ZAZ Zaporozhets

ZAZ Zaporozhets (Russian: Запоро́жец pronunciation^ⓘ) was a series of rear-wheel-drive superminis (city cars in their first generation) designed and built from 1958 at the ZAZ factory in Soviet Ukraine. Different models of the Zaporozhets, all of which had an air-cooled engine in the rear, were produced until 1994. Since the late 1980s, the final series, ZAZ-968M, was replaced by the cardinally different ZAZ-1102 Tavria hatchback, which featured a front-wheel drive and a more powerful water-cooled engine.

The name Zaporozhets translates into a Cossack of the Zaporizhian Sich or а man from Zaporozhye (now Zaporizhzhia) or the Zaporozhye Oblast (now Zaporizhzhia Oblast).

Zaporozhets is still well known in many former Soviet states. Like the Volkswagen Beetle or East Germany's Trabant, the Zaporozhets was destined to become a "people's car" of the Soviet Union, and as such it was the most affordable vehicle of its era. At the same time, it was rather sturdy and known for its excellent performance on poor roads.^[1] Another important advantage of the Zaporozhets was its ease of repair. The car's appearance gave birth to several nicknames that became well known across the Soviet Union: horbatyi ("hunchback", owing to ZAZ-965's insect-like form; although ZAZ factory workers never used this nickname^[2]), malysh (English: Kiddy),^[2] ushastyi ("big-eared", due to ZAZ-966 and ZAZ-968's round air intakes on each side of the car to cool the rear-mounted engine), zapor ("constipation"),^[3] mylnitsa ("soap-box", for ZAZ-968M, lacking "ears" and producing a more box-like appearance).^[1]

Numerous special versions of the Zaporozhets were produced, equipped with additional sets of controls that allowed operating the car with a limited set of limbs, and were given for free or with considerable discounts to disabled people, especially war veterans - similar to SMZ-series microcars. These mobility cars would at times take up to 25% of ZAZ factory output.^[1]