Today, I’ll be introducing a car from my old personal fleet. This cornflakes-powered Moskvitch/AZLK pedal car was brought over from a trip to Russia back in 1993, and it’s one of the first cars I’ve gotten my hands on. Granted, at nine years old I didn’t really fit in there, but my younger brother hooned it around the backyard with such vigour we had to swap the steering wheel for an aftermarket part later on – the original wheel was a thinner, white plastic item.
As we cleared some stuff from our old storage room and I picked up some tires, it was time to get the old Moskvitch back from the shelf and see how it runs.
I believe a lot of kids from the Eastern Europe were familiar with the toy Moskvitch. Where I grew up, I never saw another and I was proud of the car.
The Euro-Finnish sticker is a tongue-in-cheek addition. Remember, the mid-’90s was European Union time for Finland.
The AZLK-branded registration plate displays the year of manufacture.
Instrumentation is a bit Спартак – I mean spartan. There’s a push button for the headlights, and I remember it working at some point.
Avtomobilny Zavod imeni Leninskogo Komsomola –”Lenin Communist Youth League Automobile Factory”
Back home, it was estabilished the sophisticated rear suspension needed a bit of repairing. After some hammer work, it was back to factory tolerances. Hands and craftsmanship: my dad.
Pedal to the metal.
I wonder if you can still buy one of these cars new?
[Images: Copyright 2012 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]
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