The appearance of “Zaporozhets” was preceded by the original prototype of the NAMI-A50 “Squirrel”. The car has a non-standard design with a folding front door.
Photos of the rare NAMI-A50 “Squirrel” have been published. The miniature car is one of the rejected early Zaporozhets prototypes. This is reported by the site Hyser.
The “humpbacked” ZAZ-965 began to be produced in 1960, but the budget car was developed from the mid-50s. The final version of the model was not approved immediately, and some early concept cars were very original.
The car has an unusual design with a salon shifted forward
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Five prototypes of NAMI-A50 were built in 1955-1956 under the guidance of the famous designer Yuri Dolmatovsky. The nickname “Squirrel” was given to the car by one of the developers for its resemblance to an animal.
The design of the car is very non-standard. He has a streamlined silhouette with a cabin shifted forward and large round headlights.
The prototype was equipped with a 22-horsepower motorcycle engine
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The most original feature of the model is a folding front door. Obviously, the creators of the NAMI-A50 were inspired by the BMW Isetta with a front door, but decided to improve the design.
The rear doors of a 3.3-meter car are ordinary. Salon NAMI-A50 turned out to be quite spacious, but the trunk is small. Interestingly, they also built a simplified version with a fabric roof without windows and doors.
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The compact “Squirrel” was rear-engined and received a 750 cc engine with 22 hp. With. from the KMZ M-72 motorcycle. With a 3-speed manual transmission, the maximum speed was 80 km / h.
The front door of NAMI A50 is hinged
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NAMI-A50 tests showed design flaws. The original front door leaked water in the rain, and the motor constantly overheated. They decided to close the Belka project and concentrated on a more advanced prototype, which eventually became the Zaporozhets.
Earlier, Focus reported that a rare Tavria electric car was discovered in Germany. It was planned to be sold in Europe.
We also wrote about the unique Tavria prototype of 1978, which was not allowed to be put into production.
