VAZ-2101: do you know why the first Zhiguli had almost no gauge devices?
In the seventies, each new Lada model was expected as an event; it, by definition, should significantly exceed the previous one. For example, the VAZ 2103 against the background of the “penny” seemed powerful, smart, prestigious.
And one of the elements of the mentioned prestige was a red light that caught fire at the end of the front door when it was opened. Many owners of such Lada (car cost 7500 rubles, and VAZ 2101 - 5500 rubles) specially smoked in the cabin, so that the ajar door looked natural.
But with the beginning of the cheaper production of subsequent models, the lanterns gave way to reflectors - and the charm vanished.
Unusual facts from the history of technology Mikhail Kolodochkin has been collecting for many years. For example, did you know that in the early 1960s, at the ARZ Tosno enterprise, on the instructions of the RSFSR Minavtotrans, they created a three-axle all-wheel drive bus using elements of LAZ bodies and ZIL 157 chassis?