Romania’s first four-wheel drive was not a Romanian design. The IMS-57 took the chassis and the 3,260 cc side-valve engine of the GAZ-67 and the body of the GAZ-69, and was named for the works that made it — Întreprinderea Metalurgică de Stat — and the year. Fewer than a thousand were built, most of them by hand.
The M461 that followed in 1964 was the same vehicle made properly: a new 2,512 cc engine of 70 hp, redesigned mechanicals and a finish that could be sold abroad. Export began in 1965 to China and Colombia, and by 1975 more than half the eighty thousand built had left Romania. About 3,000 are still running there.
IMS-57 and M59 (1957–1963)
2 VEHICLES IN THIS CHAPTERThe licensed GAZ, handbuilt at first: 914 IMS-57s, then 3,222 M59s with 56 hp and electric wipers.
Registry records · chapter 1
M461 (1964–1975)
1 VEHICLE IN THIS CHAPTERThe definitive version: 80,233 built, 46,549 exported, and rally wins in Belgium in 1970 and Oregon in 1973.
Registry records · chapter 2
Base models
The structural configurations the registry and the Creator build from; each page carries the researched specification.Sources
- ARO M461 — Wikipedia
- ARO (company) — Wikipedia