Lada Bora
The city of Moscow has so many artistic, cultural and even natural attractions that most people would think that it’s crazy to devote a Sunday morning to visit a car museum. The fact is that if you love old cars you cannot miss the opportunity to visit a place like its Transport Museum.
In any car museum, especially the larger ones, there are usually three basic ingredients that are a must. First of all, a few indispensable models
that we usually find everywhere, in this case some Ford T, an Isetta, a Citroën DS, a VW T1 etc. The second element would be the theme that inspires the collection, in this museum no doubt the Moskvitch (Москвич) made in the same city. One of the five halls is almost exclusively occupied by models of this brand, from prototypes to the unit that celebrated every million cars produced. In the case of model 412 there are 5, one per million. The third element would be some singular model. In the Moscow museum there are some Moskvitch prototypes, but most of which are static models or designs with little personality, another day we can talk about this.
What I found most original of the museum was a car I had never heard of, the Lada Bora (Лада Бора). In a corner, among Lenin's statues between what looked like some bureaucrat’s office and a workshop I found this curiosity. It is the only survivor of two prototypes that were manufactured in 1995. The factory engineers came up with a kind of beach car, like a Mehari 4x4 with light bodywork and the Niva mechanics. It seems that half a dozen tubular aluminium structures were assembled on which only two units were completed. The rest were destroyed in resistance tests or were used to assemble a later model. An open car with no heating definitely is not aimed at the Russian market. Responsible for the project thought that such a model could be successful in Latin America and the Middle East. In fact, the first unit was sent to the Arab Emirates to be exhibited at a fair and with the intention of attracting investors to finance the project development. It seems it was well received and this first unit was sold in the Emirates, without any evidence that it has survived. The second unit is the one at the museum. It was used for the homologation tests and promotional purposes. The tests were satisfactory, however a series of improvements were suggested. The list seems to have been long provoking the project was abandoned. The period tests highlighted the all-terrain qualities of the car's that overcome very demanding tests, especially in the desert sands.
The current owner of this second unit is a 24 years old young man who at only 13 was looking for a Saporoshez as his first car. He found the Bora that seemed a better option to go off-road. Of course he did not know that it was a unique prototype, it was years later when he discovered it. At that time the car was quite shabby and equipped safety bars that completely altered its aesthetics. After searching for information about the car, finding an original carburettor engine to replace the existing injection unit and discovering what the original colours were he decided to undertake a complete nuts and bolts restoration. In Russia it has become a remarkable event, even featuring covers in classic cars’ magazines. In the following link you can find a blog with the whole story, I hope you liked it.
