12. David Pajić Daka – Prvenac
If you think about the Yugoslavian car industry, the first car that probably comes to mind is the Yugo, a small compact car from the 1980s. They based it on the Fiat 127, which they sold all over Europe and America. People often called it “the worst car ever,” because the Yugo was not impressive to look at. But it was affordable, simple and usable, which was good enough for most customers in Yugoslavia and abroad.
However, those Yugoslav engineers had some interesting ideas that never received proper attention. And one such project was the Prvenac, which means, “the first one, or the firstborn.” The elevator company, David Pajić Daka, produced it in 1958. They envisioned a small, two-seater city car that featured a strange but usable wheel configuration.
The car had four wheels, but they arranged them in a strange way. It has one wheel in the front and one wheel in the back, with two wheels on the sides of the car. However, this layout provided the Prvenac with unbelievable maneuverability. In fact, this car could parallel park with ease and precision.
They updated the road performance with a 250-cc gasoline engine. Also, the Prvenac delivered decent performance for the period. Unfortunately, they only produced one prototype, which has disappeared since. They never allowed for mass production, which is strange since the car was ready for full production and quite inexpensive to build.