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This thing? I found it inside an abandoned square-mile Soviet-era military factory in Siberia. It would have worn a gas mask to help illustrate to workers proper safety protocols upon nuclear war with America. Now, it's just another artifact of the USSR's once mighty military machine. More »
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In Soviet-era Russia, families needing transportation lined up at the car office, filled out their paperwork and waited up to six years for their wheels to arrive. Many chose to instead spend those years building their own cars, from iron-clad sports cars to pods with a frying pan for a steering wheel. Here's some of the best... and worst of what Soviet-era Russia garage-builders wrought. More »
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We'd all love an obsessively detailed 1:18 scale Volvo 240 coupe on our desks, of course, but no collection of automotive tchotchkes is complete without some Soviet iron! More »
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Saturday morning, the competitors of the Mutually Assured Destruction of Omaha 24 Hours of LeMons race had just entered the track for transponder testing laps when this hunk of vintage Soviet iron came screaming by at low altitude. More »
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Once again, English Russia comes through with a great car photo. More »
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Powered by 228,800 Lb-Ft of thrust, this Lun-class Ekranoplan was designed to carry two-million pounds of Europe-invading soldiers and vehicles and six nuclear missiles at speeds up to 340 MPH. Thank God Reagan defeated the Soviet Union. More »
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we admire interesting street-parked cars in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. We've already seen a WW2 vet on the Copenhagen street, and now it's the Cold War's turn. More »
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Let's say you could go back to the early 1950s and snag a super-futuristic prototype automobile as your 2009 daily driver. Which side of the Iron Curtain would you choose? More »
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The Lamest Day takes place at Nelson Ledges next weekend, and it will feature the best all-time Index Of Effluency matchup in 24 Hours Of LeMons history: a Soviet car taking on a finned Caddy! More »
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All these Engine Of The Day honors, and no Russian iron? And yesterday was May Day, comrades? We're going to remedy that oversight right now!
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57Sweptside loves junkyards, and not just the ones in his native Southwest. He's found for us this collection of photos shot in a Russian yard packed full of Volgas, Moskviches, and even Tchaikas. More »
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Anything is possible, even a Volga in Southern California! More »
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Have we ever mentioned that we love English Russia? It's like they knew we were going to review Cars Of The Soviet Union and put up this collection of vintage Soviet racing photos for us! More »
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Whether you're wrenching on a flying Spitfire or a leaking Spitfire, Haynes has a shop manual for you. Very useful, but hardly the sort of thing you'd keep on your coffee table. More »
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I'd planned to review this totally addictive book today, but I haven't yet got permission to use the photos. But, dammit, racing Moskviches are cool, so we need some kind of vintage Soviet car fix! More »
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Are those louvers for a rear-engine setup in this Volga, perhaps some nightmarish GAZ-ZAZ hybrid? More »
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Today we're heading back to Toronto, a city that's given us all manner of interesting old iron in the past, from the Alfa Romeo Giulia Nuova Super 1600 to just about everything else. Twilight Sentinel has found one of the rarest machines of them all, a Gorbachev-grade '87 GAZ Tchaika 14… and it's for sale! Jump away to learn more. More »
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You know what's been missing from all the 24 Hours Of LeMons races so far? That's right- Soviet-made cars! It's been tough watching all those races without the accomplishments of Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky being represented on the track, but that's all going to change at the Detroit event next year, because Teargas has braved the wilds of Canada to bring back a genuine, made-in-the-USSR 1987 Lada Signet! You may remember this car from Project Car Hell Cold War Edition a while back, and making the jump will get you the rest of the story. More »
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Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! In our last foray into the Burning Garage O'Pain™, the Buick Reatta beat the Olds Troféo by a 53% to 47% poll split. We've had unifying vehicular themes for most of our Hell Challenges recently, but sometimes you need to choose between two totally different eternities- say, one in which St. Helena earwigs colonize your bile ducts, and another in which you are stuck in an Amway PowerPoint presentation 24/7. And, just for fun, we're going Warsaw Pact versus NATO, with one machine from the hottest period of the Cold War and the other from the wild and crazy endgame.
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Where would we be without English Russia? We wouldn't have heard about the Stalinmobile, for starters! Most of all, we'd have to do without the all-important ZAZ hoonage! The Russians can bash 'em into trees, do epic donuts, and- of course- roll 'em. Today, we get to see in-car video of a quartet of Russians taking a Zaporozhets up to the lunatic speed of 90 KM/H, wipe out in spectacular fashion, and walk away from the wreck. That's sure to be a long trudge back to the village for these guys. [English Russia] More »
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We've seen Russian hoons roll a ZAZ and we've seen them smash a ZAZ into a tree. But how about taking the little air-cooled, 26-horse Russian car and adding another 150 or so horsepower? Excellent idea! Of course, when you build such a Zaporozhets, a certain amount of hoonage seems inevitable. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=383463&view=rss&microfeed=true Just a friendly reminder. Nothing rocks your butt off like an ekranoplan. Nothing. – Davey G. Johnson More »
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A high-performance turbine that powered the Tupolev Tu-95 Bear, the Tupolev Tu-114 airliner and the Antonov An-22 Anteus cargo lifter, the NK-12 was designed to run contra-rotating propellers and pumped out 14,800 seahorsepower. Now say, if Vladimir Putin were to bestow one of these fast-spinning behemoths upon you, what would you use it for? Would you retrofit your sailplane? Would you use build the world's most gonzoid go-kart? How about going for the land-speed airboat record in the Everglades? Oh, did we also mention that the NK-12 saw service in the Orlyonok ekranoplan? Yes, friends. We need one of these, and so do you. Now get to thinking. – Davey G. Johnson More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=263696&view=rss&microfeed=true We have to say, when it comes to Soviet military hardware, we've got what most would consider more than a passing familiarity, given our childhood obsession with books on WWII-present planes, boats, tanks and other various and sundry killng machines, not to mention a pubescent summer spent devouring the Tom Clancy oeuvre through Clear and Present Danger. Still, the Caspian Sea Monster took us by surprise. And while we normally let our commenters have the glory on their own, It's entirely worth expending a post to point out that the link that Sebring MGB pointed out needs sharing in a highly-official, Jalop-endorsed manner. Seriously, if you don't spend at least half the clip giggling in sheer amazement at the fabulosity of these machines, we'd recommend an MRI, stat. Meanwhile, we shall not rest until the Port of Los Angeles is crawling with these things. And no, sorry Long Beach, you can't have any. Oakland, help yourself. Sue us. We're feeling selectively parsimonious this afternoon. – Davey G. Johnson More »
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