The Niva version with a more powerful engine will be produced by the Lada Sport factory division – this version was confirmed after the publication of a video revealing the details of a promising project. In particular, a prototype of such a car was found to work as a technical technician at the Silk Way Rally in July 2022, along with the “combat” Niva Legend of the Lada Sport Rosneft team. It is Lada Sport that prepares cars for competitions.
Pavel Atroshchenko, editor-in-chief of the source ladaclub.net, posted images of the presentation of cars in July before the rally on his VK page. The video shows that a 16-valve 1.8 engine with an efficiency of 122 hp is installed under the hood of the car.
Inside, there’s a new instrument panel, a different floor tunnel trim and a transmission control scheme similar to Niva Travel: one lever is responsible for locking the differential to the cross-axle and engaging and disengaging the downshift in the transfer case.
It is worth noting that for us there is not yet a production car, but a prototype. But it was on this SUV that the design solutions found were tested in the harsh conditions of the rally. So if these tests were successful, we can expect production car configurations to be close to those shown.
Recall that in 2021 the Niva with a longitudinally mounted 1.8-liter VAZ-21179 engine was produced by the Super-Avto tuning company in Togliatti. It is not known if there has been a migration of design documentation from one project to another, but in general they are very similar.
- Earlier, the head of AvtoVAZ, Maxim Sokolov, announced the appearance in 2023 of the Niva with a more powerful engine.
- “Driving” can now be viewed on RuTube.
Video: VKontakte / Pavel Atroshchenko