Volga… river? Drift car!

One of the oldest automotive factories in Russia is GAZ. These cars were very desirable for soviet citizen as Volga was the most fashionable car and it was showing wealth and power of its owner. Neither Moskvitch nor Lada could provide the same sense. After Perestroyka lots of foreign cars invaded russian market and Volga became a memetic car for granddads who is ready to spend hours and hours in the garage, maintaining suspension designed in the middle of 20th century. After 2000 Volga practically disappeared from russian motorsports in spite of turbo-version available in the market and the GAZ-24 generation became oldtimers. Year after year for young men this car became a bit exotic and this made old Volga popular again, but now for tuning and customizing.

Thanks to the popularity you can buy the old GAZ24 for quite ridiculous money, as it did Vitaliy Chvanin from Kharkov. He wanted to build a drift car and suddenly he realized that Volga can be very attractive for people so he purchased his car for 700 dollars and began the project.

First of all the original 2.4 engine was tuned up to 3 liters and equipped with vertical Webers, after few practices it was decided to make a swap. The new engine was taken from the old lorry GAZ53 — 4.2l V8 it was immediately supercharged and equipped with Carter AFB competition carburetor. The body was reworked — useless part were cut off and a space frame was integrated as well as subframes for suspension, which was built on basis of different parts and ideas from automobiles and motorcycles.

After a couple of years and lots of money and working hours put into this engine Vitaliy decided to make another swap and to put Ford Windsor 302 V8 engine which was purchased and put into this unusual drift car.

Tech specs:

Body: GAZ24 “Volga” “85 with space frame

Engine: Ford Windsor 302 V8 with two superchargers, approximate output 500 hp.

Transmission: modified clutch, GAZ24 gearbox, blocked differential

Brakes: BMW M3 disc brakes front & rear

Suspension:

Front — KONI with custom links and BMW M3 elements

Rear — Custom built with motorcycle shock absorbers.

Wheels: 17” BMW wheels.

Photo: overpower.com.ua and owner's web-page: www.drive2.ru/r/gaz/78935