In 2023, the production version of the Niva Legend SUV, equipped with a more powerful engine, will appear. This was stated by the head of AvtoVAZ Maxim Sokolov at the opening of the museum “Center of the Niva Togliatti”. It is likely that the modification equipped with the new engine will be called Lada Niva Sport – Sokolov presented a certificate for the first production car with this name to the designer of the first Niva, plant veteran Valery Semushkin.
“Next year a new Niva will roll off the assembly line, with a more powerful engine package, but the traditional design, the classic three-door, will be kept,” Avtosreda quoted Maxim Sokolov.
The top manager noted that AVTOVAZ was criticized for years precisely for the lack of a more powerful change in Niva, but now “ideas and suggestions have been heard”. Sokolov said the appearance of a powerful engine would give the Niva a new lease of life and mark the start of its journey to its 50th anniversary.
The modernization in recent years has mainly been cosmetic in nature. Pictured is the black version, 2020
Technical details will of course not be disclosed. The name Niva Sport may indicate participation in the project of the Lada Sport division, which produces a small-scale modification of the Vesta Sport and the pseudo-sport Granta Drive Active.
Recall that attempts to introduce a more powerful engine in the Niva were made more than once – such projects existed both at the factory and at third-party tuning companies. One of the recent “visits on the topic” refers to 2013-2015, when the factory workers planned to put an engine of front-wheel drive Lada models under the hood. The Lada 4×4 Urban then debuted, however, kept the classic engine.
A few years later, a similar project was carried out by the Togliatti tuning studio F-Design: the company promised to make a three-door Niva with a longitudinally mounted 98 hp VAZ-21126 engine and a standard Niva transmission. It is authentically known about one presentation specimen, but probably more such machines were made.
- And the last project for today is a small scale Niva Legend with a VAZ-21179 engine with an output of 122 hp. from the company Super-Auto, such cars were assembled last year.
- “Driving” can now be viewed on RuTube.
Source: Z R
