LADA in F1

[Gatecrasher]

Ok let's get the jokes out of the way first. Also who is going to be man enough on this forum to own up to having had one (rally cars don't count just shopping trolleys).

[Mr Alcatraz]

Ok let's get the jokes out of the way first. Also who is going to be man enough on this forum to own up to having had one (rally cars don't count just shopping trolleys).

I fail to see the humor in this arrangement! Perhaps you can enlighten me.
Sponsorship for Renault I'm sure will be greatly apreciated!
And No I don't own one

[gibells]

I remember one of the old Top Gear programs where they did up a Lada Riva. Basically because it was an old Fiat 124, they got all the performance bits on that- and got Lotus to do it for them.



I will admit to wanting that car.

[Roland Ehnström]

Tazio, perhaps you are too young to remeber this "awesome" piece of russian design:
Edit: I see you are 55... perhaps I should have said "perhaps you are too old to remember this".



For us Swedes even the name "Lada" is funny, because "lada" is "barn" in Swedish, very fitting...

[tc9604]

In the UK Lada was (is) the subject of many jokes due to its perceived low quality and outdated design.

The same used to be said for Skoda but look at them now

[Tim.Wright]

In the UK Lada was (is) the subject of many jokes due to its perceived low quality and outdated design.

The same used to be said for Skoda but look at them now

Same in Aus. I had a mechanic mate who closed the front door to his garage one day he had a Lada in there. Didnt want anyone to see!

Tim

[xpensive]

@ Roland; Perhaps you are too young to remember that for a long time, the Lada cars were branded VAZ in Sweden for that particular reason?

Anyway, the Lada in your pic, the Samara, was actually co-engineered with - Porsche, so don't laugh!
Damnit, think about it, we could have had a 1.5 Turbo TAG-Lada in F1?

[Pandamasque]

That concept in the 2nd post has pretty much nothing to do with what Lada (or any other Russian/Soviet car) usually is. If it makes it to production lines that won't happen until 2030 or something. The reason these cars are so outdated is that it takes decades for any design to be implemented

On topic: what does that have to do with Formula1? Even if their logo appears somewhere on R30, so what? It's not like many out there noticed TATA.


PS: VAZ is the name for the USSR market. That stands for Volzhskiy Avtozavod (Volgean Automobile Factory)

That Samara (VAZ 2108 3-door, 2109(3) 5-door, 21099 4-door) was I think the only half decent (albeit outdated from the start) car VAZ ever made.

I learned to drive in a Lada 21013 (late 70-s model) when I was about 12. That made driving anything else soooo easy The steering is set in concrete, you can feel every cog through the gear lever and the suspension pedal belongs to a gym. Oh, and the aerodynamics... 90mph in it should be more exciting than 200mph in a supercar as it feels like it's gonna take off and/or fall apart. And no one will hear you scream, due to wind noise.
That might have been ok for the 70-s but the funny thing that its derivative (the 2105/7 as seen in the TG Lada-Lotus clip posted earlier) stayed in production until the 2000-s!!! Even Russians like to laugh at Lada

[manchild]

Samara was designed by Bertone, while the engine was developed by Porsche/VAG as xpensive mentioned.

BTW, Montoya won his first championship in it.

[audifan]

so what sort of company car for petrov?

[Giblet]

At the Toronto auto show around 1990-1992 or so, not sure which one, a friend and I figured we go look at Lada area for a laugh. The Suzuki Sidekick was quite popular, and Lada had some kind of similar vehicle.

The instruments looked like round aircraft gauges, and were stuck in holes in the dash, and all moved around, spun in their openings. I opened the glove box, and there was Fiber Glass Pink insulation, held to the roof of the glove box, with duct tape.

On their frikkin show car. That was the first and only time I ever left a specific pavilion laughing out loud from my gut.

I have not been able to take them any more seriously than Trabant since then.

[xpensive]

You saw the Niva, a fantastic vehicle, but the show car was probably messed up by some schmuck Torontonian salesman?

[Giblet]

No excuse for a vehicle to have fiber glass insulation exposed with duct tape. None.

A used car in a shady Soviet lot? Sure. A show car? Never. It's even a health hazard.

I was a Honda fan then, and still am. The quality of my 86 Accord at the time was so far ahead of American cars, seeing this made my friends 86 Cavalier seem like a Benz.

Little things matter, and good car or not, my mind watched that ship sail at that moment.

Edit : heh forgot the logo is a ship with a sail. Accidental pun.

[xpensive]

But with those Torontonians you never know Gib, the dealership might have used it for some shady cigarette-smuggling from NY and tried to patch things up with that duct tape?

[jddh1]

I know a few people from Toronto. They're all a little edgy and walk around with two rolls of duct tape as bracelets. So I think x is right.