What Are The Fates ?! Our Cars In Countries, In Which Their Should Not & Nbsp

2023 Author: Natalie MacDonald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 13:59

You never know where fate will throw you. This truth turned out to be applicable not only to people, but also to cars. We often see the next 10 cars in Russia, but you do not expect to see them in the countries that will be discussed today.

Moskvich-412 in Iceland

Iceland is cold, damp and not crowded. Approximately, as in the northern regions of Russia. However, this is not the reason for the appearance of domestic cars on the island. For example, several VAZ Niva SUVs came here from Europe in the late 1970s: in Iceland, the model was called LadSport. As for the rest of the cars, they went to Iceland on a barter basis. Including "Moskvich" from these photos.

In the 70s, the so-called "crackling war" was going on between the two NATO countries, Iceland and Great Britain. UK fishing vessels entered Iceland's cod-rich waters and fished. At the same time, ships of the Royal Navy blocked off large Icelandic merchant ships so that they could not leave ports and bring already processed fish to the continent. At the same time, no one touched small boats and fishermen's ships.

The logic of the British was as follows: over time, the Icelanders will have so many fish in storage that they will simply stop going out to sea for a while, and therefore interfere with their fishing. But Her Majesty's subjects did not take into account one fact …

They did not take into account that the Soviet Union would come to the aid of the Icelanders. Since the armed forces of both Great Britain and Iceland were not eager to conflict with the Soviets, the ships of the USSR entered the ports of Iceland without any problems. There, the exchange of goods took place: the Soviet Union received fresh fish from Iceland, and Iceland - the products of the USSR, including cars.

Most of the imported cars were represented by "Zhiguli", but were on the export lists and "Muscovites". One of them, "Moskvich" -412 1974, still lives on the island. And it is in excellent condition!

SMZ S-3D in Great Britain

Cars of the Serpukhov Automobile Plant could only be purchased by Soviet citizens with disabilities. However, not everyone used this: not the most comfortable cars with motorcycle engines were inconvenient to operate and stood idle in garages on jacks longer than they drove on the roads.

It was possible to seize the opportunity and become the owner of this miracle of technology throughout the Soviet Union - including Lithuania. It was there that the rear-engined two-seater "coupe" with an air-cooled engine, which is shown in the photo, spent most of its life.

The car, which is technically similar to the early Porsche 911, lived in Lithuania until 2016, after which it moved with the owner to Worcester, UK. Moreover, according to the owner, who moved with the car, the car did not go at all in Foggy Albion. And for this very reason, in December 2018, C-3D was put up for sale on eBay. The last rate recorded by the Internet was £ 1000 (about 87 thousand rubles). Not bad for a Soviet disabled woman with a 350 cc 18 horsepower engine.

Ladoga AS-1913 in Angola

In this monster on a caterpillar track, not everyone will be able to recognize the UAZ-469. But this is it. Initially, the Ladoga project was created for the collection services of Russia, but several copies of this all-terrain vehicle ended up in Angola, where a very difficult fate awaited them.

In 1991, the African government ordered 20 Ladoga vehicles to patrol the diamond mines. According to the terms of reference, 10 patrol cars were to be wheeled, and the other 10 - on caterpillar. Moreover, both variants of the car had to be unified as much as possible in order to quickly turn the wheeled versions into tracked ones, and vice versa.

Already in the spring of 1992, the first batch of 10 wheeled vehicles arrived in Angola, but there was an overlap with the tracked version - the propellers from Bombardier took too long to go through customs, which is why the second batch of Ladogs arrived in Angola only in the fall.

But most importantly, by that time, the special purpose vehicles turned out to be of no use to anyone - riots broke out in the country and the authorities had more serious problems. And when they returned to the off-road vehicles that were idle in the port, it was found that only six of them were more or less complete, and the rest were taken away for parts.

At the beginning of 2017, one of these more or less complete machines was acquired by the Smirnov Design Bureau. The tracked vehicle was completely restored.

GAZ-21 in Australia

If it were not for Lembit Marder, the Volga would not have existed on the "inverted" continent to this day. But fate decreed otherwise.

Although Lembit himself was born and lived all his life in Australia, his parents were immigrants from Estonia. And in 1983, Lembit's mom and dad decided that it would be nice for her son to get to know his roots. In the summer of the same year, the young man went to his relatives in the Baltic States. History is silent about whether Lembit liked the homeland of his ancestors, but what the young man definitely remembered and sunk into his soul was the 21st Volga. As Lembit recalled, she looked like American and Australian cars, but at the same time it was some kind of different.

The young man carried his love for the Volga throughout his life and in 2009 imported the first 21st to Australia. On the spot, it turned out that the car was far from ideal, and its repair would cost more than 20 thousand Australian dollars! Therefore, Lembit sold the gray Volga to some adventurer and imported another, this time black. And the gray car remained in Australia.

After driving a black GAZ-21 for a while, Lembit handed the car over to the National Auto Museum in Birdwood, South Australia. Now we know about at least three 21 "Volgas" in Australia - another copy (white) was imported by a visitor to the museum.

GAZ-3102 Limousine in Syria

There is an interesting story behind every limousine based on the Volga, but this car is truly special. He spent almost his entire life in Syria, but now he returned to his homeland to take a place in someone's collection.

The car was manufactured by the Nizhny Novgorod studio "Rida" by order of the Syrian People's Republic. Given the name of the project ("Bashar al-Assad"), it is easy to guess for whom the armored limousine was intended. The same version is confirmed by an archive photo.

The car received an elongated body with steel armor plates and thick (27.5 millimeters) glass in a circle, which did not fall for safety. Because of this, as well as due to the installation of a new engine, Toyota's 3RZ-FE, the Volga's weight jumped to 1900 kilograms.

In addition to a different engine, increased wheelbase and armor, the limousine is distinguished by a reinforced suspension with Bilstein shock absorbers, holes for flagpoles on the wings, radio antennas on the roof and a leather interior. Since the climate in Syria is hot, there is also a powerful air conditioner on board. The car arrived in the Middle East at the beginning of this century, but was not particularly used.

ZIL-41045 in the USA

The circulation of ZIL-41045, which was produced in the period from 1983 to 1985, was 65 copies. Most of these cars were destroyed immediately after they were removed from the special purpose garage. What are the chances that one of these cars will survive and then move to the United States?

The chances are very small, but it did happen: one of the 1985 limousines has been in New York since 2014. Rumor has it that this is not just the last limousine from the 41045 series, but also the very car that served Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 during his visit to Washington. This is truly a car with a history!

Despite the collection status, ZiL periodically travels to the promenade. Imagine what it is like for Americans to contemplate an unknown sedan that is larger than the Cadillac Escalade. And the local petrolheads will also love the sound: 7.7 atmospheric liters packed in a V8 engine can't sound bad.

By the way, 41045 is not the only ZiL limousine in the States. In 2017, Craigslist was selling a post-Soviet sedan, 41047. The buyer wanted to raise $ 750,000 for the car.

ZAZ-1102 Tavria in Chile

Wherever our brother was taken … But this is almost like finding our cars on Mars: "Tavria" was found in Chile. It is not known for certain how the products of the Zaporozhye Automobile Plant ended up so far from home. But the most plausible version is as follows: in the early 90s, Argentine racer and entrepreneur Oswald "Coco" Lopez was looking for cheap cars for rallycross competitions. And he stopped at the Ukrainian Tavria. Naturally, not all cars went to motorsport - some of them were sold to everyone in the showroom.

But, since the names ZAZ and "Tavria" for the Argentines sounded approximately like "yvlaoyfuk7ilyvoi" and "lo7r098fiv", Lopez imported cars under the name LadTavria. Moreover, on some copies of 1102, the emblem of the ZAZ plant was replaced by a VAZ boat.

Already from Argentina, cars began to spread throughout South America, some of them reached Chile. Like Lopez, locals repair Tavria using parts from Fiat and Renault. It is possible that such "Tavriya" is more reliable than the factory ones.

Lad4x4 ("Niva") in Japan

In Japan, you can find any car: from classic Mercedes from AMG with runs in the region of 10 thousand kilometers to the ultimate Porsche 962, which can be driven on public roads. Russian and Soviet cars are no exception: there are also enough of them here.

Some time ago, the Japanese firmly "got hooked" on the domestic "Loaf" - they really like the good-natured look of an off-road van. So much so that some kei-cars are even stylized under the "Loaf"! But there is one more Russian car that the Japanese know very well - the Niva.

Moreover, the Niva is still the only Russian passenger car that has been officially sold in Japan: it has been available on the island since the early 1980s and is called LadTaiga. The Soviet Union expected the car to compete with local compact SUVs like the Suzuki Samurai, but the tax surcharges imposed on all imported cars made the Niva a Red Book car in Japan.

Prices for used SUVs in the Land of the Rising Sun are about one and a half million rubles. On new ones - about two. And buyers are still there!

LadVestSport in Switzerland

The years have passed when Switzerland was one of the most motorsport countries in Europe. Now the state has crazy fines for speeding, and motorsport competitions are generally prohibited. However, this does not mean that motor sportsmen have died out in banking paradise.

How else to explain the appearance of LadVestSport on local roads on local numbers? A real exclusive, you can't buy it on every corner in Switzerland! Yes, Lad cars are officially on sale in the country, but Swiss dealers offer only Niva and ordinary Vestas - a sedan, as well as SW and SW Cross station wagons.

Rumor has it that the car was bought in Germany, but the VestSport version is not officially on sale there either. In short, a riddle. But we have VestSport on sale for a year now, prices for it start from 1,057,900 rubles. There is only one trim level, and it includes a 145-horsepower naturally aspirated engine, a sports chassis, a five-speed manual gearbox from Renault, and a body kit.

Aurus Senat in Belgium

An even more mysterious case than VestSport in Switzerland. Official sales of Aurus limousines have not yet begun even here, but a white sedan with local numbers is already driving on the roads of Belgium. What can this talk about?

That Aurus will definitely be sold in the Benelux countries. The car, which was photographed in Belgium, bore license plates with green symbols, which are usually placed by dealerships. Most likely, the car is intended for test drives of potential buyers.

More or less full-scale production of Russian hybrid sedans with a 4.4-liter engine will start in 2021 at the facilities of the Sollers group. The first private clients will receive their cars in May of the same year. Senat prices start at 18 million rubles. When Belgian fans of heavy Russian luxury will be able to get their cars, it is not clear.