Dodge Challenger in the cradle of Petroleum.

Celebration of a passing era in a vulgar muscle behemoth from the USA.

It was 20 years ago – A distant memory of a long journey, spanning across Poland. The train moved slowly through the winter landscape, grey, and flat. Szczecin, Poznań, Wrocław, and Cracow. There, I got on to an even slower local train. Final destination: Krosno. In Jasło, I also had a locomotive switch. The electric traction ended there, and from that point to the destination, the train was pulled by a diesel engine SM42-916. It worked out rather well, as this area is the cradle of diesel history in the world.

Oil flows calmly through the forests and foothills of Jaworzynka spring. It passes a small cemetery from World War I, turns northwest towards Blechnarka. Exactly 300 meters south of Gipsies Well, it intersects with another tributary, doubling its force as it snakes through Wysowa-Zdrój and Gorlickie Mouth. There, it flows into Klimków Lake and continues its path to a village named in its honour.

Now a tricky part:
Ropa is a Polish word for Petroleum.
Ropa – the river – is a left-bank tributary of the Wisłoka river, which it meets in Jasło.
Ropa is also a village situated along Ropa – the river.

The fume of oil continued to hover over Ropa (the village) for a long time before petroleum took the form we know from modern times. The first mentions in Polish come from the chronicles of Jan Długosz. The term originates from the Latin Petroleum (Petra – rock, oleum – oil).

Several decades after Długosz, the area was explored by a gold seeker – Seweryn Boner (no pun intended – I kid You not) – who found his mine was flooded with rock oil. Thus, supposedly, oil was discovered in these lands, although the legend of Mr Seweryn probably aimed to symbolize its quiet discovery by the locals, unanchored in time. Petroleum has been known since antiquity and was used, among other things, as a medical remedy.

I fast-forward the hands of the clock and stop in 1789, when the owner of Ropa (the village) became Władysław Siemieński, whose wife was named Petronela… More petrochemical signs from the skies!

Deposits of rock oil stretch under the entire Low Beskids. The first, manually dug shafts were created in the village of Siary, below Gorlice. Industrial-scale extraction began in 1854 by Ignacy Łukasiewicz. He was the one who distilled kerosene from rock oil and who constructed a kerosene lamp fuelled by what is known as lamp oil. The place where the pickaxe struck the ground for the first commercial oil mine was Bóbrka, and the owner was the world's first oil company: Trzecieski-Łukasiewicz. The entire region transformed into an oil province with mines, distilleries, and refineries.

The development of the next century was based on oil. No economy in the world is associated with an oil as much as the USA’s is. No automotive culture celebrates fuel combustion like that of the USA. What car, then, to pay tribute to Petroleum? Obviously, an American muscle.

Long live ICE!

The longest currently produced generation of sports car in the United States is the Dodge Challenger. In 2008, the third incarnation of the legend from the seventies debuted. The original from the seventies was the essence of a sports car from across the ocean. Better not to mention its successor – a to post-fuel-crisis victim and, instead of an original design, Dodge slapped its badges on a Mitsubishi Galant Lambda. A quarter-century later, the Challenger resurrected like a Phoenix from the ashes. The premiere engine was a V8 with a 6.1 litre capacity and a Mercedes-Benz five-speed automatic. In the sixteen-year production run, eighteen different versions were created with V6 and V8 engines, and the largest one to be placed under the hood was the 6.4 litre Apache. It is with such a version that we will celebrate the existence of ICE. Where? You have the regional clue above, and a pin on the map will point to the Museum of Oil and Gas Industry in Bóbrka. The institution, founded in 1961, is exceptional for many reasons. First: it combines two functions: it is both a museum and an active oil mine (the one that Łukasiewicz founded in 1854). Second: on the museum site, there is a technological cross-section of the Polish (and Soviet) oil industry. Third: the scent of the surrounding dense forests mixes with the scent of petroleum oil, which has caused me a pleasant dizziness several times.

Dodge Challenger surrounded by museum exhibits.

We cross the gates on a Sunday afternoon. In front of us lies an extensive avenue that leads to the heart of the outdoor museum. The warm July sun illuminates the row of drilling rigs on the left, and on the right, the exhibition pavilion. Further, we pass boiler house buildings and various winches and working machines. After our first reconnaissance, we select numerous locations for photos, but we are deeply absorbed by acquainting ourselves with the exhibits and history of the place. There is so much here that we would need to sit a week! But one thing at a time.

The first spot we planned at the most intriguing vehicle we found – a vibroseis, used by Geofizyka Toruń until 1976. Between its axles is a mechanism that, when lowered to the ground, generates controlled, strong vibrations that penetrate the earth's crust. Seismic waves bounce off different geological layers and are received by geophones – sensors distributed on the surface of the earth. Geologists can make maps of underground structures by studying signals. This can help them find oil and gas deposits. Our rather large American car looks very petite next to the yellow vibroseis.

The tyres of the vehicle for generating seismic waves were higher than the roofline of the Challenger.

The second photo shoot plan is the CPN gas station, type: “mountain”. Under its sloping roof stands a tanker, surrounded by fuel dispensers of several generations from the many years of existence of the Central Petroleum Products. Inside the room, which at a contemporary station is mainly used for selling hot-dogs, you can admire a collection of photographs and memorabilia from the precursor of Orlen.

At this CPN, there is only high-octane, unfiltered fuel.

On day two, we focus more on the car. The Challenger SRT8 with a 6.4 litre engine (392-cubic-inch HEMI) with Scat Pack, Wide Body, and distinctive green livery reminiscent of a reptile's colouration presents itself threateningly and dominantly. The sound? Well… Nothing resonates with my heart as strong as the sound of a powerful V8, whether from the stables of Mercedes, Ford, or Dodge. The naturally aspirated version in our car, as it revs up, generates an unobstructed husky roar and elevates the drama to the limits of physical pain. Reptilian, green (in colour) energy. That's how I imagine the automotive version of the most ferocious late Cretaceous representative. I would rather not throw around dinosaur names because through popular culture it would sound banal, but certain myths have permanently settled in our heads. My favourite description of petroleum is “dinosaur juice” and I was surprised to read the words of Reidar Müller – It's a myth. Oil is the remnants of plankton and algae…

Drilling rig – type “Bitków” was used for percussion drilling of holes up to 1500 m deep. It was built in 1923.

Our routes to and from the museum confirm another myth: American muscle cars feel best on the straights. The steering system with electric power assistance is far from the finesse of European competitors, and with power approaching 500 Bhp, it mainly serves to counter oversteer. The energy from the engine is transmitted by an eight-speed ZF automatic to the rear axle and is distributed on both sides by a limited-slip differential.

It makes up for the lack of finesse with its appearance, sound, and unruly character. This is an addictive car.

The second day is busy, we photograph the car and museum elements. It's Monday – most museums rest-day, we have all the objects to ourselves. I look at the constructions, mechanisms, and buildings. I remember what I was doing here 20 years ago. It was a photographic outing with an association where I took my first photographic steps. We travelled across the country to live on the museum grounds (I think we stayed in “Naftusia” – one of the wooden workers' cottages) and photograph the black-and-white landscape – it was the middle of the winter. Now we are here in summer, so I need to clear the snow from those views.

There wouldn't be those plastic additions on the right if it weren't for the steel working machines on the left.

Now it's easier to peer into every nook and admire the forward-thinking thought. In the warm air, the scent of rock oil from the active “Franek” shaft spreads faster. We peer into the black interior and see the shimmering, sometimes bubbling thick sludge. It is it – here, not so deep underground – the primal form of the petrol. Imagination educated by the scattered photographs and descriptions throughout the museum paints stories from the mid-19th century. Before machines were put to work, workers were lowered into the shaft to manually extract the oil. Over the following years, the industrial revolution swung to the extent that in some areas, humans were replaced by machines. Everything was powered by oil or steam, engines driving flywheels, transmitting energy through belts to drills and jacks. The racket that once resounded here now echoes under the hoods of our cars.

Canadian drilling rig with a locomobile.

We leave Bóbrka full of admiration and respect for what we've seen. The technology pioneered by Łukasiewicz made the world revolve around Petroleum. Thanks to it, we have the automotive, aviation, partly textile, polymer, and even construction industries. It has sparked numerous conflicts, wars, and economic crises. And supposedly it has irreversibly changed the climate. To take a stand on this issue, it's worth knowing at least a part of the history of climate changes (including the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its impact on the development of a flora), rather than putting the blame on the fossil fuels. Yes, I agree with the opinion that humanity has done more harm than good to the Green Planet, that we will probably never dig ourselves out of environmental pollution, and that future generations will tread on a degraded, depleted earth. Still, let's not be deceived that what will replace oil is true “green energy”. This technology looks green only at the end-stage of use, and the conditions and rates at which people mining rare earth minerals work are shrouded in silence.
I'm not saying that electric powering of anything, including cars, is bad, but I claim that fossil fuels have fallen victim to negative marketing, and what we have achieved thanks to them has no significance in the current narrative.
Miners in Bóbrka extracting oil were working just as hard as a miners extracting cobalt in the Congo.
The shade of dubious green of both energy sources is the same.

Visit this place. It is an incredible mine of knowledge.

Thank you to the Ignacy Łukasiewicz Museum of Oil and Gas Industry officials for their kind consideration of my idea and for enabling the production of this story. I would also like to thank Hardcore Car Rent for providing the car. The car was tested on a closed road, under controlled conditions.

Thank you for your continued interest and I invite you to subscribe to the newsletter. I also encourage you to support the site on Buy Me a Coffee or Patreon. The funds collected will be used to develop the Heel and Toe magazine and ultimately allow full focus on the project. In the aforementioned service, sales of photos of the tested cars, including from this article, have started. These are collector's prints in numbered series on archival papers.

Have a good one!