The Best Of The Worst - 10 Eastern Bloc Cars That Were Pretty Good #blogpost

1. GAZ-24 Volga

Named after the Russian river Volga, which is the biggest river of the European continent, it does follow its name quite well. There was a simple rule: you see a Volga in the mirror, you move over. Period.
The GAZ Volga had a four-cylinder engine with just under 100 bhp, but its prestige was immense. I have seen an actual one lately, it is quite big even for today’s standards. Features included a stopcock for the coolers to get the car on temperature in winter, as well as the ability to start it by hand if the battery is empty. Due to its high price, the car was almost exclusively used by the government body.
The GAZ-24-24 is a version with 5.5 litre V8 and a few extra “modifications”. That’s the KGB-exclusive one.

2. Wartburg 313 Sport

Coupé version of the then-popular Wartburg 311. It was voted as “Best European Car” on an American motor show in 1957. I wrote an article about it with some more information, so I’m not going to write more about it here. https://www.carthrottle.com/post/wmqpr35/

3. Tatra 603

You may have heard about the Czech truck maker Tatra, which is now making off-road dump trucks and stuff like that. Well, that wasn’t always the case. A Tatra was a dream car in the Eastern Bloc, not just for construction workers.
In 1953, Soviet cars were extremely unpopular in the ČSSR. They were slow and badly built in their early years. Partly for reputation reasons too, a prestigious executive car was projected. The Tatra 603 had a great drag coefficient and an air-cooled V8 with 100 bhp in the rear. Its top speed was over 170 km/h (105 mph). That makes it about as fast as an early-model Corvette C1. Even though it has an RR layout, the weight balance is 47-53, which is quite good; the handling is stable even in rain.
So who got to drive it? The same people as in the GAZ Volga, minus the KGB officers.

4. Polski Fiat 125p

The Polski Fiat was as good as a Western car. Because, in fact, it was. What makes this car interesting however, is that it was avialable as estate and even as ute, neither one being an option on the actual Fiat 125. The engines were, to make the production cheaper, taken from the earlier Fiat 1300/1500. Good looks, above-average driving performance and a good reputation (I have a Western car) made it a highly desirable car in the Eastern Bloc. It, however, needed higher-octane fuel, which was rare sometimes. Oh, and rust was a huge problem. Of course it was, it’s a Fiat.

5. Melkus RS 1000

RS stood for Rennsportwagen (racing sports car), 1000 for the displacement in cm³. It was based off the Wartburg 353, but had a tuned engine with, depending on the version, up to 100 bhp. Not bad for a 1.0-litre 2-stroke NA engine. Its top speed was 210 km/h (130 mph) - no road-legal car from the Eastern Bloc before or after was faster than that. But it came at a price. It sounded like WW2 in the interior, ride comfort was never present and neither was safety, it was very hard to drive and could only be bought if you could show a racing driver’s licence.
Anything else you should know? Steering wheel came from a boat, carburettors from a motorbike (or better: three motorbikes) and the rear lights from a caravan.
I have written an extensive article about it before. Just head to it here. https://www.carthrottle.com/post/w6p9kq7/

6. Škoda 110 R

Okay, there is a race car, but what about roadworthy sports cars? There is the Škoda 110 R. With a 60 bhp, 4-cylinder engine in the rear and an empty weight of 900 kg, it was sorty of sporty. More sporty than other cars at least. The top speed was 145 km/h for the stock version. It was, and still is, very often utilised as a rally car, with the normal rally version making 140 bhp and the most powerful version making over 250 bhp.
Isn’t it cute?

7. ZiL-114/117

This is it. The definitive car for the leadership. I really have no idea what to write about it. The Volga was a prestigious car already, but this one topped all of them. A 7.0 litre V8 with 300 badly needed horses. The ZiL-114 was 6.3 metres and the ZiL-117 with shortened wheelbase was 5.8 metres long. For some reason they may have found out that the roads were too small for it when a Fiat 125 already was the upper middle class. Weight? I don’t know it exactly, but it’s over 3 tons. Fuel mileage? Don’t even ask if you want a two-digit number. Of course there are no official figures for it, but tests conducted an average fuel consumption of over 55 litres per 100 km, or 5 miles per gallon.
It wasn’t avialable to the public. If you had one anyways, you were about to magically disappear or had the power to make others magically disappear.

8. Lada Niva

You may be asking what this car is even doing here. But we’re talking about good cars, right? Not a POS like this! Well, the Niva isn’t a good car for today’s standards. Heck it wasn’t even a particularily good car in 1976. But let’s look at it like that: it was used extensively (and still is being used) in the police, military, ambulance et cetera. It was first introduced in 1976 and is still being produced and sold today. It’s cheaper and lighter than the Land Rover while having similarily good off-road abilities. If you like the Land Rover, there is no reason not to adore the Lada Niva. The Chevrolet Niva, a modern-ish budget SUV, even utilises the same chassis with the same transmission and mostly the same mechanics, albeit an upgraded engine.
The car in the picture was stationed in Antarctica from 1990 till 2001, covering over 40000 km at less than -50°C (-58°F). Allegedly without any breakdowns.

9. Škoda Favorit

Another crap car in the list, oh great.
Wait, hear me out. The Škoda Favorit belongs on this list because it is an Eastern Bloc car that was up to date. It had a transversely mounted 1.3 litre inline-4 engine (just like the Polo II), front wheel drive (just like the Polo II), a hatch back (just like the Polo II) and a relatively modern design. Other attempts to make an up-to-date car in the late 1980s were, for example, the Trabant 1.1 or the Wartburg 1.3. These were outdated East German chassis designs originating in the 1960s and just had a VW engine thrown in. The Favorit however, was a decent and modern car. Sure, they all are rusted away by now, but the same can be said about Polos, Corsas and Fiestas.

10. FSO Polonez "Stratopolonez"

Honestly I know nothing about this car and all sources about it are in Polish. Everything I can write here is a copy-paste from Polish Wikipedia to Google Translate.
The son of the Polish prime minister apparently owned a Lancia Stratos at one point. You know, Lanica Stratos. The Italian rally rocket with Ferrari engine. Whatever, he crashed it in 1977. The body and chassis was totalled, but the drivetrain was perfectly intact. It was given to FSO then, whose enginers built a one-off supercar. The body came from an FSO Polonez, a car that could easily win the price for the worst car in history. The chassis was custom-made and the Ferrari/Lancia V6 was placed in the rear, now making 285 bhp. 0-100 km/h could be achieved in under 6 seconds and the top speed was between 200 and 230 km/h depending on the gear ratio. It was raced until 1985, then retired and eventually restored in 2000.