Spotted...A Moskvitch!!!

[garethj]

Oh, sorry, forgot to add; it had a 1500 cc overhead cam chain driven slant 4 cylinder engine, which bore a striking similarity to a B.M.W. engine.... because it WAS essentially a B.M.W. engine! I don't expect the built quality was identical, though!

Hmm, can anyone else see scope there for an Evil Plan?

When you see an M badge on a 5 series you write oskovitch after it?

[GJR 11L]

.... Better yet, you replace the Moskvich (note, there's no 'T') motor with one of these:

 

My current avatar probably gives the game away, but I do love the Eastern Bloc shite.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

COMRADES! AS ACOLYTES OF ALTERNATE KIT WE SHOULD WELCOME SUCH GLORIOUS MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT AS AN IDEALOGICAL VICTORY AGAINST THE DECADENT CLEGGITE-CAMERONIST FACISM OF THE BOURGEOISE IMPERIALISTS!

 

love the car!

Comrade, it is my duty to caution you: Moskvich body is pure product of sound central planning and esteemed solidatrity of Soviet metalbashing, yet under its bonnet hides a guilty secret. It is true - it does not boast a true Russian heart, but an engine of doubtful national provenence and possible capitalist leanings.

Comrade, are you telling me that the designers of this epistle of Marxist-Leninism were proto-imperialist wreckers? Such counter-revolutionary trotskyism would never have happend in the 1930s when such activity would have resulted in a nice purge! Disgraceful! No wonder the USSR failed as a state - shooting would have been too good for them!

As deputy assistant Commissar second class of mixed delegation of 17 members sent to inspect dedicated powerstation at kolkhoz in Omsk oblast, I glanced under worthy Moskvich bonnet and at sight of unsound motor I yearn for firm yet warm hand of Grandpa Lenin to steer us from slavery to capitalist facsist rags, and drowning in icy waters of egotistical calculation and philistine sentimentalism. And it wouldn't start.

 

And another thing comrade, do you know of anyone who would mend my socks?

[M'coli]

Thelow cost of these meant that they had an interesting competition history:

Competition Success

 

In 1972, Tony Lanfranchi won the British Saloon Car Championship with a 412, not by winning races overall but by dominating his class. The class divisions were based partly on price; Lanfranchi realised that a car with essentially a BMW engine but costing a fraction of its price would be a highly competitive proposition (as it would generally be competing against much smaller cars in its class); he took 28 out of 29 class wins that year.

In Motorsport magazine's "Lunch with..." Tony Lanfranchi feature a few years ago, he apparently spent much of the races driving around with his arm out of the window, cruising, such was the power advantage over the other cars in the class.