became Israel’s best-selling model, earning itself a reputation as a basic but dependable workhorse (indeed, “Sussita” is the Aramaic word for mare).”

sabra_ad

“Best selling” is a bit of a misstatement, as ordinary Israeli citizens couldn’t really afford cars in those days, but Israel’s armed forces and other large organizations did their bit by purchasing fleets of Sussitas. Bus cooperative Egged, purchased them for their garage managers in the early Seventies, and a few “old mares” are on display at the Egged Bus Museum and at the Israel Airforce Museum.

And then came the 1960 New York Motor Show where 600 orders were placed for the Sussita — under its export brand name the Sabra — mainly because of the low price tag.

Meanwhile, the ever-enterprising Itzhak Shubinsky, writes AROnline, “spotted a coupé called the Ashley GT at the London Sports and Racing Car Show, and decided that it was just what he needed to gain a proper foothold in the potentially lucrative US car market. He promptly bought the design – and the moulds required to produce its bodywork – and gave Reliant the task of re-engineering it for sale in the US. What emerged was the Sabra Sport, which debuted at the 1961 New York Motor Show in roadster form, but was later also available with hardtop coupé and fastback bodywork.” Again understand: within one year, Shubinsky had launched a fiberglass bodied sports car, the Sabra (later renamed the Sabre).

sabra_sport

It would be understatement to say that the Sabra’s quality didn’t meet American standards, despite promises that the could go from zero to 115mph “extremely rapidly” and “without special options”, as promised in this press release:

sabra_PR

Sadly, the car didn’t sell well. In fact, you might call it the Yugo of its day. Israelis weren’t too fond of it either although there are so many online accounts about Sussitas being chomped on on by camels and goats that one begins to think this is urban legend or remnants of vicious rumors spread by the Ford and Peugeot importers who, by the way, eventually won those lucrative military contracts away from Sussita. Hmmm…

sabra_green

Autocars encountered financial difficulties in the early 60s (a long and complicated story) and became a subsidiary of Leyland-Triumph in 1965, after which the entire range was refitted with Triumph components. During this period Autocar entered into some interesting projects, such as the Dragoon, a Triumph 1300-based [front-wheel-drive] off-road utility vehicle. And after a merger between Leyland and BMH, Autocars, together with UK-based Marcos Cars were charged with developing a plastic-bodied version of the Mini which reached the crash test stage before it was canceled.

The end wasn’t a happy one. Shubinsky was forced to resign in 1971, Autocars was sold to Rom Carmel Industries in 1974, and sold once more in 1978 to Urdan Industries. The company continued operations and in its last full year of production delivered only 540 cars, from 3,000 in its heyday.

So where can one see Sussitas and Sabras today? They occasionally turn up on Ebay – or at least some wonderful brochures do. And it’s always worth visiting the Classic Automobile Collection at the Tefen Industrial Park adjacent to the Open Museum of Israeli Art.

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Israel trumps Detroit?

December 14, 2008 - 3:45 PM by Harry · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, Environment 

For the second time this year (the first being in July) influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman mentioned Shai Agassi’s ambitious company Better Place. Better Place aims to build an electric car network that helps the world lower their dependency on oil. Israel jumped on the bandwagon early and recharging stations are being built as we speak.

The water locked islands of Hawaii recently signed to create the network in their state. Hawaii’s signing by Gov. Linda Lingle servers two purposes. The first is helping the state meet its goal of slashing fossil fuel use 70 percent by 2030, the second being a showcase of sorts for the electric car to the millions of tourists who visit Hawaii every year.

“If we can get them into electric cars when they rent, we do two great things,” Agassi said. “One, we avoid emissions and, two, we use the opportunity to educate them, to teach them in Hawaii how it needs to be done in the rest of the world.”

Friedman also said column said something that really resonated with me and I’m sure will likely resonate with many of my generation.

…our bailout of Detroit will be remembered as the equivalent of pouring billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the mail-order-catalogue business on the eve of the birth of eBay. It will be remembered as pouring billions of dollars into the CD music business on the eve of the birth of the iPod and iTunes. It will be remembered as pouring billions of dollars into a book-store chain on the eve of the birth of Amazon.com and the Kindle. It will be remembered as pouring billions of dollars into improving typewriters on the eve of the birth of the PC and the Internet.

That’s exactly it. Friedman completely nails it. Detroit is a dinosaur refusing to change, giving only cursory nods to the way of the cleaner automobile. Get on the train or get run over. I don’t believe pumping money into Detroit is necessarily a bad idea, it’s where the money is going that is the bad idea. If the money is just to keep the companies afloat so they can produce their same gas guzzling vehicles, then no, the government shouldn’t bail them out. If the money is going to be invested in the industry to help produce more gas efficient vehicles that will help alleviate the grip of foreign oil then I am certainly game.

Back to Better Place’s role in Israel. The “pay as you go” model of leasing has serious legs to stand on here. When I heard Agassi speak over the summer I brought up the issue of the outrageous taxes on automobile purchases here and whether the electric car will be accessible to “Israel Israeli.” He explained to me that President Clinton said to him that his plan will only succeed when Joe Sixpack, the guy who just buys cheap clunkers gets interested. It was at that point that Agassi developed his “subscription” model. Users (I think we should call them such just because it sounds cooler) will have the option to either buy or lease a car and then “buy miles” much like we buy minutes for our cellphones.

And Shai, I know I asked you after I heard you speak over the summer to be beta tester. Offer still stands. We can use a new car.

Image of Shai Agassi courtesy of Viernest from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

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