Ikarus 66 - Rear View

Front view

Built in 1971 for the German Democratic Republic (East-Germany)
Restored: sometime in the 90's (I guess)
Nickname: "Bözsi" (Lizzy in English*) or "Faros" (can be translated to "Rumpy" or something else in association with the term rear)**

The Ikarus 55 and 66 type buses - manufactured between 1953 and 72 - are legendary in former socialist countries - mostly in Hungary (duh...) and East-Germany. Thankfully a lot of them were saved and well preserved for younger generations.

However, the bus above is not a 55, but a 66, which means it has two folding doors (very common feature on East-German Ikaruses) instead of one, regular door. Plus it was never intended to run on Hungarian roads, as it served in East-Germany as an intercity coach. When it went out of service, it was brought back to Hungary and instantly became the only Ikarus 66 in its origin country. As you can see, it has a brown painting, which was the common color of almost every single Hungarian coach company before 1989.

This picture shows us two things: 1) why the bus is nicknamed Faros/Rumpy 2) the Rába manufactured engine.

*Bözsi is the nickname of Erzsébet, which is Elizabeth in English. And Elizabeth is nicknamed Lizzy. There, explanation.

Picture taken on April 18, 2009 in the Magyar Vasúttörténeti Park (Hungarian Railway Museum), East-Central Europe's largest railway museum
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