By order of the Secretary-General
In the mid-1950s, Nikita Khrushchev, at one of the meetings with the leadership of the auto industry, urged factories: “Make a car for the collective farmer!” The call clearly pointed the way for action. The idea of a cheap SUV for private owners found a warm response from engineers.
After all, the simple, unpretentious, durable GAZ-69 was the only mass produced car of this class in the USSR. Yet Gazik were not sold to private traders; they were supplied to the military and the national economy. Besides, a car for ordinary citizens that was bulky and voracious did not suit village needs.
Interesting comfortable sedans like the four wheel drive Pobeda GAZ-M72 and Moskvich-410, produced briefly in small numbers, were deemed too expensive for villagers. And they were not well suited for village tasks: you cannot load several bags of potatoes or a carcass into the cabin, and cleaning it from dirt was difficult.
Indeed, a village car required different off road geometry than regular sedans and station wagons: a short wheelbase and minimal overhang.
The first Moskvich-415 was a replica of Willys MB.
Soviet Willys
By 1957 Moscow began work on Moskvich-415. In terms of major components and assemblies the car was unified with the four wheel drive Moskvich-410, yet the project relied on a 45 horsepower engine prepared for Moskvich-407. The front axle rested on six leaf springs, the rear on nine leaf springs. The frame and body remained original.
The machine, with very small overhangs and a short base of 2030 mm, stood out for excellent geometric cross country capabilities. Ground clearance reached 220 mm.
Visually, the early samples bore a strong resemblance to the American Willys MV, a wartime success. Postwar influence also touched Italian Fiat Campagnola and even early Land Rovers.
The off road project attracted serious attention in Moscow, with ten prototypes captured at once. To save time, prototypes were built with almost no drawings.
Modified Moskvich-415 on trials.
Hope for the future
The first tests in the Moscow region occurred in spring 1959. A second testing phase with modified machines followed in the summer and early autumn. The improved samples logged roughly 5,000 km on asphalt, the same on cobblestones, over 7,000 km on rural roads and a bit more than 2,000 km in the city. Designers viewed this ratio as roughly mirroring real life where the cars would operate.
The vehicles demonstrated solid cross country ability and in addition showed economy by the standards of that era. On a flat road at speeds of 50 to 70 km h Moskvich-415 consumed 10.4 to 11 l per 100 km, in city driving about 14.8 l, and on country roads up to 19 liters.
On the highway the SUV could reach 101 to 106 km h. The Moskvich overcame a 31 degree slope and a 600 mm ford. At maximum load the 45 hp engine and clutch operated under stress. Testers criticized the shock absorbers for inefficiency causing springs to break.
Yet many prototype failures stemmed not from load but from low quality components.
The SUV used a 1.4 liter engine with 45 hp and a three speed gearbox. The body and frame required reinforcement. Still, the machines generally performed well and gave designers a clear direction for finishing the car. Information about the 415s leaked to the press and aroused interest in both rural and urban areas. At MZMA, work continued and drawings for production began to take shape. There remained more than a decade before the birth of Niva.
Neither in the village nor in the army
Yet the fate of the car was decided in 1960. MZMA supplied the state not only with a good income from Moskvich-407 exports but also needed to expand production for the new model. The four wheel drive Moskvich-410 and the Moskvich-411 station wagon were soon discontinued. The production cars with Moskvich-415 struggled to integrate into the conveyor.
Moskvich-416 with a fully metal housing.
Management at MZMA realized the car would not fit on the conveyor as originally planned. Still, the designers persisted, gradually improving the vehicle. A key incentive was the 75 hp Moskvich-412 engine, introduced in 1967, which at the time held the highest specific power among the Soviet light serial engines. Driving a four wheel drive with this engine made for more engaging performance.
There was also a more comfortable all metal Moskvich-416 version, conceptually closer to the later Niva.
The interior remained modest but acceptable for a cheap off road vehicle. A Moskvich prototype was handed to the army at NIIII-21 in Bronnitsy. There they initially showed interest, but the military was not satisfied with the car’s space and margin of safety.
Meanwhile, Izhevsk produced similar cars IZH-5 and later IZH-14. Togliatti also responded to the cry for a robust utility car and laid down the VAZ-2121.
unequal struggle
During several testing stages the future Niva was compared with foreign cars like the UAZ-469 and even IZH-14. But the Moskvich designs known as 2148 with a canvas roof and 2150 all metal were not tested against them. Directly comparing a model designed two decades earlier with a modern, well equipped product from the Volga plant would be meaningless.
Centralized socialist industry would not produce two cars in the same class. The Niva was more comfortable, more dynamic, had a load bearing body and permanent four wheel drive.
Yet a simple, durable and affordable Moskvich would still spark buyer interest.
The so called Moskvich-415S with a 75 hp Moskvich-412 engine.
The latest wave of interest in off road vehicles in Moscow arrived again when senior ministry officials visited the factory, examining the remaining prototypes and triggering renewed interest in the archives.
The latest Moskvich models with four wheel drive were seen by officials who began to recognize the car’s potential.
In those years many believed car production would be easy. Yet soon it became clear that there were other, less troublesome and more profitable ways to earn money than building cars.
In the long list of Soviet prototypes that never became serial models, off road Muscovites stand out as one of the most intriguing and perhaps among the most viable drafts.
- Behind the wheel can also be read in Yandex.Zen.