This Might Be the Best Soviet Survivor Car
The proposed VAZ-Porsche 2103 had a new twin-headlamp facia, plastic bumpers, interior upgrades and a revised suspension. But Lada decided against it, solving the problem by putting a new 1.6-liter engine into their own 2103 instead. Presumably, the communist way seemed more cost effective. Or maybe less imperialist.
Rumor has it that Porsche worked on optimizing the Niva’s engine afterwards, to make sure it would run on pretty much anything the good people of Siberia could pour into its fuel tank.
In France, that wasn’t a concern. Despite being the world’s first unibody 4×4, the Lada Niva turned out to be a successful competitor in the Dakar Rallies. In 1981, the French duo of Jean Claude Briavoine and André Deliaire finished in third place with theirs, nabbing second in 1982. The next year, the Niva of André Trossat and Eric Briavoine was durable enough for another second-place finish.
The Niva’s last run was in 1988, with its Dakar career ending just short of an overall victory.
But Lada and 1983 Dakar Rally winner Jacky Ickx weren’t done with the desert yet. And while Ickx drove a Mercedes-Benz G280 to triumph in ’83, he also maintained a great relationship with Porsche, having been their team leader until the end of his unfortunate 1985 season. Porsche first won the Dakar in 1984 with the 953, only to follow up by dominating the race in 1986 with the 959.
The Lada Samara had been around since 1984, and the crazy people at the brand’s VFTS division in Lithuania tried valiantly to turn in into a valid Group B contender. First came the EVA, with a fuel-injected, 16-valve turbo 1.8-liter engine, producing 300 horsepower on a good day. Once Group B was cancelled, VTFS moved on to a single Group S prototype, only for that class to be ruled out, too. But their chassis didn’t go to waste.
The Dakar-special Lada Samara T3 is the most high-performance result of the Lada-Porsche partnership. It’s powered by a naturally aspirated 3.6-liter Porsche flat six, and even more impressive, it uses the all-wheel drive system from the world-beating Porsche 959. Its suspension was designed by Russian aerospace and defense company Tupolev, who knew all about oversized landing gear. Further input came from French Dakar Niva specialist Lada-Poch, and NAMI, otherwise known as Russia’s Central Scientific Research Automobile and Automotive Engines Institute.
Driving a Samara T3, Jacky Ickx finished seventh in the 1990 Dakar Rally, with Didier Auriol finishing fifth the following year. Peugeots were unbeatable at the time, but that’s still not bad for a Lada-Porsche.
