"He made a convertible out of him, just cutting off the roof." Readers tell personal stories about the main symbol of the Soviet auto industry - "Zaporozhets"

The other day he turned 60 years old!

“Zaporozhets” is one of the main symbols of the Soviet automobile industry, which turned 60 years old on October 1, 2020! We asked readers to tell stories about Zaporozhets. It turned out touching and funny.

Stories were slightly edited

Vadim

Uncle had a yellow “Zaporozhets”, then I was about seven years old. Once we were going to go somewhere, and attempts to open the passenger door were unsuccessful. I pulled the handle with all my might, rested my foot on the body, but everything was useless until my uncle and simply, without effort, opened the door with the words: "He ate a little porridge." I still did not understand how he did it, but in the morning he began to have breakfast porridge.

Nastya

My aunt’s husband, all the not very beloved uncle of glory, in the early 1990s in Kazakhstan there was a red “Zaporozhets”. I was about four years old, my parents and I lived in a military hostel in the suburbs. They lived, of course, modestly. Once we stood at a stop, and a chic red BMW drove past us-the whole stop looked after her. And after the general “aaah”, I loudly and confidently stated that my uncle of glory in Kazakhstan is actually exactly the same car! Dad laughed for a very long time.

Alexander

We rode friends in the country in the 968th [Zaporozhets] under the "Gaza Sector". In the field, with a sharp turn, they rested with a wheel on a bump, the car rolled over onto the roof (there were seven people in the cabin). Sking out of the car, one of the friends who kept a bag of alcohol joyfully said that Singka had saved. Then it turned out that he had a fracture of his hand.

Olga

This is probably one of the brightest children's memories. “Zaporozhets” was at our neighbor. Such a classic, blue color with a wicker steering wheel (I don’t know what it is called correctly) and a pen with a rose! Yes, the same gear handle and rose in it! Zaporozhets was on the move from the end of spring before the beginning of autumn, grandfather Borya went to the cottage on him. But the most important thing is that he rolled us on Zaporozhets! There were many babies in the yard then. So snotty noses from 5 to 12 years old were lined up, who will go with the grandfather around the house to ride. 10 minutes of the trip, and delight and conversations for a few days. And how cool it was! God, if you were honored to ride on the Zaporozhets, you could safely lift your nose and tell everyone around it, especially the guys from the neighboring house, who never rolled on Zaporozhets. And in general, a traditional children's partisan war was conducted with them :)

The car on the go was still a very, very long time. And then, many years later, they bought it either for filming, or for what else. Almost for nothing. But the warm memories remained with all of us. And yes, this was the very first car in the yard.

Maxim

The grandfather had Zaporozhets - turquoise, with a brown salon, a colored steering wheel and a rose on the gearbox. I loved everything in this car: the exterior, the interior, the smell in the cabin and the sound of the engine. When I came to visit, I was asking for every trip with my grandfather - it was a high. I know people who were embarrassed, that in their family “Zaporozhets”, and I sincerely do not understand them.

Novel

My parents had a “eared” “Zaporozhets”. Very beautiful, white. I well remember how I went with my parents on it, although I was only 3-4 years old then. There are two doors in Zaporozhets, so you could get to the back seat on which I usually sat on trips, only leaning back the front row. Once, having gone with my parents, according to them, I disappeared from the car. They were frightened and searched. I was not behind, although I could not get out of the car past them. It turned out that I climbed onto the shelf between the back of the sofa and the rear window and fell asleep there. Of course, they were delighted when they found me there.

And his father said that he often pulled out “Muscovites” and “Zhiguli” from the mud, since the “Zaporozhets” had good cross -driven and the engine located on the rear axle.

Anton

According to parents, the grandfather had a red “eared” “Zaporozhets” - the dignity of the whole family on which they loved to travel around the Union. For example, to drive in two days from Crimea to Chernivtsi a family of four, wounding on the way and making a hook of 200 kilometers, since his grandfather read the Atlas of roads of the USSR incorrectly. Or go to the sea with tents and break on the road. As a result, the Grandfather “Zaporozhets” sold and, by proxy of his wife’s brother, traveled to the “elite” at that time of the 24th Volga.

Nikolai

My uncle had Zaporozhets. When I was little, my uncle drove us (me, my brother and our parents) on him to the village to grandfather and grandmother. There were no radio tape recorders in the car, so my brother and I sang the songs of the Dun group and various ditties all the way, and dad shot it on an 8-mm video camera.

🤣

Oh, sorry for this insert, we continue.

Yuri

My great-grandmother and great-grandfather had “Zaporozhets”, ZAZ-965 (“humpbacked”). They traveled a lot on him and took my grandmother with them, and later mother (their granddaughter). They traveled to it almost the entire European part of the USSR. And very often they slept right in him, four! According to their stories, it was very crowded, and everyone had to turn over at night at the same time and on command.

My great -grandfather also had a prosthesis, knee -deep. This is the legacy of the breakthrough of the blockade. He shot it at night, but refused to put it under the car, arguing that in the morning a random passerby could be very frightened by the leg under the car. So they slept four of them - and with a prosthesis.

Despite the fact that now it seems terribly uncomfortable, my grandmother always recalls these travels warmly and often talks about them.

Vladimir

My grandfather in the village had a beige ZAZ-968M. My brother and I secretly chased it on him in the fields when we were 13 and 12 years old. Once on our way was a traffic police patrol. The policeman threw up the rod, and his brother, having seen enough American films about the chase, showed him the middle finger and drove all the money. Of course, the cops went after us. At some point, when we rushed through the primer at a speed of 90 kilometers per hour, I was sure that we would break. But everything ended differently. A few minutes later, the Politsa “Nine” was able to overtake us on a narrow primer and pressed us to the plowing (“Zaporozhets” could not drive through it). The cops were given to his brother bream, then one of them got behind the wheel of the “Cossack”, and we were to the patrol car, and we were taken home. It was necessary to see the faces of the neighboring guys, when the traffic exploration of our “Zaporozhets” and with my brother in the passenger seat, and I waved to them from the window of the Kopovskaya nine, not put it on our street, unless I put on a cap. In general, the at home the pharaohs talked a little with their parents, and we were released without any consequences. Grandfather then died of cancer, and Zaporozhets stood for a long time in the middle of the courtyard. And then he was sawn into scrap metal, only the roof remained, which they wanted to adapt for some kind of master's needs. Now it is always, when I see this beige piece of metal, I recall my grandfather and his “Zaporozhets”, about which a lot of stories were described in family holidays.

Eugene

When I was 12 years old, and my cousin was about 18, he bought a red “Zaporozhets” for nothing from the neighbors and made a convertible, simply cutting off the roof. We rode it in the village of grandmother, a real village chic!

Xenia

My grandfather had Zaporozhets. More precisely, three “Cossacks”: green, red and orange. All cars were "girls" and had their own names. Red - Tamarochka, green - zinochka, orange - red. But there was always only one on the go. Every year, grandfather was engaged in a fascinating business - the rearrangement of the parts necessary for moving parts in one of the cars. And for us, grandchildren, there was always an intrigue before the summer holidays: at the “Zaporozhets” what color we will ride this summer. And these beautiful spring seats ... You are rushing, it happened, in the back of the "Cossack" on the off -road and jumping to the ceiling on each bump. Fortunately, the ceiling was also covered with something soft. I still recall these trips in the style of “Soviet off-Road” with nostalgia.

Oleg

It was 1990. Summer. Saratov. I was eight years old, a cousin - six and a half. We were with my grandmother when an uncle drove to us in his first car - a new yellow (!) "Zaporozhets"! In which the motor was not like all cars - in front, but from behind! Plus, he brought us with his brother in the wicker Sombrero - as in Soviet films about cowboys and Indians, who were constantly playing on TV - and we went to the city! 30 years have passed - and I still remember that summer day, sombrero and yellow “Zaporozhets”.

Alexey

The first grandfather was a “humpbacked” car, bought by him for honestly earned in geological expeditions, a year for a year in the seventy -third year. Around the same time, they bought with her grandmother and the cottage in the Pskov region. The road there after the congress from the Kyiv highway was not very good, but if there were 2-3 adults in the car, there were no problems. As soon as the next died -out pit appeared on the road, the passengers simply took the “Zaporozhets” in their arms, transferred it through the hole, put it to the ground and rode on. This is what I understand - a small -leaf!

Igor

In 2013, my friends and I traveled to the Crimea. Storing in the mountains somewhere between Sudak and Feodosia, we decided to go to the stop to our camp, which was next to Fox Bay (Nudist beach next to the sunny valley). We decided to throw us a good -natured grandfather on a white “hunchback” “Zaporozhets”. We jumped to him and drove along the serpentines. The sensations were sharp. 50-60 kilometers per hour at the Zaporozhets were perceived as 100. The car was rubbing, grunted, shy, but overcame all the climbs and descents. Grandfather calmly twisted the steering wheel and told some story from his life, and we looked at him, then in the window, flying past the next cliff. I remembered this trip to Zaporozhets for a long time.

Maxim

"Zaporozhets" is the first car of my parents. Dad is military. In the late 80s-early 90s we lived in Kamchatka. The Zaporozhets was the color of the “blue dream”, bore the affectionate name “Fart” and drove us to Paratunka to hot springs. Then I was three years old, and these are my first conscious memories.

Cyril

The great -grandfather had a “hunchbacked” “Zaporozhets” pink. Why pink? The fact is that there used to be large queues for cars and, as far as I know, the color is not particularly selected - what they brought, then take it away. But even, despite the long lines, no one wanted to take this pink “Zaporozhets”. Thus, the line reached my great -grandfather, and he decided: “Well, pink and pink,” and took it.

Julia

ZAZ-968M is our first family car. We called him a "grasshopper." He was emerald green and cost a million rubles at the time of purchase in 1995! The previous owner traveled on it for 20 years, we are eight with our family. At the Zaporozhets, we wound hundreds of kilometers along the Kirov route - Veliky Novgorod and vice versa. Every summer, things loaded into the car, himself (mom, dad, brother and me), then the cat joined our travels, and went to the grandmother for the summer holidays. One and a half thousand kilometers on paper cards! The road ran through Nizhny, Vladimir and Moscow, then through Kostroma and Vologda. We spent the night right in the car. Dad for me and my brother and cat with plywood and ingenuity expanded the space in the back seat. Dad is a master of all hands, so we had both a heater and a boiler - noodles were brewed noodles right in the fields. They loved on the road with the whole family to sing songs. Of course, the car is far from new. Somewhere there were small breakdowns, in cold weather inside the cabin was also not hot. But we had fun to roll up to adventures!

Once on the way, the brother asks his mother: "Sing a song about our car." Mom went over everything that she knew, at least somehow connected with the “machine”, “green”, “expensive”. The brother had already begun to roar, and the song is not the same. We ask, what are the words in her? “The ceiling is icy, the door is creaky, prickly darkness behind the rough wall ...” Parents sobbed with laughter! After this incident, not a single trip was complete without this “anthem”.

The history of readers was selected by Yuri Saprykin