#1 : ZAZ 968 – 30 kW (41 PS), production year: unknown
Have You ever experienced that feeling where time slows down so much as it almost stops? I watched over my shoulder as small pieces of rear passenger side window flew through the air like a fresh snowflakes on windless winter day. It felt like it lasted about five seconds. Then I heard a loud bang. Suddenly these pieces of glass fell on the back seat of my father’s BMW.
Something changed when I crashed my father’s car into a house at the age of fifteen. My parents did not allow me to use their cars anymore for some weird reason. I couldn’t figure out why it was so. But I totally loved driving. Riding a bike was exhausting and annoying – it makes you sweat and stuff. I don’t like it. Please give me something with a combustion engine!
So I started to buy less alcohol to save money for a car. But this wasn’t an easy task – both not buying alcohol and finding a car on sale. No internet these days! And who would sell a car for a 15-year-old? Also my father was not really excited about the idea, so there was no help from him either. But I didn’t give up. I had already saved about 1000 Estonian Kroons (our national currency at that time – it was about 65€ or $74). So I just needed to find something on sale.
Grandma’s car
Finally one day, my father’s friend told me that he had his grandma’s old ZAZ (Zaporozhets) in the shed. And after weeks of annoying him, he finally agreed to sell it to me for 1000 Koons. But it had no documents. Well, of course I was exited. It took few more weeks when the car finally arrived – red, artificial leather interior, air-cooled 1.2 liter V4 rear engine and rear-wheel drive..
Yes, it was a piece of crap like all Russian cars. But it was mine! No documents, no ignition key, no drivers license and the registration plates were from USSR era that made it a perfect target for the police. And because I had to start the car from ignition cables – everything looked like it was stolen.
Now, owning a Zaporozhets meant that I had even less money for alcohol because I needed to buy fuel. Fortunately my uncle worked at the county bus garage and could smuggle out fuel for 4 Kroons per liter (0.26€ or $0.29 per liter). In Europe we calculate on liters not in non-understandable gallons. But as it was a bit annoying to start the car like a thief, I installed some kind of ignition barrel from another Russian manufacturer. Easy job and it worked.
Time to Pimp-My-Ride
Well, I drove it around for about a year – mostly on gravel roads, sideways and on two wheels. Although it was fun, I finally got bored. And like every youngster, who takes zip of petrol in the morning instead of coffee, I also wanted to modify this ride a bit. The first upgrade was sports steering-wheel that I found from my uncle’s garage.
And then I got 5 liters of black roof paint… I even don’t remember from where I got it, but it didn’t cost me anything. No, I didn’t steal it! One night we were having some beers and this was the moment I decided we need to repaint the car – from red to black. The Zaporozhets was standing in my grandmother’s yard and we needed to get it to nearby garage.
This old V4 air-cooled engine made a terrible noise so we decided to push the car out from grandma’s yard to the garage. I didn’t want to wake her up in the middle of night. So before the sunrise, ZAZ was painted black, I fitted VW Golf mk2 grill to the front and installed fake chrome exhaust pipes. It looked much cooler than before – at least that was what I thought. Time to push the car back to the yard. In the morning I got a panic-call from grandmother that my car has been burnt down…
Best buck for crash
Event these modifications didn’t ease the boredom. I didn’t drive it around as often as I used to. It was time to sell it. There was one guy who was eager to buy it for 700 Kroons. Sounded good for me. But the sporty steering-wheel wasn’t mine, so I had to replace it with the original one. For some bizarre reasons I didn’t fasten it with the propriet nut and it wasn’t actually attached. This didn’t interfere the driving too much, so I let it be. After all, how important is this?
I arrived with my fancy black pimped Zaporozhets. The buyer was overwhelmingly exited – car looked good and everything was working as it should. Time for the test-drive. To show the car’s real capabilities, I was the one behind the wheel. The buyer was amazed: “Wow, good acceleration”. I told him to be patient and promised that there is more to come.
The first corner was 90-degrees from tarmac to gravel. ZAZ was flying sideways on two wheels. Another 90-degree corner was waiting ahead – full gravel. I had driven this road numerous times as fast as it was possible with that car. So, I was fully confident. Small amount of braking before the bend, I threw the car again to sideways and then… the steering-wheel game off and there was no chance to save the situation.
Did he buy it?
There was an old abandoned gas station next to gravel road, surrounded by mesh fences and barb wire. Nice and quiet. No-one to bother its’ existence. Suddenly on pimped-up black Zaporozhets made its unexpected visit, ripping through the fence and stopping in the brick wall of the gas station. The first victim was the fence post which was removed far away from its original position.
The second victim was the buyer himself, having a huge bump on his forehead. Well, there were no seatbelts in this car. I crawled out of the car heavily laughing at the same time as the almost new owner was whining around the ZAZ because it was just wrecked. The front of the car was smashed, front tyres had come off of the rims and all of the existing electrical systems stopped working because a short circuit.
At this point, it was obvious that I couldn’t sell the car with the original price tag. So let’s make a discount? The buyer nodded silently and hinted that the deal is still on the table. I made some quick repairments at the site, fitted the steering-wheel back to the steering rack and even managed to restart the engine. The new owner limped away with the smashed Zaporozhets leaving me behind with 500 Kroons in my pocket. What a spectacular crash! And it only cost me few hundred Kroons (less than 13 euros or 14 dollars and 50 cents in todays money). Not bad.
Background: ZAZ 968
ZAZ Zaporozhets (Ukrainian: Запоро́жець) was a series of rear-wheel-drive superminis (city cars in their first generation) designed and built from 1958 at the ZAZ factory in Soviet Ukraine. Different models of the Zaporozhets, all of which had an air-cooled engine in the rear, were produced until 1994.
Like the Volkswagen Beetle or East Germany’s Trabant, the Zaporozhets was destined to become a “people’s car” of the Soviet Union, and as such it was the most affordable vehicle of its era. At the same time, it was rather sturdy and known for its excellent performance on poor roads. But in reality buying a car in Soviet Union was a privilege of the chosen ones. You actually needed buying permit for it. The demand exceeded supply as it was with everything in USSR.
The ZAZ-968 and its modifications were produced from 1971 to 1980. It featured 40 hp (30 kW; 41 PS) 1,197 cc (73.0 cu in) MeMZ 968 V4 air-cooled engine in the back. It had no seatbelts and brakes were made of soap. The interior heater unit would run on petrool and caused number of cases where the car was caught on fire.
The “Facelift”
In 1979, the 968 series was replaced by the modernized 968M. Prototyped in 1977, it had the “ears” removed and replaced much of the chrome exterior with black plastic. Its interior design was also upgraded, featuring a closed-space glove compartment and a slightly more modern dashboard. Instead of the side-mounted “ears”, the hood lid and rear quarter panels were louvered. The 968M was the last Zaporozhets model and also spent the most time in production, spanning a career from 1979 to 1 June 1994.
For me, the facelift versioon 968M looked a bit less sexy compared to his predecessor. These awesome engine cooling vents or „ears“ and rounded tail-lights were unfortunately gone. Nowadays it’s almost impossible to find a ZAZ 968 in good shape. Or even to find one that actually runs.