Every day's a school day!

[KruJoe]

Remember this, from the eBay thread?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1983-TALBOT-A ... 1113853640

 

 

 

 

Someone mistook my Samara for one of these last week. Now I see where he was coming from.

 

Ish.

My Samara:

 

Someone mistook my Solara for a Lada not so long ago, so you're not alone.

I told the guy who thought it was a Talbot that my Samara might have some residual Fiat technology under the skin, but it's otherwise all Lada.

He tried to style it out by saying Simca/Chrysler/Talbot sent their presses etc to Russia, so that's why it looks the same.

"Silly old fool" thought I, made my excuses, and left him with his whippet.

 

 

Then, today...

Moskvitch Aleko

 

 

Apparently based on a Simca 1307.

 

WTactualF?

He was (almost) right!

 

Check this out, lifted straight from Wikipedia:

Moskvitch 2141S "Aleko"

Also called Lada Aleko (outside USSR)

The Moskvitch 2141, commonly referred to as simply Aleko (Russian: "ÃÂÛÕÚÞ", derivative from factory name "ÃÂòтþüþñøûьýыù ÷ðòþô øüõýø ÛõýøýÑÂúþóþ ÚþüÑÂþüþûð", Aftomobilnyi zavod imeni Leninskogo Komsomola, meaning "Automotive Factory of Lenin's Komsomol"), is a Russian small class, third group hatchback car that was first announced in 1985 and sold in the Soviet Union and its successor states between 1986 and 2000 (gradually replaced in 2001 by its sedan body version, Moskvitch 2142, which never was produced in large quantities and which worldwide sales wasn't even started) by the now bankrupt Moskvitch Stock Company, based in Moscow, Russia.

 

Aleko was a huge improvement over previous Moskvitch models, which were dependable but old-fashioned saloons and station wagons (estates) with rear-wheel drive and a solid rear axle. In fact, Aleko had no common parts with previous models apart from the engine and some other minor details and parts.

 

For Moskvitch, Aleko was innovative, having front-wheel drive, a hatchback body style, McPherson strut front suspension and torsion-crank rear suspension. The wheelbase went up almost 20 centimetres (7.9 in), the body got 14 centimetres (5.5 in) wider, the wheel size went up one inch (14 inches). The car became more spacious, comfortable and safe. For the first time in the history of Russian car making, the car's profile was optimized for aerodynamics, with the help of Russian and French aircraft and space engineers. The officially reported by factory drag coefficient is 0.35.

 

The car originated as a front-wheel drive "proof of concept", based on foreign models. In the late 1970s Moskvitch bought about two dozen compact cars built by different manufacturers, and thoroughly tested them. French and Swedish cars were favored for their utility and reliability. The final decision was made by the Minister of Automobile Industry, who surprisingly for the factory chose the French Simca 1307 as the best candidate for the Soviet market.

 

Engineers modified an existing Moskvitch engine for front-wheel drive layout and fitted the drivetrain into the Simca. For this an Audi 100 as a model car was used. After the tests were successfully completed, it was decided by the rights to copy the Simca 1307 bodyshell almost entirely, starting from the A-pillar. While this decision helped to cut the development costs, it came as an insult to engineers and designers, who had their own mock-ups of future car ready. The morale of the staff had been damaged, and Aleko never became a beloved project among Moskvitch engineers (testimony by the Chief Designer of the Moskvitch Stock Company at the time, Igor Zaitsev. Autoreview, 2002, #5, in Russian)

 

The existing engine was too long for transverse placement, so it was placed longitudinally, like on the Audi 80/100 series. Many ideas and design decisions were borrowed from Audi cars (which ones were bought into factory also), including torsion-crank rear suspension, McPherson strut front suspension, rack-and-pinion steering and a collapsible steering column. The spare tyre was located underneath the boot and was accessible from outside, in the tradition of French cars. As with Audis, zinc coating of doors and body floor was also planned, but it was actually done only for small quantity of the cars.

Aleko interior

 

Despite "second-hand" styling and design, the Aleko turned out to be quite a breakthrough for the Soviet automotive industry. Its body design was modern compared to the obsolete looking "angular" Lada Samara. It almost became the first production front-wheel drive car of the Soviet Union, but after development it took a further two years for Moskvitch to set up the manufacturing, and the Lada Samara arrived first. Despite the better and more comfortable design from Samara the very low assembling quality of Aleko (one particular car, for example, had horn switches in the steering wheel completely missing) resulted to a low reputation of this car in the markets. The positive features of this car were robustness of construction, handiness in repairing works. Aleko has high "off-road" driving capabilities also.

Comparison between body design of the Simca 1307 (black) and the Aleko (red):

Aleko was sold mostly on the domestic market, but in the late 1980s it was exported too. In some export markets, including France & Germany, the cars were advertised as the Lada Aleko, and diesel engines from Ford and Indenor could be delivered in addition to the standard petrol engines. The Aleko was also assembled in Bulgaria under licence for a brief period in the late 1980s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleko

How's about that then, boys and girls?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

An Indenor-powered one of these sounds ACE, just imagine the speed and roadholding with one of those boat anchors hung out front.

[CreepingJesus]

Funny, I just posted in Tayne's thread about how some of the cars look like old stuff tarted up. And yet, looking at his picture of this I could see some sort of vague resemblance. The superimposed image above makes it so much clearer. They actually managed to mount the engine longitudinally, without substantially increasing the length, or the front overhang!

+1 on the Indenor pig iron lump. Imagine the car chase in a Cold War film with that chasing our heroes? They'd have made a clean getaway in a 1300 Marina...

[CreepingJesus]

It was a DC-3! Andrei Tupolev headed a delegation which was invited to M-D to discuss technical stuff, and have a tour round the factory. Half the 'delegates' were actual spies, and they were rumbled, and ejected from the factory. Initially, they just built DC-3 alikes (and not that well either), until they actually got the rights to license build them. At which point they promptly 'redesigned' it, so it could be a glorious Russian achievement.

[RedSparrow]

Oddly enough I was talking to Czech student of mine today. He was very knowledgeable about cars but had no idea that the Lada was based on an old Fiat. Presumably because they didn't admit to the public that they couldn't fund their own designs.

[scaryoldcortina]

This would be a good place to add this

 

from here

[Guest]

There's a fascinating account of the final days of Moskvich in Andrew Thompson's book Cars Of The Soviet Union.

Are those cars on the racks Prince Vladimirs? It's not unlike the near legendary 28DL urbex of Longbridge before the SAIC takeover.

[ashmicro]

TU-144 "Concordski" was a bit shit, too

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144

[brickwall]

Oddly enough I was talking to Czech student of mine today. He was very knowledgeable about cars but had no idea that the Lada was based on an old Fiat. Presumably because they didn't admit to the public that they couldn't fund their own designs.

 

 

Might just be a generation thing. Sometimes when I mention a car or even British Leyland, I get a blank stare.

[RedSparrow]

I guess this guy is in his mid-30's. He knew loads about western makes though!

 

I was a bit confused as to what model those cars hanging there were, but then found this: