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Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Lambos are for midgets // Valet struggles to get in a Lamborghini

Great Car Stories: Chaika GAZ-13, Chaika GAZ-14

Spotted...cars in Moscow: Chaika GAZ-13, Chaika GAZ-14: Borrowed in part from one of my other blogs, VreMax , where I reported on this car exhibition that I visited a year ago - in August of 2014...




Borrowed in part from one of my other blogs, VreMax, where I reported on this car exhibition that I visited a year ago - in August of 2014.  




The Chaika (i.e. "Seagull") automobile... which is a luxury 7-seater automobile from the Soviet Union made by GAZ. The vehicle is one step down from the ZIL limousine.




Here are three Chaikas. The first one is a very interesting example.





It is a rare RAO (RAF) GAZ 13S Chaika -- a Chaika customized by Riga Auto Plant (RAF). 





It served as an ambulance car for senior party and government officials.



One was apparently gifted to Fidel Castro.




Check out the taillights and the dual bumper integrated exhausts.





Chaika GAZ-14, rode in one once as a passenger, sat on a strapontin (aka jumpseat) of which there were 2 in addition to the regular seats (seating 5).





GAZ-14 in some 1993 Russian movie.







GAZ-14 exhaust









Old promo pictures of the Chaika.



Thursday, December 10, 2015

Uber Wars... Caught on camera: Taxi driver confronts Uber driver

Car & Truck Stories. Spotted...cars in Moscow: Ural-ZiS-355M

Spotted...cars in Moscow: Ural-ZiS-355M: From one of my other blogs, VreMax , where I reported on this car exhibition that I visited a year ago - in August of 2014 .   An UralZ...
From one of my other blogs, VreMax, where I reported on this car exhibition that I visited a year ago - in August of 2014.  

An UralZiS 355 M medium-duty truck seen at that car exhibition.





The 1958-65 UralZiS-355M is a medium-duty truck carrying nominally 3.5 tons (but up to 5 in real life) made at the Urals Auto Plant in the USSR. 

The UralZiS-355M was a new model and not a modernization of the UralZiS-355, itself based on the pre-war UralZiS-5 (the ZiS-5). 

However, certain units were borrowed from other trucks, such as the cabin. For this reason, it resembles an over-sized GAZ-51.

UralZiS-5 vehicles were used mainly in Kazakhstan and Siberia - close to the seat of manufacture. 

In 1962, a small number of UralZiS-355ME export version trucks were supplied to customers in Afghanistan and Finland. 

Over 192,000 were made during its production run. 

At this time, 20 (or, according to other sources, 12) UralZiS-355M trucks remain in existence (including two operational), and this is one of them.



The UralZiS-355M cement truck appears in the cult Russian film Gentlemen of Fortune, a criminal caper comedy, where the four eponymous "gentlemen of fortune" escape a prison facility in its cement tank.




More period pictures of the UralZiS-355M.









Sources: my photography, wikipedia, auto models website, and UralZiS-355M page on the Sibpromtrans website.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

UAZ-452

Russian internet meme...


Featuring the great Tyson and the equally great UAZ-452.

SHOP REDBUBBLE