AZLK Moskvitch 402 (diecast 1:43, V.V.M)

The first car of
the family was "Moskvich-400". It was assembled according to the
trophy drawings of the "Opel Kadett" on the equipment exported from
the defeated Germany. The car as a whole turned out to be good, but by the end
of the war it was considered obsolete, primarily due to the body shape with
protruding wings.

Technical
characteristics of Moskvich-402

Body: sedan

Doors / Seats: 4/4

Dimensions L
/ W / H: 4055/1540/1560

Wheels. base: 2370

Engine: four-cylinder, in-line, 1220cc volume and 35hp

Drive: rear.

Max. speed: 105 km.h.

Fuel
consumption: 8-10l /
100km

History of
creation

The consumer
wanted to see a qualitatively new runabout, in the slightest degree close to
world standards. And in order to understand these standards, several cars from
different companies were purchased, including: Fiat, Lancia, Ford and Citroen.
As a result, the new car practically did not incorporate the features of
Western cars, and from the old 400th Moskvich it took only the engine, gearbox
and rear axle reduction gear. And then everything was modernized beyond
recognition.

 

As for the design
of the car, it was borrowed from another Soviet model - the 21st
"Volga". And all because engineers from various Soviet factories,
including GAZ, participated in the development. And it was precisely at the
suggestion of the Gorky specialists that Moskvich eventually began to look like
the younger brother of GAZ-21.

 

 

Peculiarities

It's hard to
believe now, but the car was the pinnacle of advanced engineering in the
post-war years. It had:

1.   
Simple
but attractive design for those times;

2.   
Decent
interior decoration;

3.   
Soft
suspension;

4.   
Camshaft-powered
windscreen washers and wipers;

5.   
And
also - it was equipped with a radio receiver, which was very rare on Western
cars of this class.

And this is not
the whole list of the advantages of the Soviet small car, which was soon
appreciated by consumers not only in USSR, not only in the territory of the
socialist camp, but also in developed capitalist countries: in France, Finland,
Great Britain, Sweden. Moreover, every second Moskvich produced in the USSR was
exported, and cars assembled from our parts in Belgium were sold under the
local Scaldia brand.

On the other hand,
the first copies of the legendary car were initially, to put it mildly, raw and
far from ideal. Due to the terrible build quality and multiple defects, the
factory received complaints from dissatisfied customers almost every week. The first
"Muscovites" had an appetite much more than stated in the documents,
cracked at the weld seams, quickly rusted, and gaps and backlashes were
generally commonplace.

Modifications

All the shortcomings
were resolved only by the mid-50s, and after a couple of years, the
manufacturer thought about modernization. By that time, "Moskvich"
began to lag seriously behind world trends, for example, in terms of engine
thrust per ton of weight, the gap was one and a half to two times.

 

In general, the
time has come to replace the reliable, but outdated engine of the 400th
"Moskvich" with a new 45 hp overhead valve unit. This became possible
due to the fact that at that moment there was a high-octane gasoline with a
large compression ratio. The second major improvement was a new body treatment
technology (bonderization), thanks to which the paint penetrated deeper into
the metal and protected it from rust for a long time. As a result, a new
modification of the car called "Moskvich-407" appeared, and the last
modernized version was the model 403.

 

In total, about
half a million pieces of "Muscovites" of various modifications of
this line were produced, until in 1963 our it was finally taken out of
production.