Tuning – waste! How we recreated UAZs

In a turbulent era, when domestic tuning was experiencing its heyday – sometimes daring, sometimes bizarre and even funny, domestic SUVs became an object for improvement in addition to ordinary cars.

The choice was small: Niva yes UAZ. But the second direction of off-road tuning of those years was the creation of new, in fact, off-road models based on serial bodies, components and assemblies.

Ferocious coyote

Many in the USSR dreamed of UAZ, but only a few owned it. And when the car finally became available to everyone, even the most persistent people quickly realized that for use not only on the field, the car is difficult in all respects – it is imperfect in terms of driving performance, comfort or reliability.

The first point of UAZ improvements in the flyers of that time usually included only a neat assembly of the car from clearly decent parts. In particular, this was written in connection with the UAZ-31519 with the fierce name Coyote, jointly created by the companies Astro-Auto and Severnaya Palmyra.

The overhaul and tuning of the UMZ-4218.10 engine with a volume of 2.9 liters, according to partners, increased its power by almost 20 forces – up to 122 liters. of. High quality bearings and seals were placed in the box and razdatka. There was only “smallness” left: repaint the car, change the design a little, improve the interior trim as much as possible without large costs, move the rear seats back by 100 mm, separate them with folding “seats” at the rear.

It turned out to be quite a decent car for the time. True, it is much more expensive than the factory version.

LLD

Much the same was done by the fairly well-known company LLD in the mid-1990s. True, her specialists went further. They made not only UAZs with a plastic body kit and high add-ons in the style of Land Rover Discovery, but even pickups. Including elongated ones with a wheelbase of 3000 mm and with a two-row cab.

It is not the first car for home use, by the way. The LLD company also offered imported engines, but the few cars sold were still with domestic engines. Imports increased the price of UAZ almost twice.

Nevertheless, the installation of foreign engines on UAZ in those years became a fashionable trend. For example, the Ulyanovsk firm “Universal-2000” mounted 75 hp Polish engines Andoria. By the way, similar units have already been installed on UAZs by tuning companies in Poland and Czechoslovakia. In addition, the Universal-2000 company decorated the cars with a plastic body kit, equipped them with a Zhiguli stove, GAZ-31029 devices from the Volga.

They turn on UAZs and Toyota engines. The 2.45 liter turbo diesel developed 91 hp. of. at 4200 rpm – 15 forces more than the standard household gasoline. The Japanese diesel produced a torque of 226 Nm at 2500 rpm. This engine was offered a gearbox and a transfer case from the Toyota 4Runner SUV.

Workshops in Ulyanovsk, as well as the Technoservice company in Nizhny Novgorod, even installed a 152-horsepower Toyota gasoline engine with a working volume of 2.7 liters on the UAZ 3151 series. Such an engine already gave 240 Nm at 4000 rpm. According to our measurements, the car accelerated to 100 km/h in 14.3 seconds. It seems a little, but for UAZ it is already quite lively.

Further. A 6-cylinder Toyota engine was even installed in the barely appeared UAZ-3160. With a working volume of 3.4 liters, he developed 205 liters. of. at 4800 rpm and 316 Nm at 3600 rpm. Up to 100 km / h, UAZ accelerated in 13.2 s. In general, tuning companies made bold decisions in those years. No less brave were those who got behind the wheel of such cars.

It was necessary

However, if you are not trying to drive a UAZ like a racing car, then it certainly made sense in such engines.

We once meticulously tested the UAZ‑3162 with a small-scale engine ZMZ‑4054.10. The turbo engine produced 200–210 horsepower on the stand. of. and 340–366 Nm. According to our measurements, the car reached 100 km/h in 16.7 seconds. A standard UAZ with a ZMZ‑4092.10 engine takes 19.9 seconds. The maximum speed increased by only 4 km / h – up to 154 km / h. But I really liked the elasticity. Acceleration from 60 to 100 km/h instead of 23.6 s with the standard ZMZ‑4092.10 was only 12.9 s. So the supercharged ZMZ was put on the UAZ “for business”. Another thing is that this engine did not shine with reliability – and soon they almost forgot about it.

Already at the beginning of this century, UAZs with a Chinese diesel engine 4JP1 with a volume of 2.8 liters and a volume of 92 liters appeared. of. at 3600 rpm. But even with this engine, Ulyanovsk cars turned out to be expensive. The factory is not interested in such modifications – demand is low. And every domestic reconciliation every year comes with impenetrable bureaucratic red tape.

We’ll tell you more about how the Niva was reworked. Come more often!

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