Classics Bid Farewell to the Season: Moto Szroty 2026 Season Finale in Sucha Beskidzka

Fiat 126p “maluchs”, Polonez, Warszawa and Nysa models, American land yachts, a century-old Ford Model T and motorcycles that remember our grandparents' days. On Sunday 11 October, the Municipal Market Square in Sucha Beskidzka, in southern Poland, once again turned into a motoring journey back in time. The Moto Szroty Association invited everyone to a gathering closing the 2026 season, and far more people came than anyone had expected.

A square bursting at the seams

Crews started rolling in at 10:00, with the official opening set for noon. All morning long, one car after another made its way onto the square.

Having welcomed around 350 cars at the spring season opener, the organisers prepared for 400 to 450 vehicles. By their own estimate, around 550 cars made it onto the square, and perhaps as many as a hundred more could not find a space. The association deliberately chose not to require registration so that anyone could turn up without formalities, and after the event it publicly apologised to everyone it was unable to fit in.

That is quite an achievement for a group that has been active online for less than a year. Moto Szroty started in the summer of 2025 as a grassroots crew of enthusiasts of vehicles from the communist era, from the Sucha and Wadowice districts. The October gathering was their second event on this scale.

From the Ford Model T to the Polonez

The line-up was wide-ranging. Next to the Fiat 126p, affectionately known in Poland as the maluch (“little one”), and the Fiat 125p stood Polonez, Warszawa, Żuk and Nysa models: the cars and vans the whole country once drove to work, on holiday and to market.

The East was strongly represented, with the Soviet Pobeda, Volga and UAZ vehicles, as well as East German Trabants and a Barkas. Many of them carry yellow number plates, which in Poland mark a registered historic vehicle.

From the West came, among others, a Ford Mustang, a Chevrolet Corvette, a Fiat 124 Spider and a Volkswagen Beetle, and one of the oldest guests was a Ford Model T, the car that put America on wheels more than a century ago.

There were also lorries, fire engines and campers. Some owners have turned their vehicles into homes on wheels, complete with a cooker and a table.

Some crews recreate history down to the smallest detail. The square even featured a patrol car of the Citizens' Militia, communist Poland's police force, complete with lettering, a beacon on the roof and old black number plates.

This was no museum exhibition. Some cars gleamed after restoration, while others proudly showed bare primer and the marks of time. From the very start, Moto Szroty has lived by one rule: what matters is passion, not the condition of the paintwork.

Two-wheelers had their place too: vintage motorcycles, Romet and Simson mopeds, and folding Wigry bicycles that a whole generation grew up riding.

The Grinch, the Flintstones and a wheel of fortune

The gathering was also about atmosphere. The organisers' stand was decorated in the style of communist-era Poland, with a Neptun TV set, a period radio and a rug with a characteristic pattern.

Next to it, a prize wheel of fortune kept spinning all day.

Some participants came in costume. The Grinch posed next to a blue Fiat 126p with a roof rack.

Meanwhile, a wooden car straight out of The Flintstones cartoon, with rollers instead of wheels, rolled around the square.

There was no shortage of jokes. Someone brought a dog welded together from engine parts, with a bowl of nuts instead of dog food.

At a Transporter T3, a mannequin pretended to be doing repairs, even though every Volkswagen fan knows the engine sits at the back.

There were contests as well. On the wooden flatbed of a converted Nysa, for example, people tested how many of them could fit on board.

Passion from an early age

This time the organisers put a strong focus on an extended kids' zone. Entertainers ran games inspired by cars and the old days, with original rhymes, colouring pages and sweet treats. The youngest visitors could walk up to the cars, look inside and sit behind the wheel.

The bare primer body of a Pobeda served the children as a chalkboard. Moto Szroty summed it up simply: let's look after the kids, because one day they will carry this passion forward.

🚗 Who are Moto Szroty?

The Moto Szroty Association is a grassroots group of classic vehicle enthusiasts from the Sucha and Wadowice districts of southern Poland. Local media first wrote about it as a new initiative in the summer of 2025. Its members drive Polonez cars, Fiats, “maluchs”, Simson and Ogar mopeds and Wigry bicycles, and their vehicles are a regular sight at local fairs. In April 2026 the association opened the season on the same square, and the October gathering brought it to a close. The next meeting has been announced for the start of the new season.

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