A more muscular Niva variant is slated to be built by the Lada Sport factory division. This development gained credibility after a video surfaced detailing a promising project. In July 2022, a prototype of this enhanced SUV appeared on the Silk Way Rally stages, alongside the Lada Sport Rosneft team’s fortified Niva Legend. Lada Sport is known for preparing vehicles for competition, and this project appears to follow that path.
Images circulating on social media captured by Pavel Atroshchenko, the editor-in-chief of ladaclub.net, documented a July presentation of the cars prior to the rally on his VKontakte page. The video reveals a 16-valve 1.8-liter engine delivering about 122 horsepower under the hood of the prototype.
Inside the cabin, the design carries notable updates: a redesigned instrument panel, revised floor tunnel trim, and a transfer-case arrangement reminiscent of the Niva Travel. The system features a single lever that handles both differential locking across the axle and the engagement of the downshift in the transfer case.
What enthusiasts should note is that this is not a production model but a prototype. Yet the rally work served as a proving ground for the new design solutions. If the tests prove successful, production variants may align closely with what was demonstrated in the prototype stage.
It is worth recalling that in 2021 a longitudinally mounted 1.8-liter VAZ-21179 engine powered a Niva prepared by the Super-Avto tuning company in Togliatti. While it is not clear whether design documentation moved between projects, the two efforts share strong similarities in concept and execution.
- Earlier, Maxim Sokolov, the head of AvtoVAZ, hinted at the appearance of a more powerful Niva in 2023.
- Updates and footage can now be streamed on RuTube. [citation: ladaclub.net remarks and published video]
Video: VKontakte / Pavel Atroshchenko [citation: ladaclub.net source of imagery]