If you were born in the USA you probably missed out on these exciting revolutionary designed cars

[Mark Gregory]

Get your motors running! Car enthusiasts don vintage outfits as they flood the streets of Moscow for a retro rally to mark the 50th anniversary of the Lada

• Vintage car lovers headed to Gorkyclassic GUM Rally in Moscow yesterday to mark anniversary of Lada car
• Car enthusiasts dressed up in vintage outfits and donned head scarfs as they posed for snaps in the cars 
• The vehicle is named after Moscow's biggest car shop, with the classic car show taking place yearly
• This year marked 50th anniversary of Russia's trusted Lada car from AvtoVAZ  

Russian car lovers donned vintage outfits to flock the streets of Moscow and mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the popular Lada car yesterday. 

Gathering for the Gorkyclassic GUM Rally, the vintage vehicle enthusiasts celebrated the creation of one of their countries most well-known and trusted cars, with models dating back to the 1970s at the heart of the celebration.

The classic car show, which takes place once a year in the Russian capital, sees vintage car lovers gather together, some opting for vintage looks to go with their vehicles. 

The Lada, which was first commercialised in 1970, was manufactured by AvtoVAZ, a Russian company now owned by the French group Renault.  

 

The original 1970 Lada car was the star of this year's show with several models making it to the rally. 

Families walked up to the Lada models, all parked together during the show, some of which were adorned with GUM rally stickers. 

AvtoVAZ's Lada, which was first manufactured in 1970, with technical help from Fiat, takes its name from a type of small boat in Slavic language. 

It was born out of a cooperation agreement between Fiat and the Soviet minister of automotive industry Alexander Tarasov signed in 1966. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark Gregory]

 

 

 

 

[8E45E]

Those in the photos are the early VAZ-2101, or 'Zhiguli' as it was labeled in its home market.  I didn't think there were that many nicely restored examples around.  

 

The Lada was marketed in Canada from 1978 through 1995, starting with the 1500S model, which had dual headlights, and the 5-mph bumpers.

 

Craig

[padgett]

Lada was manufactured by VAZ with assistance from FIAT. If you want to experience a Lada just find a FIAT 124 sedan. Warning, it will buzz you to death at 60 mph.

[Matt Harwood]

I remember a particularly exciting ride in a Lada taxi in October of 1988, when I was on a freshman college trip to what was then called Leningrad. We're careening through the streets where there appear to be no rules, pedestrians, carts, dogs, everything is in the street with the cars and there are no lanes, no real markings, no speed limits, no stop signs, no red lights, just chaos and traffic circles. One of my fellow students says something like, "We're all going to die!" and the taxi driver, a young Russian guy with red hair wearing a shopka, says in broken but very clear English, "Is OK, everyone knows not to get in accident."

That was easily the most Russian thing I ever heard anyone say, ever.

[JACK M]

59 minutes ago, Matt Harwood said:

I remember a particularly exciting ride in a Lada taxi in October of 1988, when I was on a freshman college trip to what was then called Leningrad. We're careening through the streets where there appear to be no rules, pedestrians, carts, dogs, everything is in the street with the cars and there are no lanes, no real markings, no speed limits, no stop signs, no red lights, just chaos and traffic circles. One of my fellow students says something like, "We're all going to die!" and the taxi driver, a young Russian guy with red hair wearing a shopka, says in broken but very clear English, "Is OK, everyone knows not to get in accident."

That was easily the most Russian thing I ever heard anyone say, ever.

 

Its like that in several places I have been as well. Cairo, Istanbul, Hanoi,  lots of horn honking and light flashing.

The difference being that unlike here in the US the chaos is normal, we would be flying the bird most of the time there its just how they drive.

I recall our guide in Hanoi telling us that to cross a street just keep a steady pace, The cars and scooters may come close but wont hit you.

I remember looking out of the hotel window over a pretty busy four lane street and there was an old lady pushing a cart quite slowly, what the guide said made sense. No one was mad at this old gal, they just dealt with her and all was well.

Here we would have been yelling profanities at that kind of thing. Probably because we are basically a rude me first kind of society with little regard for others when we are behind the wheel.

[John_Mereness]

Ah, go for a Citroen !!!

[playswithbrass]

I was service manager at a Volvo dealership that also sold Lada’s   They were junk to say the least. The dealership was about a mile from the university so a lot of the faculty drove Volvo’s,however they did get Russian professors that came to Canada for whatever and they would fill up at the parts dept with Lada parts , camshafts and replacement Weber carbs were big movers. I remember asking one fellow what it was like living there,he told me don’t move,walked around to make sure nobody else was around and said things were pretty rough,could not get any spare parts. The factory supplied specialty shop tools were very crude I don’t think Habour Freight would not have sold them!

[TerryB]

When I was working in China in the early 2000s the car to be seen in was a Buick.  When I asked one of the plant engineers why that was and not a Chinese made car he just smiled and said if you really want to get to where you are going you want a Buick or some other American made car. I guess the same would apply to a Russian car build quality.  Wasn’t the Mir space station the Yugo of space?  
 

Anyway, never saw a Lada before and this saves me a trip to Russia to see one.

[MikeC5]

Mumbai was very much like that when I visited in 2015....  It was an eye opener the first time I experienced it....

[padgett]

Why I think Mercedes makes the world's best taxi.

[8E45E]

3 hours ago, playswithbrass said:

I was service manager at a Volvo dealership that also sold Lada’s   They were junk to say the least. The dealership was about a mile from the university so a lot of the faculty drove Volvo’s,however they did get Russian professors that came to Canada for whatever and they would fill up at the parts dept with Lada parts , camshafts and replacement Weber carbs were big movers. I remember asking one fellow what it was like living there,he told me don’t move,walked around to make sure nobody else was around and said things were pretty rough,could not get any spare parts. The factory supplied specialty shop tools were very crude I don’t think Habour Freight would not have sold them!

In 1981, my mom bought one brand new because she was able to pay for it in $100 bills. It did serve here well, but by the end of 1988, it did accumulate quite a bit of rust.  As I recall, the only major component that failed on it in those 8 years she owned it was the alternator which had to be replaced.  She did well financially on that car; as I recall, it was $5200 when she bought it new.  At the end of 1988, GM was giving smoking deals on the last of the T-body Chevette/Pontiac Acadians, where she got an automatic $1500 trade-in allowance regardless of the year or make of the car, plus the year-end discounts, and the fact the T-body was fast becoming an old-hat liability and bad memory for GM where she was able to drive off in a brand new Acadian for just under $5K.  

 

Craig

Edited September 16, 2020 by 8E45E (see edit history)

[Bush Mechanic]

Travelling through Armenia shortly before the covid, and we were struck by the very large concentration of Ladas. Probably above 50% of all cars in the countryside, and 25% in Yerevan, the capital. They appeared to mostly be early models, with a predominance of sedans, but also a good number of the NIva 4x4s.  While most were in rough shape, a few had oviously been completely restored. We would be travelling carefully over rough unsealed roads in our motor-home, and the little Ladas would pass us at speed, with the suspension banging away on the potholes. In the villages there would be a workshop or two with Ladas being repaired, and parts cars out the back. The Armenians regard them as reliable little cars, so I guess that depends on view point and experience. The bodies fare better in the dryer Armenian environment than they do in Russia.

 

Armenia appeared to be the poorest of the former Soviet states that we have visited, so I came to the conclusion that it has become a graveyard for Soviet cars, the Lada in particular. Something akin to the Mexican fleet of US cars. While there are many Ladas in daily use in the Russian countryside, the relative numbers are nothing like those in Armenia.

[padgett]

and the Trabant ?

[8E45E]

1 hour ago, Bush Mechanic said:

The Armenians regard them as reliable little cars, so I guess that depends on view point and experience. The bodies fare better in the dryer Armenian environment than they do in Russia.

And proper scheduled maintenance and regular oil changes!

 

That was why most of these cars got a bad rap here. Many treated them like bicycles and drove them into the ground because they were cheap to buy in the first place.  The Armenians must have looked after them a lot better than they did in other markets where they were sold.

 

Craig

[Bush Mechanic]

4 hours ago, padgett said:

and the Trabant ?

 

The Trabant seems to have died a fitting death in the former Eastern Soviet states, but I see a few on the road in the poorer rural areas of Latvia/Lithuania/Estonia region. More so ten years ago, and fast becoming an odd-ball machine there too. (As if they weren't already!) Many finished up in the UK, where they became a trendy accessory in the 80's. I was rather tempted by a well kept example in an Estonian car yard, at a ridiculously low price. But when you get it home, what do you do with it? They are funny little things, made from cardboard and plastic, and a smoky twin cylinder motor-bike engine. And the poor old Ruskies had to pay in advance, and wait up to three years for delivery!

 

They are turning up in Soviet museums, now.

[8E45E]

4 hours ago, Bush Mechanic said:

 

The Trabant seems to have died a fitting death in the former Eastern Soviet states, but I see a few on the road in the poorer rural areas of Latvia/Lithuania/Estonia region. More so ten years ago, and fast becoming an odd-ball machine there too. (As if they weren't already!) Many finished up in the UK, where they became a trendy accessory in the 80's. I was rather tempted by a well kept example in an Estonian car yard, at a ridiculously low price. But when you get it home, what do you do with it? They are funny little things, made from cardboard and plastic, and a smoky twin cylinder motor-bike engine.

As I recall, VW took over the plant in 1990, and immediately started installed their engines in them for a year or two until the assembly lines got converted into producing the far more modern and up-to-date low-priced Polo series.  Not that I'm in the market for a Trabant, but I'd go for the end-of-the-line model with a reliable and less polluting VW engine.

 

Craig 

[Bush Mechanic]

That's interesting. I had not heard of them getting a VW engine. I imagine they had to beef up the frame a little to handle all that horsepower.

[8E45E]

4 minutes ago, Bush Mechanic said:

That's interesting. I had not heard of them getting a VW engine. I imagine they had to beef up the frame a little to handle all that horsepower.

It used the small 1.1 liter engine as used in the Polo; good for something like 50hp.  Certainly no powerhouse.  It was no doubt a much smoother running engine over that old two-stroke Trabant engine, and probably helped the car stay together longer?

 

Craig

[hidden_hunter]

18 hours ago, JACK M said:

I recall our guide in Hanoi telling us that to cross a street just keep a steady pace, The cars and scooters may come close but wont hit you.

 

Unfortunately they also have some of the worst road safety in the world, so not sure about the not hitting you part

[Matt Harwood]

30 minutes ago, hidden_hunter said:

Unfortunately they also have some of the worst road safety in the world, so not sure about the not hitting you part

 

Yeah, even here in the US pedestrians are in danger even though it's probably better than most countries in terms of road size and consistency.

 

I've been walking to work since last April, a distance of about three miles each way. 30-36 miles a week has done wonders for my health and it's 40 minutes a day when I'm alone and can't be reached by phone or E-mail and don't have to solve other peoples' problems. Sadly, there are no sidewalks between my house and my shop, so I walk on the shoulder and facing into traffic so I can see them coming. The roads are fairly big roads and the speed limit is 35 (although everyone's going 45-50 based on what it's like when I drive). About three times a week, I'll have a close call with someone who isn't paying attention--usually on their phone. People throw stuff at me like garbage, bottles, apples. About once a month, however, there would be someone who seems to aim at me for fun--they're looking right at me, so I know they aren't distracted or didn't notice me. Oddly enough, most of them are guys in jacked-up 4x4 pickups (sorry about your penis, pal, but that's no reason to kill a stranger).

 

About three weeks ago, I found this laying by the side of the road:

 

 

Using the numbers on it, I found that it appears to be an aluminum butt-splice connector for 3/0 aluminum cable, you know, the giant power lines overhead. It's about 20 inches long, has plastic cups on each end, weighs about two pounds, and fits nicely in my hand with the plastic cup acting as a pommel. Easy to carry.

 

It's also magic.

 

I have discovered that when I carry this thing--which I've taken to calling The Equalizer--drivers magically stop trying to run me over with their cars. Like magic, semi trucks move over a few feet, inattentive drivers move their cars off the collision course long before it's an emergency, and the intentional jackholes have retreated back into their manly safe spaces. All I have to do is carry it in my hand or slung over my shoulder like a baseball bat, I don't wave it around or threaten cars or anything like that. Just carry it. Perhaps I look like a person willing to remove a mirror or a headlight or a taillight; that's probably a correct assessment.

 

The sad thing is, all this suggests that they DID see me before and just chose to ignore me or didn't care. I noticed the same phenomenon when I would walk past the usual speed trap spot and there was a cop there--you should see how nicely people signaled well in advance, moved to the other lane, then signaled and moved back after they passed me.

 

Anyway, my point is, navigating in a country where the rules are even looser must be flat-out terrifying for everyone involved.

[padgett]

[Big Beat]

You can think of the Lada as the Russian model T - cheap, ubiquitous, infinitely serviceable, with quirks that become endearing after long ownership. This is the car that put the average Russian on wheels in the 1970s. Before that, you truly needed to be somebody or to have some pull to own a private car, in addition to long waiting periods. Previous models were either not available to private citizens (Volga, Chaika, etc.) or were produced in smaller numbers and were quite dated by the time the Lada became available (think early Moskvitch and ZAZ). Even the newer models introduced after the Lada, such as the front-drive Moskvitch, could not match it - worse quality, not as popular so fewer around, less easily serviced. As a used car, the Lada is still the default choice for many people in the provinces who cannot afford a newer car, while others restore them out of nostalgia. 

[padgett]

At least we do not need to take the windshield wipers in at night.