The most unusual homemade cars (20 photos). Useful homemade products for the car: photos and videos Do it yourself for the car

If you think that homemade crafts are for kids and bored housewives, we will quickly dispel your misconceptions. This section is entirely devoted to making homemade products from car parts and rubber tires. Almost anything can be made from a tire. From garden shoes to a full-fledged children's playground with swings, fairy-tale characters and elements for relaxation. Finally, ever-busy dads will have the opportunity to show their creative talents and create something useful and beautiful in their own personal plot or backyard.

Car tires tend to deteriorate, especially considering the quality of our roads and sudden temperature changes. Instead of sending an old tire to a landfill, you can slightly transform it and give it a new life on the playground, in the garden or vegetable garden.

We have collected a huge number of examples of how to do car homemade products using tires for various household and aesthetic purposes. Perhaps one of the most popular ways to use a used tire is to create children's playgrounds. The simplest option is to bury a row of tires halfway and paint their upper part in bright colors. The architectural element created in this way will be used by children as a device for walking and running with obstacles, and also instead of “furniture”, because you can lay out sand products on the surface of the tire or even sit on your own, relaxing on a quiet summer evening.

You can aesthetically diversify the exterior of the site by using tires to create fairy-tale dragons, funny bears that will greet your guests at the entrance to the yard, crocodiles and other animals lurking in the garden. For flower lovers car tire can replace a full-fledged flowerpot, and plants planted in it will give the yard a well-groomed look.

You can please children by creating a comfortable swing from the best preserved tires. You can leave the shape of the tire in its original form, and, spending a little more time and effort, create an unusual swing in the shape of horses.

Whatever you choose to create a car craft, your children will in any case be delighted to see a homemade car craft in the yard. Inventive children will be able to play new games, and will definitely be proud of their folder, showing off your creation to their friends. And the mixture of happiness and pride for you in the eyes of a child is perhaps the only thing for which you can step on the throat of a long-awaited day off in the company of a sofa, TV and beer.

ABOUT own car Many people dream, but only a few find the strength, inspiration and desire to work hard and painstakingly to create their own dream car. It is these desperate self-taught people who do automotive world more interesting, saving him from the boredom of assembly line production. It is their creations that sometimes attract the attention of others more than the top models of famous manufacturers.

Today we want to introduce you to the best homemade cars from around the world. Our rating includes truly worthy homemade products that can be sent into mass production even today, without any fear of low demand. Most of the cars included in the rating can easily compete with cars from major manufacturers, but, unfortunately, they will forever remain in a single copy, delighting the public only at various auto shows. However, this is precisely what makes them special, inimitable, unique, and allows their owners to feel like heroes who managed to single-handedly create a truly worthy car. So, let's start.

There are only five homemade products in our rating. It could have been more, but we decided to limit ourselves only to cars that have passed all the necessary certification and are registered, i.e. All participants in the rating are allowed to drive on public roads without any restrictions. This only confirms their quality and uniqueness, and also indicates a real opportunity to compete with production cars.

Fifth place goes to the SUV " Black Raven", built in Kazakhstan. This unique vehicle, created for hunting in steppe conditions, has a threatening and at the same time futuristic design. "Black Raven" could easily star in science fiction films or even act as army vehicle, but it is used only by its creator - a modest self-taught engineer from Karaganda.

The appearance of the SUV is truly original, a little awkward, but original and brutal. "Black Raven" is real men's car with a powerful frame chassis, riveted aluminum body panels, “multi-eyed” optics and all-terrain wheels, ready to bite even into difficult soil. The “Black Raven” is eager to go into battle thanks to a powerful American-made V8 engine, working in conjunction with an automatic transmission and a ZIL-157 gearbox located on rear axle. Excellent ride quality SUV are guaranteed by a long wheelbase, wide track, central location of the engine and gearbox, as well as independent suspension with torsion bars from an armored personnel carrier. All this allows the car to maintain stability during sharp maneuvers even at a speed of about 100 km/h and easily overcome potholes and bumps along the way.

The unique homemade cabin is designed for two passengers. The jeep's equipment includes LED brake lights and turn signals, electric front windows, electric hood and a unique self-extractor with chain drive, mounted in the bottom. As for the price, the approximate cost of “Black Raven” is about 1,500,000 rubles.

Go ahead. On the fourth line we have first ever Cambodian car- "". Oddly enough, it was created not by a state or private automobile company, but by a simple mechanic, Nhin Pheloek, who decided that at 52 years old it was time to get his own car.

Angkor 333 is a very compact two-seater roadster with very modern features and a rather attractive design, especially for a poor Asian country.

The Cambodian homemade vehicle received a body with streamlined shapes, stylish optics and modern aerodynamic elements. Moreover, Angkor 333 is hybrid car, equipped with a traction electric motor, 3-speed automatic transmission and 45-horsepower gasoline unit, intended for recharging battery. Surprisingly, the homemade roadster is capable of accelerating up to 120 km/h and covering about 100 km on a single battery charge. In addition, the Angkor 333 is equipped with a touch display that acts as an instrument panel, and the doors are opened using a special magnetic plastic card. Even most people don’t have such functions. production cars, so the development of a talented mechanic is worthy of respect.

The first Angkor 333 was assembled in 2003. In 2006, the creator presented the second generation of his brainchild, and in 2010, a modified third-generation car was released, which to this day is hand-assembled in small batches to order in Nhin Pheloek’s garage, providing the retired mechanic with a comfortable old age. Unfortunately, nothing is known about the cost of the roadster.

In third place in our ranking is a car that is most often called “”. This impressive SUV was created by Vyacheslav Zolotukhin from Krasnokamensk, Trans-Baikal Territory. The homemade product is based on a modified GAZ-66 chassis, complemented by converted shock absorbers from KAMAZ, split front hubs and power steering from a Hino truck.

The Mega Cruiser Russia is powered by a naturally-aspirated 7.5-liter Hino h07D diesel engine, which, during the process of modification, received a KAMAZ air cleaning system. The engine is supported by a 6-speed manual transmission and transfer case from a GAZ-66, in which all bearings were replaced with imported ones. The homemade vehicle has a full drive, with the ability to lock the axles, in which the main pairs were replaced, which made it possible to achieve a smooth ride on paved roads.

The body of Mega Cruiser Russia is metal, prefabricated, attached to the frame through 12 shock-absorbing supports. The “living part” is a modernized cabin of an Isuzu Elf truck, to which is also attached a redesigned “rear” of the Noah minivan. The front part of the body consists of modernized wings from the GAZ-3307, a hood of our own design and a radiator grille made from several copies of the Land grille Cruiser Prado. The homemade bumpers are metal, of our own design, and the wheel rims are “riveted” from GAZ-66 wheels, which made it possible to install tires from the TIGER army jeep.

If you look into the salon, you will see 6 seats, a lot of free space, right-hand drive, quite nice interior and comfortable driver's seat with excellent visibility in all directions.

Mega Cruiser Russia is equipped with a 150-liter gas tank, a gyroscope, an electric winch with a force of 6 tons, an audio system and even a spoiler. According to the author of the homemade product, the SUV is capable of accelerating up to 120 km/h, its weight is 3800 kg, and average consumption fuel is 15 liters on the highway and about 18 liters off-road. Last year, Mega Cruiser Russia was put up for sale by its creator at a price of 3,600,000 rubles.

The second place in our rating of homemade products is occupied by another unique SUV, this time from Ukraine. We're talking about a car." Buffalo", also built on the basis of the GAZ-66. Its author is Alexander Chuvpilin from Bila Tserkva, Kiev region.

“Bison” received a more modern and more aerodynamic appearance, the originality of which is emphasized, first of all, by the front part of the body. The creator borrowed most of the body panels from the VW Passat 64, but some elements had to be made independently.

Under the hood of the Ukrainian homemade product there is a 4.0-liter turbodiesel with an output of 137 hp, borrowed from the Chinese DongFeng DF-40 truck. He also gave the Bison a 5-speed manual box transmission Together, Chinese units provided homemade SUV the ability to accelerate to 120 kph with an average fuel consumption of 15 liters per 100 km. Permanent drive The Bison has a rear one, with the ability to connect the front axle, lock the differential and use a low gear.
The car is capable of fording a ford up to 1.2 meters deep, and is also equipped with a tire pressure regulation system with an additional outlet for household needs: pumping up boats, using a pneumatic jack or pneumatic tools, etc.

The Bison's body, mounted on 12 supports, is reinforced with numerous stiffening ribs and a frame frame, and the roof of the SUV is made of 2 mm thick metal, which made it possible to place a drop-down tent on it for overnight stays. One of the features of the Bison is a nine-seater interior layout (3+4+2), while two rear seats, capable of rotating in any direction, can be removed, allowing you to increase free space luggage compartment. In general, the Bison has a comfortable and spacious interior with high-quality finishes, comfortable seats and a front panel with two glove compartments.

Among the numerous equipment installed on the Bison, we highlight the presence of power steering, dual amplifier brake system, rear view camera, GPS navigator, electric winch, special headlights reverse and a retractable rear door step. Alexander Chuvpilin spent about $15,000 to create “Bison.”

Well, all that remains is to name the winner, which, naturally, could only be a sports car, because it’s about racing car Every motorist dreams. A simple self-taught person without a technical education, Chelyabinsk resident Sergei Vladimirovich Ivantsov, who planned to build his own sports car back in 1983, also dreamed about it. A car with a simple name " ISV", consisting of the initials of the creator, was built for about 20 years and during this long journey it managed to survive two prototypes, sculpted on a 1:1 scale, first from window putty and then from plasticine. At the same time, according to the creator, he did everything “by eye,” without drawings or calculations.

From the plasticine model, Sergei made plaster casts of the parts of the future body, after which he painstakingly glued them out of fiberglass and epoxy resin. It is worth mentioning separately that the creator of this masterpiece is allergic to epoxy resin, and therefore he had to work in an army gas mask, sometimes spending 6-8 hours in it. What can I say, the tenacity with which he pursued his dream deserves respect, and the result of his work impresses not only ordinary onlookers, but also seasoned specialists automotive industry. From a design point of view, the homemade ISV is ready to compete with many currently produced sports cars, but the final concept of the sports car was conceived about 15 years ago. As Sergei himself admitted, he drew inspiration from the Lamborghini Countach, but if you look closely, you can catch notes of Aston Martin, Maserati, and even Bugatti in the appearance of the ISV.

The ISV is based on a spatial welded frame made of square pipes, and the entire chassis and suspension are borrowed with minor modifications from the Niva. The ISV has only rear-wheel drive, as befits a good sports car. As for the engine, initially the homemade product received a modest engine from the “classic”, but then it gave way to a 4-cylinder 1.8-liter engine with 113 hp. from the BMW 318, paired with a 4-speed automatic transmission. Unfortunately, due to his great love for his brainchild, Sergey never loaded ISV onto full power, so we will probably never know the true speed capabilities of the car. The author of the sports car himself drives quite carefully and does not accelerate more than 140 km/h.

Let's take a look at the ISV salon. Here is a classic sports car 2-seater layout with an interior tailored to the maximum comfort of the driver. And this is not surprising, because the interior was made by hand and was repeatedly modified and redesigned. Here, as in the exterior, you can see an interior design concept worthy of a sports car, some details of which also resemble the styling of cars from famous manufacturers. The ISV has a removable roof, guillotine doors, air conditioning, power steering, a stylish Audi dashboard and an audio system.
It’s difficult to talk about the price of ISV. The creator himself considers his car priceless and, according to some sources, once refused to sell it for 100,000 euros.

That's all, we introduced you to the most interesting and high-quality home-made cars of recent times, approved for use on public roads. Each of them is unique, original and interesting in its own way. But all together, they certainly left their bright mark on the history of the global automobile industry and gave a sea of ​​positive emotions not only to their creators, but also to numerous visitors to various automobile exhibitions and shows. We hope that the number of people who like to create masterpiece cars in their garage will only grow, and, therefore, we will have reasons for new ratings.

Various homemade products for cars have always been of interest to motorists. They are all designed to improve performance, appearance or comfort. passenger car. For example, you can make a subwoofer, a convenient organizer, eyelashes for headlights, license plate protection, etc. with your own hands. We will tell you about some useful homemade products that are available to everyone.

Every motorist strives to make his car unique. This can be done with the help of unique overlays on the headlights, which are called cilia and add some zest to the appearance of any car.

To make your own eyelashes you will need the following:

• construction hair dryer;
• thick paper or cardboard;
• primer and paint;
• sandpaper;
• hacksaw;
• scotch;
• plexiglass.

First you need to decide what shape of eyelashes you want to get. The choice depends on your preferences and imagination. Draw a template on paper or cardboard and cut it out. You can use it to cut a piece of plexiglass in the future.

Attach the created template to the headlight of your car and give it a finished look by carefully fitting all the edges. When everything is ready, attach the template to the plexiglass and trace it with some sharp object. The part should be cut out along the resulting contour.

In order not to damage the headlights and protect them from scattering, it is better to cover their surface with tape. Use a hairdryer to heat the workpiece, and when it begins to bend, you can apply it to the headlight.

After this, the surface must be treated with sandpaper, moistening it with water. When everything is dry, prime the part and then paint it in any suitable color. Everything is very easy, and the result can exceed all your expectations.

If on rims your car has scratches or chips that damage appearance products, you can take the wheels to a specialized workshop for painting. If you don’t want to spend money on this, you can try to restore the damaged areas yourself.

To work you will need:

1. Scratched discs.
2. Epoxy glue of any color, since a layer of paint will be applied on top. However, if the paste is too bright, it may show through the paintwork, so before applying paint it is better to prime everything thoroughly with a primer.
3. Sandpaper number 300-400 and 600.
4. Adhesive tape.
5. Spray paint and varnish.

First, using coarse sandpaper, you need to clean the places of chips and scratches to such an extent that you could not feel any bumps with your hand. We recommend covering the rubber with adhesive tape and covering it with newspapers to prevent paint from getting on it.

Mix both components of epoxy glue in a one to one ratio. Apply the mixture to the cleaned scratches so that the mixture completely fills them, and a thin layer forms on top.

Dry everything thoroughly. This takes a lot of time, and to speed up the process you can use heat by placing a fan heater or a simple incandescent light bulb near the disks.

When the glue has dried, sand it with fine sandpaper, preparing the surface for painting. Everything should be smooth to the touch and look - this is important.

Using a spray can, painting the wheels is not difficult at all. You need to thoroughly shake the can and start spraying the paint from a distance of 20-30 cm. The paint should be applied in layers. Avoid too obvious transitions by applying two or three layers. Each of them needs to be dried, waiting for half an hour. To protect fresh paint from dust, it is better to carry out painting work in a pre-humidified room.

After the paint has dried, apply two coats of varnish. Between layers you need to wait half an hour, and the top layer should dry longer.

When everything is thoroughly dry, you need to moisten the finest sanding paper (1000-2000 grit) with water and carefully smooth the varnished area. To achieve factory shine, the surface can be polished.

The theft of registration plates today has become one of the illegal ways for criminals to earn money. It takes thieves no more than 10 seconds to steal license plates from a car. In order not to fall into the trap of scammers, you need to take care of protecting your registration number. There are several methods, each of which can be implemented independently at home.

Protect your number with tape

This method of protecting your license plate from theft may seem funny to you, but it is quite effective. The back surface of the registration number should be degreased and double-sided tape should be attached to it. This simple and inexpensive way to protect your plate creates an additional barrier for a thief to keep your license plate.

Secrets for car number

Instead of simple screws that secure the license plate, lockers are installed. The hats are designed in such a way that the secrets can only be unscrewed special key, sold together with fasteners. The kit costs about 500 rubles, and installation does not take much time.

Making a car with your own hands is a task worthy of a real man. Many people think about it, some take it on, and only a few bring it to completion. We decided to tell the stories of cars made, as they say, on the knee. We’ll talk about the work of professional body shops, including those like A:Level or ElMotors, another time.

The work of the masters of the East

Most of the home-made people are in the so-called developing countries. Afford expensive car Not everyone can, but everyone wants to. And in these countries they look at copyright, let’s say, in a peculiar way, not in a European way.

It’s easy to find a video on the Internet about an entire factory of “homemade” supercars in Bangkok. These cost tens of times less than the original. Now it no longer works: apparently, the German journalists who made videos about home-made workers did them a disservice, and local authorities began to think about the missing licenses of the “masters” and the safety of the cars they riveted. It’s clear that these crafts were not specifically crash tested.

It is interesting that, in principle, the Thais maintained supercars - they made spatial frames from metal profiles and pipes and “dressed” them in fiberglass bodies. In most cases, do-it-yourselfers simply take old cars, cut off the “extra” body panels and attach their own. This technology is used, for example, to build this replica of the Bugatti Veyron from India. An ambitious project, right according to the saying “to love is like a queen, to steal is like a million.” The author and owner used an old one as a basis Honda Civic. And he tried - outwardly the copy turned out to be worthy: it’s not for nothing that the audience looks at it so carefully.

Another Indian, a former actor, now a social reformer, concocted a parody of the Veyron from the Honda Accord. It turned out creepy. Another one took the Tata Nano as a basis. Let me remind you that this is officially the cheapest production car in the world with peculiar proportions. Very weak and slow. However, the author of this project is clearly not without a sense of humor, because Veyron, on the contrary, is one of the most expensive, powerful and fastest production cars.

Supercars from junkyards

The Chinese are not lagging behind their Thai and Indian colleagues. A young glass factory worker, Chen Yanxi, did not parody someone else’s design, but made his own, his own. And even though his car looks decent only from a distance, and only goes 40 km/h (the installed electric motor doesn’t allow it anymore), I don’t want to laugh at Chen. Well done for going your own way. More often it happens differently.

Three years ago, 26-year-old Chinese prop designer Li Weilei was so impressed by the Tumbler Batmobile from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight that he built one. It took him and four friends 70,000 yuan (about 11 thousand dollars) and only two months of work. Lee took the steel for the body from a landfill, shoveling 10 tons of metal. To help offset the costs, he now rents out his Tumbler for photo and video shoots for just 10 bucks a month. But tenants must be prepared to roll the “replica” by hand. The car cannot drive, since it has neither a power unit nor a functional steering wheel. In addition, in China only cars produced by certified manufacturers are put on the road.

Another Chinese craftsman, Wang Jian from Jiangsu province, made his own “copy” of a Lamborghini Reventon from an old Nissan minivan and Volkswagen sedan Santana. And he also hauled metal from a landfill. I spent 60,000 yuan (9.5 thousand dollars) on this matter. At the car carburetor engine, it smokes mercilessly, it does not have an interior or even glass, but the author himself likes the result, and the neighbors believe that Jian’s car is a fairly accurate copy of Lambo. The author claims that he is able to accelerate to 250 km/h in his supercar. No one risks dissuading him.

As you can see, most of all do-it-yourselfers love to copy Ferrari and Lamborghini. Externally. Inside this car by Mr. Meath from Thailand is a motorcycle Lifan engine volume of a quarter liter.

The funniest and most touching creation is by Chinese farmer Guo from Zhengzhou. He made a Lambo for... his grandson. The car has children's dimensions - 900 by 1800 mm and an electric motor that allows it to accelerate to 40 km/h. A battery of five batteries is enough for 60 km of travel. Guo spent $815 and six months of work on his brainchild.

A Vietnamese car mechanic from Bac Giang province created a resemblance of a Rolls-Royce using a “seven”. I bought it for 10 million dong (about $500). He spent another 20 million on “tuning”. Most of the amount went to metal, electrodes and a radiator grille a la Rolls-Royce, ordered from a local workshop. It turned out rough. But the guy became famous. A real Rolls-Royce Phantom in Vietnam costs about 30 billion VND.

Samauto-2017

In the vastness former USSR The traditions of self-building are also strong. During the Soviet years, there was a movement called “samavto”, which united enthusiasts of homemade cars and motorcycles. And there were quite a few of them, since in those years it seemed that it was easier to assemble a car with your own hands than to buy it - despite the total shortage of spare parts and bureaucratic obstacles. And what interesting projects were born in those years! Yuna, Pangolina, Laura, Ichthyander and others... Yes, there were people. However, they remained.

Several years ago, I wrote about the brainchild of Muscovite Evgeniy Danilin called an SUV, reminiscent of the Hummer H1, but significantly superior to it in cross-country ability.

I immediately remember my long-standing acquaintance with Alexander Timashev from Bishkek. His workshop ZerDo Design created a whole series in the 2000s interesting homemade products, the first of which was the Barkhan, also a similarity to the Hummer based on the GAZ-66. Then the “Mad Cabin” appeared, a type of American hot rod, made from the cabin of the ZIL-157 army truck - “Zakhara”. .

The “Crazy Cab” was followed by homemade products in retro style - the so-called replicars, speedster and phaeton. And for them, Kyrgyz craftsmen made not only bodies and interiors, but even frames.

IN automotive history Soviet period there was one negative point: limited the lineup. But not only this forced citizens to make cars with their own hands. The process itself was important to enthusiasts, but the results were often worthy. Some homemade products have survived to this day, and Autocenter was able to get acquainted with them.

The party and the government took the movement of automakers under their wing and called it “Samavto”, rightly judging that creative leisure in the garage is much more useful than intellectual gatherings “in the kitchen.” Man, creating a car according to his own drawings, pursued two goals - to get new car cheaply and without a queue, as well as self-realization. In fact, the time and money costs for construction new car were no less than for the purchase of a serial one.

For those who decided to take the difficult step of making a car with their own hands, in a country of perpetual shortages, the problem of choosing components did not exist. Conceptual solutions were almost standard: for example, the body in most cases was made of fiberglass and epoxy resins. This material was easy to form and process, allowing additional equipment achieve the required shapes, it was strong and resistant to corrosion. And yet, some super-desperate craftsmen tapped metal body panels on wooden blanks. People who had already built home-made cars wrote books in which they shared their experiences (“I am building a car”, “A car with my own hands”).

In addition to the shortage of spare parts, there was another limitation to the flight of fancy for folk designers. Special Rules regulated the main parameters of the power unit, the dimensions of the car, the radii of curvature of bumpers and body corners, etc. As for the engine, its specific power should not go beyond 24-50 hp. With. per ton of vehicle weight. Therefore, in terms of weight, only engines from Zaporozhets were suitable for most cars: 0.9 liters (27 hp) and 1.2 liters (27-40 hp) or, at most, from a VAZ-2101 - 1 .2 l (64 hp). It is also interesting that the minimum allowable ground clearance was 150 mm. In a word, the mentioned Rules were subject only to security and did not contain ideological overtones. So the State Traffic Inspectorate allowed the construction of any type of body. And often the “homemade” ones chose frankly bourgeois body layout options - coupe, convertible, minivan, and less often a station wagon.

A distinctive feature of this coupe with a “2+2” layout (two adults and two children’s seats) is that it is the first mass-produced home-made car in the USSR (at least 6 pieces were made). It is worth noting that in addition to complete cars, several fiberglass body blanks were also produced. The press of those times wrote a lot about this prominent representative of the all-Union Sam-Avto movement. Of course, the stylish rear-engine coupe was created on the basis of the 965 Zaporozhets - the most primitive and unprestigious car of its time.

One of the first-born of such a once quite common phenomenon as the construction of a homemade car. No articles were written about this car in popular science magazines, it was not taken to exhibitions abroad, because it was created exclusively as a means of transportation. The car is equipped with a homemade three-cylinder gasoline engine. Such a bold step by the designer is explained by the fact that it was difficult for him to find a power unit of the permitted power, and he could wait several months for it to arrive at the spare parts store.

On sports coupe“Gran Turismo Shcherbininykh” in 1969 had an engine from the GAZ-21 “Volga”, which accelerated the car to 150 km/h. The heavy car was equipped with a more powerful engine, which was not permitted by law, but still, the traffic police, harsh at that time, conquered by the level of homemade work, issued license plates to the brothers and registered the car. The history of the creation of the car body reflects the passion and “fanaticism” of the creators. The Shcherbinin brothers welded the frame of the future car in the courtyard of their high-rise building. Then it was lifted by a truck crane into the apartment on the seventh floor, where a body made of fiberglass was put on the frame. After this, already downstairs, in the yard, the assembled body acquired power unit, gearbox, suspension, fittings.

This homemade product was registered with both the State Traffic Inspectorate and the State Inspectorate for Small Vessels. The engine from the 21st Volga, paired with a gearbox from the big-eared Zaporozhets, accelerated the car to a respectable 120 km/h on land, and up to 50 km/h on water. Thanks to the excellent weight distribution along the axles (50:50), the car had an enviable smooth ride and stability on a country highway. Instead of a propeller to move along rivers and lakes, the author used a water cannon, like army amphibians, allowing movement in shallow water. Made it easier for the car to storm the shores four-wheel drive. On the water, the wheels were lifted up along the sides by a cable winch; the brake hydraulic lines had quick-acting “dry” connectors.

Another uncharacteristic car for Samavto is a “high-volume” car. According to one drawing, five cars were built on the basis of the Tolyatti “six”: two in Tbilisi and three in Moscow. To make the body, both fiberglass, which was scarce at that time, and ordinary burlap, which was impregnated with epoxy resin, were used. The basis of the body was a metal bottom from the VAZ “classic”, which was glued with fiberglass to avoid corrosion. Subsequently, one of these homemade cars was converted into an electric car.

The all-wheel drive minibus with a front engine was built using units from the VAZ-2101 sedan. It easily converts into a pickup truck thanks to its removable metal sides and roof. For this reason, the car was loved by cameramen who filmed reports on the All-Union Sam-Auto runs. The “single-volume” body is mounted on a riveted frame from pre-war car, transfer case the creator borrowed from the wartime Willys MB SUV. The suspension, as is customary among “proper” off-road conquerors, is fully dependent and leaf spring. Although the car looks similar to the “loaf” UAZ-452, they have little in common. Despite its considerable spaciousness, the car easily fit into the size restrictions defined by regulatory documents for homemade products. Then, in terms of the volume of cargo transported, the minibus was compared with the Volga station wagon GAZ-24-02.

The Soviet Lamborghini was built on VAZ-2101 units in a fiberglass monocoque body. Thanks to its streamlined shape, the car accelerated to 180 km/h. It featured a number of innovations that were unprecedented for the automobile industry of that time. For example, the role of doors was played by a part of the roof that was raised by a pneumatic drive along with the windshield and side windows. The engine was started not by the ignition key, but by typing a digital code on the keypad. Side mirrors were not provided for in the design; instead, there was a periscope mounted near the hatch in the roof. But to obtain license plates, mirrors had to be installed. The car helped its creator, engineer Alexander Kulygin, get a job at the AZLK design bureau.

Two front-wheel drive cars, built by engineer friends, appeared simultaneously with the first mass-produced front-wheel drive cars in the USSR. In 1986, at the “100 Years of the Automobile” exhibition in Prague, Nuccio Bertone himself was pleasantly surprised by the modern coupe and did not immediately believe that it was homemade. The engine from the VAZ-2105 was placed in front, the gearbox from the Zaporozhets was turned backwards (there were almost no other options for creating a front-wheel drive car in the Union at that time). The wheels were driven by CV joints from the VAZ-2121 Niva, the body was fiberglass.

Konstantin Shirokun
Photo by Sergei Iones

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