hour rule

"pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69) 07/29/2020 at 07:03 • Filed to: hour rule, zil

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1958 ZIL 111

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > pip bip - choose Corrour 07/29/2020 at 07:50

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Man, that looks a lot like a Chaika!

ranwhenparked > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/29/2020 at 08:08

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The Soviets seemed to really like Packards

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > ranwhenparked 07/29/2020 at 08:27

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Yup...even the old first-gen GAZ Volga (not so much the later ones) had a very 50's American vibe to it...I mean, check out the awesome translucent speedo! 0_o

ranwhenparked > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/29/2020 at 08:53

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Fun fact - there actually was a plan to sell the Volga M21 in the US in the early ‘60s, GAZ even developed an automatic transmission for it, which went into limited production for the KGB after the US sales idea was scrapped.

The postwar ZIS 110 was an exact copy of a 1942 Packard Super Eight Roosevelt gave to Stalin as gift during the war, while the Chaika M13 and ZiL 111 were both cribbed pretty much directly from the 1955 Packard line (and had reverse engineered Chrysler Torqueflite push button automatics).

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > ranwhenparked 07/29/2020 at 10:34

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Wow, that’s hilarious! I had no idea there were plans to the sell the Volga in the US!

ranwhenparked > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/29/2020 at 10:49

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They ended up building about 1,000 automatics, from what I remember. Most went to the KGB, a few were sold to private buyers, but it was considered too expensive and too difficult for an amateur mechanic to maintain, and also there were ongoing shortages of transmission fluid, so they didn’t stick with it.

There was also an attempt to sell Skoda here around the same time, they actually did sign up some dealers and move a few cars, but didn’t stay very long. I can’t imagine a Soviet car would have been very popular during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even in the 1980s, when US-Soviet relations where thawing, there were some reports of Canadian tourists driving Ladas being denied service at some US gas stations.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > ranwhenparked 07/29/2020 at 14:29

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Lada and Skoda did sell cars up here in Canadialand ! Lada did surprisingly well and Skoda never took off as they only sold them in a few key places, but there are still some old Canadian-spec Skodas around! I’d really love a 105-120-130-Estelle...whatever you want to call them someday!!!

Jim Spanfeller > ranwhenparked 07/29/2020 at 17:05

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Yeah, it would’ve been a hilariously bad idea to sell those here. No self-respecting American would dare be caught dead in a communist car. Heck, in many places you would probably get beat up for doing that.

ranwhenparked > Jim Spanfeller 07/29/2020 at 19:36

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Japanese cars in the 70s and 80s were dicey enough, especially if you worked in a union shop or lived in a heavily blue collar/union town. Can’t imagine what it would have been like to show up to poker night at the American Legion in a Soviet car.

They supposedly did sell few hundred Skodas here in the early 60s, mostly in California, and they didn't make much of an impact here. But, different case, Americans generally weren't as hostile to the Eastern Bloc countries as we were to the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, etc were usually treated with a degree of sympathy as victims of Soviet oppression. 

Jim Spanfeller > ranwhenparked 07/29/2020 at 23:16

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Huh. Wow. I wonder how many of those American Skodas are left... I wouldn’t be surprised if they all got junked due to lack of spare parts. That’s wild.

ranwhenparked > Jim Spanfeller 07/29/2020 at 23:29

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We only got the Felicia, and supposedly, there’s only about half a dozen roadworthy examples in the US, at least according to the BaT listing for one a while back. Probably a few more in western junkyards.

There were a lot of weirdo foreign cars sold here in the days before the FMVSS came into effect in 1968, we also got DAF, Borgward, Wartburg, and  Sabra for brief periods. Not always by the manufacturers themselves, usually from some guy hanging out a shingle and setting up shop as an importer, buying cars overseas and bringing them in a handful at a time for resale. But the Skoda venture actually had factory support. 

Jim Spanfeller > ranwhenparked 07/29/2020 at 23:54

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Sabra? What’s a Sa-

!!!!!?????

ranwhenparked > Jim Spanfeller 07/30/2020 at 00:06

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Also

Made by Autocars Company in Haifa, Israel. One of Reliant Motor Company’s “package deals” - if you wanted to start your own car company, you just had to write them a cheque, and they’d take care of everything else. Design/engineering of the new car, fabrication of prototypes, design and construction of factory, tooling, supply chain setup, and recruiting and training staff. They also supplied the drivetrains for Sabr a’s Sussita economy car.

Autocars focused on areas of the US with large Jewish populations, in the belief that American Jews would want to support the Israeli economy by buying an Israeli car, they didn't, any more than any other Americans, so the venture didn't last. Variants of the Sussita were built in Israel into the 1980s, while Reliant took the Sabra GT back in house and relaunched it as the Reliant Sabre, since there was no market for sports cars in Israel at the time. 

Jim Spanfeller > ranwhenparked 07/30/2020 at 00:25

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That one actually looks much better, even if it has the facial expression of someone who googled the name of a character in a show they hadn’t finished yet and “death” came up in the suggestions...

ranwhenparked > Jim Spanfeller 07/30/2020 at 00:36

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Reliant did clean up the styling a bit when they started selling it under their own name

Jim Spanfeller > ranwhenparked 07/30/2020 at 00:53

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That bears a striking resemblance to a Spitfire... Which is not necessarily a bad thing.