Melkus was a marque of single seat racing cars and sport cars founded by the race driver Heinz Melkus in Dresden in East Germany. The company existed between 1959 and 1986. The cars used engines from Wartburgs and much of the other parts came from Wartburgs and Trabants. The racing cars competed in Formula III, Formula Junior and Formula E.
The only road going car the company produced was the Melkus RS 1000. It was a sleek sports car powered by a tuned mid-mounted Wartburg 3-cylinder 2-stroke engine. Most of the cars used the 992 cc version, but some of the later cars had the 1200 cc version. It had gullwing doors. 101 cars were made.
The company stopped making cars in 1986. In the early 1990s, Heinz Melkus and his family started running a BMW dealership in Dresden.
In December 2006, Melkus engineering - a German company owned by Peter Melkus, son of Heinz Melkus, announced that it will re-launch the production of Melkus RS 1000[1] sports car. There are far gone plans to launch an updated version of the RS 1000 as well as a new design called the Melkus RS 2000. It will be powered by either an Opel engine or a 150 to 200 hp Volkswagen turbo engine.[2] There is also talk about a GT model with 300 hp.[3]
The new Melkus RS2000 premiered at the Frankfurt International Motor Show 2009.[4]