Basement Masterpieces: Homemade Soviet Cars

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

It's not a secret for anyone that the auto production in the USSR was rather meager. Soviet machines were distinguished by their reliability, but they did not stand out much from the gray mass. That is why there were craftsmen on the territory of our vast homeland who created cars by hand in garages or even in apartments. Most of them had an authentic design and were not inferior in efficiency to foreign concept cars.

Basement masterpieces

Back in 1963, a home-made car competition was held in Moscow, where several interesting models were presented. Most of them have long been scrapped or rotted in garages. In the 1980s, "DIY" became a popular hobby and a whole trend among motorists. Waiting in line for a new car could often take years. During this time, it was possible to independently assemble the car. Why not?

Of course, such work required deep knowledge and at least talent. Someone designed their cars based on ready-made models, for example, Moskvich. But there were masters who created masterpieces absolutely from scratch. This process could take years. Homemade chassis, body, engine, units: it all came together, turning into a unique masterpiece.

The craftsmen who were engaged in the manufacture of "homemade products", for the most part, were ordinary citizens, so personal garages had to be converted into workshops. There are cases when cars were created directly in apartments. For these purposes, a separate room was allocated, in which the machine was gradually developed detail by detail. But the main problem of such "apartment" workshops was the descent of the finished car onto the street. The Shcherbins used ropes to lower their offspring, and sometimes a whole truck crane was used, as in the case of the concept car of Henrikh Matevosyan from Yerevan.

In the Soviet era, more than one hundred "homemade products" were created. Some were designed specifically for exhibitions, and some were made exclusively for personal satisfaction. Unfortunately, many of them are now in very poor condition, but some still shine at exhibitions or in private collections. Below is only a small part of the known examples of Soviet home-made cars. All of them are not alike, they have their own unique style and idea.

1. "Saiga"

A unique homemade car created by auto mechanic Gennady Vlasyev in his garage. The Saiga was developed for rallying and tourism. The car body was made of fiberglass, and the engine was borrowed from the VAZ-2101 car.

2. "Katran"

The car "Katran" by Alexander Fedotov can rightfully be called one of the brightest representatives of the era of Soviet "Homemade". According to Novate.ru, Katran has taken part in tourist trips and exhibitions not only in the USSR, but also abroad many times. Fedotov decided not to bother developing his own engine and installed a standard engine from a VAZ-2101, and the body was assembled from metal and fiberglass.

3. "Weasel"

A youth car assembled by plumber Vladimir Mishchenko and his son. It took seven years to create the car. “Laska” has been recognized as the best home-made sports car several times. Body type - two-seater coupe. The design of the car was similar to the American Mustang, but was completely made of fiberglass.

4. "Yuna"

"Soviet Ferrari" - this is how the home-made car of the Algebraist brothers was nicknamed in the press. As well as "Laska" "Yuna" was made in a variation of a two-seater coupe. Most of the time was spent on the production of a bright red body from a molded fiberglass matrix. Engine from GAZ-24. For several decades, one of the brothers Yuri "traveled" on the "Yuna" across the country half a million kilometers. Today the car is parked in an ordinary Moscow yard. Nobody drove it for a long time.

5. "Golden Leaf"

"Homemade" by Alexey Melnik differed from other similar cars in the rear-engined layout and the engine from the ZAZ-968. The sedan with the unusual name "Golden Leaf" also had a non-standard passenger formula: 2 + 1 (two adults plus a child seat). The car body is fully made of durable plastic.

6. "Ichthyander"

The so-called amphibious vehicles occupied a special place among the "samavtos". "Ichthyander" car enthusiast Igor Rikman was made of duralumin and powered by a VAZ-2101 engine. On the water, the car could move at a speed of up to 18 km / h.

7. "Labor"

The car with the symbolic name "Trud" was developed by the Moscow engineer O. Kurchenko back in 1964. The Truda building deserves special attention. For several years Kurchenko adjusted and cooked the body from individual pieces of steel. The car is also equipped with a 3-cylinder engine of its own production.

8. "GTSC"

The legendary home-made car of the Shcherbins brothers, which survived several re-styling and has survived quite well to this day. The abbreviation "GTSC" stands for "Gran Turismo Shcherbins". The brothers welded the body frame right in the courtyard of a residential building, then manually raised it to the seventh floor, sheathed it with fiberglass panels and then lowered it down again.

9. "Pangolina"

Another cult "homemade product" originally from Ukhta. Over the course of a year, engineer Alexander Kulygin, together with a group of students from a technical circle, assembled a car from individual panels. As a result, "Pangolina" acquired a futuristic design, unusual for an ordinary Soviet citizen. For example, it was possible to enter the car by lifting the roof upward along with the windshield, and the engine was started by entering the code on the digital panel.

10. "Mercury"

The history of the "Mercury" car dates back to when three friends: a sculptor, an artist and a locksmith decided to create their own unique car from scratch. The sculptor was engaged in the development of the body, the artist worked on the design, and the locksmith assembled the power units. As a result, the sports concept car "Mercury" was born. A total of five copies of "Mercury" were made, each of which was unique and different from the others.

11. "Laura"

In 1981, another exhibition of home-made cars was organized in Leningrad. Two students Gennady Khainov and Dmitry Parfyonov, inspired by this spectacle, decided to do something similar. For these purposes, they found an abandoned warehouse and worked daily on their development. The comrades did the necessary calculations with the help of a university computer under the guise of term paper. As a result, four years later, two almost identical cars were assembled under the common name "Laura".

12. "Triton"

Another amphibious vehicle developed by engineer D. Kudryachkov. It is noteworthy, but "Triton" is simultaneously listed in the traffic police and in the inspection of small vessels. The amphibian was equipped with a motor from the Volga, and the chassis from Zaporozhets. A water cannon was used as a propeller through the water, which allowed the Triton to accelerate to 50 km / h.