In the time of the developed socialism many people dreamt about their own cars but couldn’t afford them. They saved money and waited in lines to buy a desired car. Some dreamers even dared to make cars themselves.
OKTA is considered to be the first hand-made car of the USSR. Not much is known about it now.
Cars exhibition 1981
The car was built in 1933 in Novocherkassk, the Rostov region. The car was made according to a three-wheeled scheme with one rear driving wheel. The engine was supposedly a motorcycle one. Practically all sources describe the car as a two seat one but looking at the photo you can hardly see the second seat. The mass of the car is 236 kg. But who weighed it so precisely?
People’s technical art was especially flourishing in post-war years.
Pilot-cosmonaut Alexander Serebrov making his own car
Planing car “Triton” of a musician D. Kudryachkov achieved speed up to 70 km/h on water and 100 km/h on asphalt.
Car of Saakyan with tracking headlights
The restored hand-made car “Pioneer”, 1948
The car “Gulom Aka” in Uzbekistan, 1958
All-terrain vehicle “Gulom Aka” , 1968
Handmade car “Pony”, 1969
Handmade car “Volna-407F” with a body made of glass-fibre plastic based on “Moskvitch-407″
Handmade based on “Moskitch”. Estonia, the 1960s
Handmade car “Pulsar”, 1983
One of the most original handmade cars – “Pangolina” of Alexander Kulygin, the USSR, the 1980s
That’s how it had initially looked.
It changed some colors and lost a part of its roof to look like this today.
Using of an available engine from VAZ-2101 required a thorough construction processing.
The engine was placed under the dashboard and in order the motor could be reached, the torpedo was made as a lifting one.
“Pangolina” aroused much interest in public
Alexander Kulygin
Cars of Gennady Khainov and Dmitry Parfenov, 1985
They were a bit different
Minivan ASKOR-1.5, 2001
The Scherbinins’ car
Electric car “Proton”, the end of the 1980s
“Proton”‘s twin – “Mercury”
Up to now “Yuna” has driven more than half a million kilometers, so it couldn’t look fresh and Yuri Ivanovich decide to restyle it.
And some unknown models of handmade cars
“Agatha”, Mineralnye Vody, 2000 based on “Niva” represents a unique coupe of 4×4 class.
Races
via mgsupgs
Sexy cars!
Something about safety?
Safety is similar to factory build soviet cars, maybe better
The “Pangolina” and following photos show clear influence of Bertone´s (ugly) school of late 70s/early 80s. But, to be fair, these enthusiasts, who combined parts and styles from several cars, did the same what Chinese do today. I mean, if one looks at the production of today´s Chinese car makers, it is like a deja-vu or a bad LSD trip: headlamps from a beemer on Toyota-shaped body, while the rear part resembles Fiat…
That “Yuna” if a handmade car is one of the best sorted production ready car I have ever seen. It’s actually good looking for it’s time. Should have been built by somebody,
there is no safty in russia
Yuna looks like a nice sports car
aThe Yuna borrowed some dashboard controls from Toyota. Still it’s not a bad looking car.
I think everyone of them is an excellent effort considering the lack of resources a lot of people building these cars would have had deal with in Soviet Era Russia. Some are little odd looking and some are excellent looking.