The vehicle presented is the newest development variant of the Polish off-road Honker vehicle, which has been manufactured since 1988 mostly for the purposes of the military.
Work on the first Polish off-road truck began in the late 1970s. The prototypes and trial runs prepared the ground for mass production, which was launched in 1988 in the Fabryka Samochodów Rolniczych in Poznań under the name Tarpan 4011. In subsequent development stages the truck’s name was changed to Honker; a name derived from the codename of the Polish attack on Monte Cassino during World War II – in English it means the call of wild geese.
In contrast to the basic Honker 4×4 model, which was mostly produced for the military, the pickup truck was intended predominantly for the civilian market. The prototype built in 2009-2010 differs from the mass produced Honker 4×4 not only in body shape and dimensions, but also in the luxury elements used in its interior, including leather upholstery. As part of the promotional campaign, the vehicle presented here took part in the expedition from Lublin to El Aaiún in Morocco. It travelled tens of thousands of kilometres, a large part of the route being off-road in the Sahara Desert and the Atlas Mountains.
The prototype Honker 4×4 pick-up truck has a body-on-frame structure and a steel body. A turbocharged diesel engine drives both axles with differential locks via a five-speed gearbox with a reduction gear. The brake system is a dual circuit arrangement with a booster – it is fitted with front disc brakes and rear drum brakes. The front and rear suspension is on leaf springs, and vibrations are damped by hydraulic telescopic dampers.
This vehicle variant did not go into mass production as the Fabryka Samochodów Honker found itself in financial difficulties. For this reason, the unit presented here is the only one in existence.
Some of the solutions implemented in the prototype presented here made their way to mass-produced vehicles, e.g., the electronically controlled gearbox made in Korea (KIA).