Everyone's favorite stuck-in-the-Soviet-era Russian car company is making moves to fend off foreign car competition in Russia. In response to foreign car companies rapidly expanding their Russian market Lada plans to try to bring their cars and their company into the modern era.

The inoculation of Work Equip wheels, the military flag of Japan, riveted fender flares and Japanese license plates into a humble VAZ 2106 sedan is a stunning display of modern tuning culture, where ideas, memes, details and styles flow like bits and JPEGs.

The team at Lada were pleased to have Russian Prime Minister and judo master Vladimir Putin on hand to test out their new budget model Granta sedan. Think of all the cameras! Unfortunately, the car wouldn't start.

This Supra's having a great time drifting around a wide, empty circle… until the cops show up. The best part is the Supra keeps going until the Russian police officers in the little Lada realize how to make him stop.

The driver of this creepy, dented Russian car is hidden by a thick layer of damage so it appears to be driven by the ghost of the person sitting in the passenger seat when the accident occurred. In reality, the driver probably just got the car for half the price.

At the end of a crappy day you turn to friends, colleagues, fellow commenters, and the unrivaled panacea that is a Russian car. Al least, that's what I do. [Asklater via carpr0n]

Somewhere in Latvia, there's a Lada sedan at the bottom of a small pond near a farm road. Here's the airborne route it took there. Now pardon us while we find a translation for "do not try this at home."

Be warned, ye who desire project cars, for hell filled with blood, death and unbelievably hard-to-find Russian parts await all who dare not heed our warnings. Even the august penmen of the New York Times agree. Forsooth and such. [NYT]

In typical Russian automotive tradition, the Lada Niva that began production in 1977 is still being produced today using almost exactly the same design. This monotony may explain what inspired one Niva owner to cover their car in Astroturf.

The cars in the new Transformers flicks are mostly just GM products or concepts. Boring. In this clever reimagining, a vintage Lada does battle with a cell phone to an AC/DC soundtrack. Michael Bay, take note. [via Gizmodo]

Where would you find a home-built tracked Lada? Russia of course! Using potato harvester parts for tracks and steering via open differential actuated by cable-operated brakes hooked to the steering knuckles, this Lada's tankgasmic. That dangling u-joint may be problematic.

In this crazy world of ours, it's important to have dreams. Faced with the pain of reality, a handful of Ukranian Ford fans decided to turn a Lada hatchback into a Ford Mustang. This is alternately painful and fantastic.

We're not quite sure how this Russian tank-tread contraption ties to the car's powerplant, but it appears it requires the drive shaft be rerouted to the tread-driving differential. More work, sure, but way more badass. The SnowFoot has been upstaged.

We could have gone with "Orange you glad you bought a Lada?" , maybe "The driver really has to squeeze into this car" or even "This Lada's got a lot of juice." So many puns, so little time. [Imgur via Reddit]

Yeah yeah, the car that gets the highest lap total gets the overall win at a 24 Hours Of LeMons race, but the insiders know who deserves the real respect!

Internet access is difficult at best here at Nelson Ledges, so live updates are going to be few and short. At the moment, the Charlie Foxtrot Racing BMW 325i leads.

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!

When we had the 50 Cars Made For Over 20 Years list a few weeks back, we were deafened by the howls of outrage from those whose favorite cars didn't make the cut.

While the Beetle, Ambassador, Mini, and 2CV each enjoyed more than four decades of production in pretty much their original form, we mustn't overlook the other long-term survivors of the automotive world.