In a turbulent era, when domestic tuning was at its peak, SUVs of the era became platforms for improvement as much as ordinary cars. The choice was limited: Niva or UAZ. Yet a second trend in off-road tuning of those years involved building new, purpose-made off-road models based on factory bodies and components.
Ferocious coyote. Many in the USSR dreamed of owning a UAZ, but only a few could. When the car finally became accessible, even the most persistent enthusiasts soon realized that it was not suited for wide-scale use beyond the field. It fell short in driving performance, comfort, and reliability.
The first wave of UAZ improvements described in period flyers usually involved a neat assembly of the car from solid, well-chosen parts. This was the case with the UAZ-31519, known by the fierce name Coyote, a collaboration between Astro-Auto and Severnaya Palmyra.
The Coyote was built from standard UAZ-31514 components with selective modifications. The overhaul of the UMZ-4218.10 engine, enlarging its displacement to 2.9 liters, reportedly increased power by about 20 horsepower to 122 hp. High-quality bearings and seals were installed in the gearbox and transfer case. The updates were modest in scope: repaint the car, tweak the design, refine the interior trim as economically as possible, move the rear seats back by 100 mm, and install folding rear seats separated by a pair of individual seats.
The result was a fairly capable vehicle for the time, though it carried a higher price tag than the factory version.
LLD
In the mid-1990s a well-known consultancy, LLD, pursued a similar path with even bolder ambitions. Their specialists pushed beyond simple bodywork, delivering not only UAZ with a plastic body kit and substantial exterior enhancements reminiscent of Land Rover Discovery, but also elongated pickups. One notable model featured a long wheelbase of 3000 mm and a two-row cab.
The first Russian crew-cab pickup based on a long UAZ chassis emerged from LLD. It was not the company’s only project in the field of domestic use; LLD also offered imported engines, but sales were limited and the vehicles largely retained domestic powertrains. Imports typically doubled the price of a UAZ.
UAZ-LLD offered engines from both domestic and foreign sources, yet the appeal remained strongest for affordable domestic options. Nevertheless, installing foreign engines on UAZ in those years became a fashionable trend. For example, the Ulyanovsk firm Universal-2000 mounted 75 hp Polish Andoria engines. Similar engine swaps had already occurred in tuning circles in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Universal-2000 also added a plastic body kit and wired the cars with a Zhiguli heater and Volga instrument panels.
One example of interior refinement for the UAZ-3151 SUV featured VAZ components. Engines from Toyota began appearing as well, including a 2.45-liter turbo diesel that produced 91 hp at 4200 rpm, offering about 15 extra horsepower over the standard engine, with torque of 226 Nm at 2500 rpm. This diesel was paired with a gearbox and transfer case from a Toyota 4Runner.
The 3.4-liter Toyota engine under the hood of the then-new UAZ-3160 produced 205 hp at 4800 rpm and 316 Nm at 3600 rpm, allowing a 0-100 km/h time of around 13.2 seconds. Workshops in Ulyanovsk and the Technoservice firm in Nizhny Novgorod even installed a 152-horsepower Toyota petrol engine from the 2.7-liter family on the UAZ 3151 series, giving it 240 Nm of torque at 4000 rpm. While brisk, reliability concerns accompanied such swaps.
In short, bold decisions defined those years, and many drivers embraced the resulting machines with gusto.
It was necessary
Yet if racing performance was not the goal, choosing the right powertrain made sense for everyday use. The tuning of the UAZ-31514 predecessor served as a bridge to factory-grade combat reliability. A notable test involved the UAZ-3162 equipped with a small-scale engine, the ZMZ-4054.10 turbo, delivering about 200–210 hp on the stand and torque around 340–366 Nm. Measured results showed a 0-100 km/h time near 16.7 seconds. A standard UAZ powered by the ZMZ-4092.10 engine reached 100 km/h in about 19.9 seconds, so the turbo upgrade offered substantially better acceleration and elasticity, even if the top speed rose only marginally. However, reliability of the turbo setup remained a concern.
As the new century began, UAZs with a Chinese 2.8-liter 4JP1 diesel appeared on the scene, delivering about 92 horsepower. Yet even with this engine, pricing remained high and factory interest in such modifications waned amid bureaucratic hurdles and a cautious market.
We will share more about how the Niva was reworked. Check back often!
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