The Classic ZAZ

In the wake of the early Space Race victories the Russian’s wanted to create a vehicle that would rival the VW Beetle or the Citroen 2CV, so Krushchev ordered the construction of an affordable “people’s car,” the only car that ordinary citizens might hope to own. Only after sitting on a waiting list for many years, of course.  

Design work started in 1956 in Moskvitch car plant, and first prototypes were designated as Moskvitch-444. Production began in 1958 at the Zaporozhets Automotive Factory (ZAZ) in Ukraine. The car was patterned upon the Fiat 600, with similar general composition, body, transmission, steering mechanism and rear suspension. However, to facilitate the all-too-frequent valve adjustments required by clattery-ass air-cooled engines, particularly when so many Soviet citizens would be forced to wrench on their rides in a dirt-floored "garage" in Siberia or Turkmenistan, the ZAZ engineers decided to make their car's engine a 746 cc V4 engine designed by Moscow’s NAMI institute instead of a boxer four. It was a simple, reliable machine, tolerant of rough roads and indifferent maintenance.

The base model ZAZ-965 was manufactured between November 1960 and 1963, and the modernized ZAZ-965A, between November 1962 and May 1969. 322,106 were made in total.

It sold well, and factory legend held that the head engineer, Vladimir Steshenko, based his pricing formula on the idea that the car should never cost more than 1,000 bottles of vodka.

But much like the leader who gave it his blessing, the Zaporozhets proved too temperamental to trust. It broke down frequently. The engine emitted a steady, hell-raising roar and had trouble with speeds over 80 miles per hour. Worst of all was the bonnet-loaded fuel tank that tended to explode in front-end collisions. People began to joke that the car never passed any of its safety tests because the test dummies ran away, terrified.

Even with its many nicknames such as "zapor," translated is “constipated,”  or “gorbatiy” which means “hunchback” for its trunk design, its the Zaz’s ungainly shape and appearance which truly made the Zaporozhets a national punchline.

Historical significance aside, nobody in his or her right mind should want one of these things... but I must have one !