In addition to the shots of junkyard-loving ladies posing with these relics of the Soviet era, we get an added bonus: what appears to be a Moskvich veteran of the 1970 London To Mexico City World Cup Rally (or some Russian car freak's replica). These shots were on EnglishRussia a few years back, but this sort of thing never goes stale.
[netwind.ru]

JasonTorch, member of the Make:Way 24 Hours Of LeMons Ford Escort team, did a big double-take when he saw this mysterious sedan. It turned out to be a GAZ Volga 24-10, which was built during the final years of the Soviet Union. We can't tell you how its owner managed to get California registration for it, though we suspect the ordeal is Kafkaesque and ongoing. Here's what Jason has to say about his find:

So I was driving in an unfamiliar neighborhood late one night this week, and a glimpse of an unfamiliar taillight in my headlights caught my eye and grabbed it and stopped it like a bag of pudding thrown onto drywall. I'm sure all us car guys have that sense when they catch a glimpse of something that can't be individually ID'd— in this case it was firing the lights for British, Italian, and American all at once, but not falling into any. You know what I mean.

Anyway, I stopped in the middle of the dark street and pointed my headlights at the mystery car to find it was a GAZ! A GAZ Volga 24-10, to be exact, which would put it in the '77-'85 range— I think this one is somewhere on the later side.

It's a handsome, if a bit normal-looking for my tastes, car. It looks sort of like a late 60s Ford body with Fiat lights and detailing. This one even had curtains in the rear window, which for some reason feels very Soviet.

Anyway— sorry the photos are so bad— it was late and on a very dark street, and I just had my phone. I may go out and try to hunt it down in the day; I left a note with my name and number on the car, so if I can get ahold of the guy and get better pics, or, even better, a ride, I'll let you know.

As we know, you must listen to the Red Army Choir performing the Soviet National Anthem while reading about Racing Heroes Of The Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics. That's the law.


If only the Reds had been allowed to enter a few Pobedas and Volgas in early NASCAR events. Imagine the Cold War drama! Thanks to the many of you who sent in this tip!



[English Russia]

Well, you might keep shop manuals on your coffee table, but that would make you the kind of scarily focused gearhead who also keeps a couple of engine blocks in the kitchen. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, but Haynes also puts out this… this four-pound slab of concentrated essence of car pr0n, and- now that you're aware of its existence- your life without it will seem as grim and flavorless as the sawdust-enhanced sausage ration in Vladivostok, 1949. It sure as hell isn't cheap, so those of you with a birthday coming up are advised to start dropping some very strong gift-idea hints to your loved ones right now. The rest of you will have to cough up the rubles on your own, but it will be worth it.



From the Ford clones of the 1920s and 1930s (starting with a copy of the Model A and continuing with the modified-for-Soviet-conditions Model B-based M1 shown above), the USSR was making cars and trucks from its earliest days. While some were based on foreign designs (the Opel Kadett-based early Moskvich and Fiat-based Lada being a couple of famous examples), many were all-Soviet projects.


Thompson's book covers all the major lines of Soviet cars and light trucks, including the GAZ Pobedas and Volgas, the ZIL limousines, the beloved Zaporozhets, and a bunch of acronymic vehicles we decadent Westerners have never heard of.


Vehicles manufactured according to the demands of a planned economy (in a nation whose rough roads cover 11 time zones and every crazy weather condition imaginable) were designed with different priorities than those found in the capitalist automotive world, and this book does an excellent job describing how those priorities worked during the Soviet period.


Things really got interesting during the Brezhnev era, during which the USSR's need for hard currency, coupled with the rise of inflation in the West, led to large-scale exports of Soviet-made vehicles. In early-70s Britain, car buyers could pick up a brand-new Moskvich 412 sedan for £717, which was £22 cheaper than a Mini and only £3 less than the wretched Hillman Imp. Many did, though some scary crash-test results took a big bite out of UK Moskvich sales. And, as Teargas has proven with his LeMons car, plenty of Ladas made it to Canada a few years later.


Thompson pays attention to Soviet racing achievements, from the early rally days to late-Soviet Lada hoonage. The machines of UAZ, IZH, RAF, etc., are here as well, with the story continuing to the end of the Soviet Union and a little beyond.

This one earns a five-rod rating (five being the highest rating, in honor of the most reliable automobile engine ever made), plus Bonus Balalaika for sheer Hero Of The Soviet Union-grade awesomeness. Murilee says check it out!

[Motorbooks]

Official Caption
This May 8, 2005 file photo shows US President George W. Bush (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin waving as the two leaders take a ride in Putin's 1956 Volga before dinner at Putin's residence outside Moscow.

Photo Credit: TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images

Photo credit: Aleksey Petrosian, via English Russia

The actual hard news, of course, is that GAZ is most likely trying for a piece of the commercial vehicle market in auto-ascendant India, where Tata recently made headlines by unveiling the $2500 Nano and buying a couple venerable British marques off Ford. Unfortunately, it's unclear exactly which Indian firm would partner with Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod, as while their name may be fun to say, they'd be up against current native truckmaker Mahindra, among others. What we can tell you as an absolute press-release certainty, though, is that

"success of cars launched by all global players in India is driving force behind Russia to think over entering Indian auto market."

"As auto is one of the key areas of the India-Russia Forum on Trade and Investment we are looking at business partnership in future."

Vintage Automotive Advertising [Found in Mom's Basement]

Related:
In Soviet Russia, Volga

Here's a Turk who just loves his '69 Volga! So much so, in fact, that he's put together possibly the most cheezy car-love video ever made. It's got endless photos and videos of his beloved white GAZ, every transition effect his $9.99 video-editing software had to offer, and all set to a tear-jerking weepo-pop soundtrack. We're just disappointed by the lack of Volga Drifting, but hey, can't have everything. – Murilee Martin

Related:
Lump In Throat, Tear In Eye: Love Your Syrena [internal]

Say what you will about the crude technology used by a lot of Soviet-era Russian machinery- and we're still not 100% convinced they used tiny vacuum tubes instead of transistors in their aircraft electronics purely as an anti-EMP measure, so don't get started on that- those Russian engineers knew how to get the damn job done. You say you got fascist invaders swarming across the border and you need, like, a gadzillion T34s yesterday? Hey, no sweat- just dig turret-shaped holes in the ground and add molten steel- who needs a goddamn factory building? The same resourcefulness was applied to their peacetime motor vehicles; you say the October Revolution Manufacturing Collective #5202A can't make effective grease seals for Volga suspension components? Well, just install a central oil tank, add handy foot-operated pump, and when the driver thinks the balljoints are getting a litty dry on a rough Siberian highway, why, he can just give 'em a few squirts of soothing lube. – Murilee Martin

Central lubrication system [volga.nl]

Related:
All Hail The Glorious Revolutionary Stalinmobile! [internal]

Since we love both station wagons and Warsaw Pact iron, it's only natural that we're pretty hepped on the GAZ Volga M22 station wagon. Built from 1962 through 1970, the M22 wagon seems to have some Rambler and maybe Volvo styling influence in its ancestry, though it's proudly Russian at heart. The really prized M22s are the rare V8-equipped models built for the KGB; imagine rolling in your KGB Double Agent Interceptor Volga Wagon. With spinners, of course. – Murilee Martin

Volga M22 [volga.nl]

Related:
In Russia, Another BMW-Powered Volga, You!, Wagons, Sno! [internal]

At first glance we were thinking "All right, Stalin murals on a Volga- that's mildly entertaining, in a sort of twisted let's-pretend-the-gulag-never-happened way." But then we spotted the red star wheels on the thing! Da! English Russia, you're the Czar in our book. – Murilee Martin

Stalin Car [English Russia]

Related:
Meet Me At The Red Star Drive-In, Comrade! [internal]

Who says you need to drive cars made in the sweatshops of running-dog capitalist exploiters to have a good time? As we've already seen with the Lowrider FSO Warszawa, cars built in the gulag the glorious workers' factories of the Marxist-Leninist republics get the job done too! For example, these Russian hoons spinning some donuts in their Volgas. Sure, they're relatively lethargic donuts, but donuts nonetheless. – Murilee Martin

Related:
Hoon of the Day: In Russia, Volga Crashes You! [internal]

In Russia, updating old Volgas with modern hardware has been a staple of the custom crowd. It's a natural, considering the original GAZ Volga is as much a beloved member of the USSR's vehicular past as the '57 Chevy is to Amerikaners. Carscoop, whose eye is always on the Volga pro-touring scene, came across a new addition. Or rather, an old edition that's worth eyeballing anew. This Volga was recast nearly ten years ago by El Motors, using the running gear from a 1994 E36 BMW M3. No word on the condition of the donor car. We're imagining it was lost to an incident involving the Russian mafia, a double-crossed deal to sell copper tubing stolen from a defunct state office building, and a rogue Soviet cop fighting to protect a fledgling democracy from devolving into lawlessness. But that's just us. – Mike Spinelli

Volga 21 RCM: This one's based on a BMW M3! [internal]

Related:
Volga Recasts the BMW 6-Series, Ruskie Style; Black Russian V12: BMW-Powered Super Volga [internal]

This sucker makes every jacked-up 70s Eldorado 4x4 conversion hang down its head in shame. Just... WOW! Words are failing us. Hurry up and make the jump for more amazing ridiculousness. – Jonny Lieberman

Related:
Humpback: The Caddyamino [Internal]