Lada Niva Sport, Shiny New Model That Shows Rust Before It Reaches the Stand
Russian officials promised a genuinely new Niva and they did deliver one. Fresh from the factory, rolled straight into the exhibition hall, presented as a proud symbol of domestic engineering. The only issue was the pool of oil under the car and the brown patches staring back from every angle. This so called sporty marvel costs 1.7 million roubles (about 21 thousand euros) yet its bolts looked as if they had spent a decade moored on the banks of the Volga.
Rust covered the bolts and the driveshafts. The doors shut only after a bit of negotiation and three creative swear words for encouragement.
A spokesperson kept quiet, which was probably the wisest possible move. Hard to offer a straight face when your new performance model looks more like an archaeological find than transport, even with the showroom’s industrial retro aesthetic trying to carry the mood.
The Niva Sport uses a 1.6 litre petrol engine with 122 horsepower. It reaches 100 kilometres per hour in 11.8 seconds and manages a top speed of 168 kilometres per hour. It seems the Russian definition of sportiness is anything that can outrun a dog.
Either way, the Niva Sport is now the only car in the world that manages to rust before it reaches its own premiere. A bold kind of innovation.
