Zaporozhets ownership opportunity

[Sam Glover]

Buggering around with my Zaporozhets 968A has let me to conclude that it's one of the best cars ever made. The engine's a work of mentallist genius - and beautifully engineered to boot. It's given me a rampant desire to own a really good one and, sadly, I've concluded that the easiest way to achieve this is to cease buggering around with my two not-very-good ones and import a spanky-good one from Russia.

 

So: does anyone fancy a Zappo project (or a pair of Zappo projects, depending on how you view it)?

 

I bought the blue 968A in Poland last year for £900. It was on Allegro.pl and I was filled with drunken optimism. The body's been subjected to restoration in Poland. It's basically solid, but the work is of a pretty low aesthetic standard. It looks better in photos than it does in real life, as I discovered. The rear window's missing... aside from the bits down the back of the rear seat that I've not fished out yet.

 

I got it running recently. It drove reasonably competently, but the engine sounded like cutlery in a washing machine. I've now stripped and cleaned it for inspection. The big-end and main bearings need replacing and the crank grinding; it needs oversize pistons and a rebore to suit (or a matching set of pistons and cylinders); the valve guides could really do with replacing; and I cracked one of the main bearing carriers when getting it off thanks to a cunningly hidden locating dowel.

 

Zappo number two is a 968A with a 968M rear end - the result of a DDR refit, apparently. It lived in the DDR, then a car museum in the Netherlands, then a garden in Devon. Although it looks like a complete shitbasket, it's surprisingly solid and unadulterated underneath. There's good cause to believe that its 50,000-mile (ish) odometer reading is correct. A previous owner reports to have had it running and driving around five years ago. A few bits have since been pinched from it, the exhaust and carburettor being the most obvious. It's fitted with exciting DDR remould tyres made in Karl-Marx-Stadt.

 

So: there's a good chance that the second car has a decent engine, and it'd be possible to make a complete and mechanically decent car from the two. Or do some shopping and recommission both (there are always scraps on eBay.de - or view it as an ideal excuse for a Ukrainian holiday).

 

I'm open to offers of money, cars or items.

 

Yours in the name of Democratic Socialism,

 

Sam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[twosmoke300]

Ugg, may have made a little man mess over them. Love the eastern block stuff even if I know very little about them.

[nigel bickle]

Oh shit.

 

Give me a couple of days to think on it..

[londonm]

Those look absolutely brilliant.....

[KruJoe]

As you may know, Sam, wor kid Will has a major horn for one (or two) of these. Sorry, but I sincerely hope he doesn't see this. Apart from anything else, there's enough crap cluttering up the place...

[RichardMoss]

I've concluded that the easiest way to achieve this is to cease buggering around with my two not-very-good ones and import a spanky-good one from Russia.

 

Come on, tell the truth - it's just an excuse for another beer-fuelled collection adventure (and why not?)

[Sigmund Fraud]

I've always been convinced that those things were the product of poor Soviet industrial espionage : the aim was to use NSU Prinz 4 bodywork and a VW flat-four engine, but the microfilms got damaged in transit, so the bodywork lost its crisp styling and the engine gained a 90 degree angle !

 

I would love to own them, but I suspect that I would be totally out of depth with them. I hope they go to a good home, they deserve to see the road again !

[nigel bickle]

Add 2 Zappos to the list needing work...

 

Yippee.

[Sigmund Fraud]

That was exactly what I meant by them going to a good home ! Congratulations, Mr.Bickle !