Commie copy cats

[RedSparrow]

Hello!

I've been meaning to do a thread about this for ages. There may have been one similar years ago, I can't remember.

Anyway, over time I've come to realise that a huge amount of cars built by various Communist countries are, style wise, remarkably similar looking to certain western products.

I'm not talking 'based on' like Ladas, just looks wise.

 

I'll start with a bit of an obscure one - is it just me?:

 

Polish Nysa MK1

Mercedes L319

[RedSparrow]

Then the Lada Samara:

Against the Citroen CX:

[RedSparrow]

Yugo Sana:

Fiat Tipo:

[ProgRocker]

I've always thought that the Lada Samara was more of a copy of the Talbot Alpine rather than the Citroen ZX. Besides, the ZX was a lot later than the Samara.

[RedSparrow]

Ooof! You're right Mr Rocker! But I guess the French count as Communists too.

[Shep Shepherd]

Moskvtich Aleko:

 

 

Talbot Alpine:

 

[Spiny Norman]

Given the original Yugo/Zastava was a leftover Fiat 128 with a hatch it's possible the Sana was based to some degree on the Strada rather than the Tipo, which was its contemporary.

 

Apart from the old Fiat cast-offs (Polski 125/Lada/Yugo 311 etc) I think a lot of the commie cars were 'inspired by' rather than based on older European ancestors. The original Skoda 1000MB looked like it shared a lot with the Renault Dauphine, and likewise the later S100 had similarities with the Renault 8/10/1100s.

 

Also the Morris Marina was a car built by Commies that was based on a successful European design....

[FredTransit]

Gaz Gazelle

 

 

Mk5 Transit

 

[Spiny Norman]

Is that blood on the front corner of that Gazelle where the bumper's broken?

Some comrade not quick enough in getting out the way maybe....

[brickwall]

North Korean Merc

 

[CortinaDave]

Not a car but - Concorde and the Tupolev TU-144

 

 

Really fancy a look at that museum actually, but it's in Germany, and I'm not THAT arsed to make the trip...

[Negative Creep]

Wasn't the Moskovitch engine a direct rip off of a BMW lump?

[pshome]

 

[John F]

The IMZ-Ural / Dnepr 650, also sold in the UK as the "Cossack":

 

 

... was basically a BMW R-71...

 

 

Often incorrectly claimed to have been copied from captured Wehrmacht machines in WWII, the design blueprints & tooling for the BMW R-71 were shipped to the Soviet Union long before Operation Barbarossa as part of the German-Soviet Commercial Agreement of February 1940.

[Richard]

It's not all one way. It's well known that the allies turned down the chance to take over the Volkswagen, they didn't turn down the DKW RT125, though.

 

 

[RichardMoss]

I've always thought that the Lada Samara was more of a copy of the Talbot Alpine rather than the Citroen ZX.

 

Same here

[Ben_L]

I've always thought that the Lada Samara was more of a copy of the Talbot Alpine rather than the Citroen ZX.

 

Same here

 

The Samara was based on a Mitsubishi underneath wasn't it? Same technology as the J-Reg Proton...

 

Or I've been fed bullshit again.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

BS I think, i;ve never heard of the japanese getting involved with Lada