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"Faros" Ikarus - A New Piece Acquired

On the 1st December 2016, the renewing Museum of Transport has acquired a new piece, an Ikarus 66 (a so called "Faros") bus. The vehicle fills a niche since the collection of the museum was in lack of those pieces of the Ikarus factory which were manufactured in great numbers.

According to the plans, after the restoration of the vehicle, it will be one of the most significant objects of the new permanent exhibition, which will open in the renewing Museum of Transport. It will exhibit the successful and popular bus type of our national bus production, which has a unique design.

“We managed to rescue an important item of our national history transport. This is probably the most popular and most beautiful Hungarian bus type ever which will be renovated for the new Museum of Transport” – said Dávid Vitézy, general director of the Museum of Transport about acquiring one of the few remaining legendary “Faros” buses.

The bus, which has the engine in its bottom and got its name, Faros (meaning ‘with bottom’) after it, was a bus type in Hungary produced in the greatest volume before the production of the bus type Ikarus 200. The factory, as a result of a successful and partly secret design work started at the beginning of the 1950s, sold not less than 9259 Ikarus 66 buses in Hungary and in many other countries until 1973. Hence this type was well-known in the German Democratic Republic, in Poland and in Kuvait. Even in Egypt and in China these buses were at service.

In Hungary, mainly in the countryside and in local public transport, more than 2700 were at service, and until 1980 no other bus type managed to overcome the number of Ikarus 66 buses running on the streets. The “Faros” was the most typical, the most modern, the most comfortable and the fastest bus on the roads of Hungary for two decades.

The vehicle of the Museum of Transport is the sub-type Ikarus 66.62, which is one of the last ten “Faros”buses produced in the factory. It was put into operation by Volán Ltd N14 in Székesfehérvár on 3rd April 1973 as one of the last Ikarus 66 buses. In the end of the 1970s it ran by the factory of Mezőgép in Eger, then it served as the bus of the School of Special Education and Foster Home until 16th March 1983, when it was withdrawn from service. Every essential part of the vehicle, including its engine and instrument panel were safely preserved.

The renewing Museum of Transport feels that it is its important mission and task to preserve the heritage of Ikarus, which used to be a successful national bus factory during the course of history of transport and of vehicle design in Hungary. After its full restoration, the popular and emblematic “Faros”will be part of the new permanent exhibition of the renewing Museum of Transport.