Humpbacked "Zaporozhets" - he was also loved

On the one hand, how the history of this car began, there is nothing unusual. This happened more than once when someone from the leaders of the country took a strong-willed decision about the production of a particular car. Quite trivial and mastering the production of such machines. But when all this is going to be put together, the story can turn out to be very curious for fans of retro technology, especially if details become known about such a "famous" machine as the hunchbacked Zaporozhets.

The godfather, if I may say so, this car was Khrushchev himself. In addition to the promise of providing individual housing to all Soviet people, he was concerned about their motorization and decided to provide everyone with a personal car, in whose role the humpbacked Zaporozhets was supposed to perform. The car, of course, is not to blame for the rushes of the rulers, especially since the prototype was chosen quite worthy - "Fiat-600". True, the realization of the idea could be carried out and better.

The development of the national car was carried out on the future of the AZLK, although it did not have free production facilities and, despite the Central Committee's decision to develop a new car, they were not in a hurry to create them. Because of this, the engine for the new machine started to have difficulties, since it simply had nowhere to do. As in such cases is found, the search began from the available analogs.

Instead of the native four-cylinder water-cooled engine, as on the Fiat, another engine was selected, prepared for production, from the Volkswagen-Zhuk automobile with air cooling. By the way, he showed the best results when testing against other applicants, because he could work under the same conditions that the humpbacked Zaporozhets had in the engine compartment - the rear position of the engine and air cooling. Under this option, and prepared all the documentation and production technology.

However, the State Planning Committee of the USSR made a strong-willed decision to transfer production from the Moskvich plant to the Kommunar agricultural machinery plant in Zaporozhye, to use the analog of the BMW engine developed at NAMI as a motor, and to attract specialists from this institute. Immediately began an urgent rework of all the documentation for a new engine, called MeM3965.

To install it required a change in the body, the motor just did not fit in the provided dimensions. The gearbox did not dock with such an engine, it was necessary to change it, use other gear ratios in gears, so a new clutch was required, and it was necessary to make other changes, including suspension. Nevertheless, the development was completed, and the car was named ZAZ-965. A positive result of all this confusion can be considered that the experience of developers of military equipment was useful in the part of the successful weighting of the car, which affected its excellent patency.

The first car was released in 1960, the people began to call it "Zaporozhets humpbacked." The photo shown here shows that it was quite a pretty car. However, with the beginning of production, all the flaws and shortcomings caused by such an extraordinary preparation, came out, which immediately required a major modernization of the machine. But the new model, the 966th, was very difficult to master, especially since its main inspirer and ideologist, Khrushchev, had already been dismissed, and the new ruler, Leonid Brezhnev, in spite of his love for cars, did not meet the "humpbacked" Understanding.

Nevertheless, this car was still desired by many Soviet people, despite all its shortcomings, because they could not get any other. He was repaired, repaired, modernized, he evoked increased interest in himself, this hunchbacked "Zaporozhets"; Tuning, which he passed, sometimes created with him the most real miracles. And although he remained a hero of numerous anecdotes, nevertheless for many it was the first, and sometimes the only machine.

Humpbacked "Zaporozhets", for all its anecdotal and shortcomings, for many years was the object of blind love for many Soviet people. He opened the world before them from the window of the car, gave the opportunity to travel, gave a sense of inner independence and freedom. And no matter how it is assessed today, it is hardly possible to belittle the significance of this car in history.