Brace Yourself for the Volga Cayenne

When we first laid our eyes on this vehicle and hastily read the title, we thought the Russians were trying to make something look like a Porsche Cayenne, but using a Volga. Just look at the thing! Does it look like a Porsche?

To our immense surprise, we were wrong. What your are looking at is in fact a Porsche Cayenne converted by Cardi, a quite eccentric Russian design company, to look like an 1960 Volga GAZ-21, as Carscoop found out.

The Volga Cayenne uses the chassis, including the engine, suspension and all the other absolutely vital components that define car, of the Porsche but the outside and the interiors are completely redesigned. Everything from the fiberglass panels to the locks and handles has been tinkered with to make the sedan, it's no longer an SUV by the way, look like a Volga GAZ-21.

The soul of the car is still a beasty German creation, namely the 4.5-liter turbocharged petrol V8 that outputs 450 hp. You might have heard about it, as it is featured by the Cayenne Turbo before the facelift. As a consequence, the Volga Cayenne is said to go from naught to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 6.7 seconds and has a top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph). This performance could be easily achieved, albeit for a short period of time, by the classic Volga if you jumped with it from a plane or by dropping it from a high building.

And what a blend of western and eastern technology the wheels are. On the exterior you have the in-your-face communist Red Star rims, while if you look beyond them you can easily see the Italian Brembo disc brakes. Stalin, who is a major element in the car's outside design, would have rolled in his grave.