GAZ 51 Retro Hot Rod, the Russian Style

Using a Cadillac Escalade's platform and the cab of an old 2.5 ton 4x2 pre-war truck, Russian Aleksey Chvokin and his Pemespiba (now called Grand Garage) team took it upon themselves to create what they call the GAZ 51 Hot Rod. The rod idea came to be thanks to an order placed in 2006 by an undisclosed Russian industrialist, who liked the way the team worked on their previous project, the Volga Roadster. The new rod will be powered by a 6 liter engine and will benefit from an all wheel drive system, a cardesign.ru report quoted by carscoop.blogspot.com mentioned.

The guys at Grand Garage are not the only Russians that got togheter and formed hot rod building teams. At the beginning of the year, another Russian crew, called Cardi, designed a Volga Cayenne, starting from a Porsche Cayenne. The monster creation was named the Volga Cayenne.

I am no hot rod critic, but I'm sure the GAZ-51 is definitely better looking than the Volga. Even if all technical details are not yet available, it is likely that the new rod will beat its competitor in that chapter as well. As reference, the Volga Cayenne uses a 4.5-liter turbocharged petrol V8 that puts out 450 hp. The engine propels the car from naught to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds and has a top speed of 250 km/h .

Unlike the Americans, the Russians have no real muscle cars they can turn into hot rods. What they don't lack is an endless supply of old truck and pickup bodies they can play with. Even if their version of a hot rod is more of a strange marriage between existing cars (especially engines) and former road glories of the Soviet era, seeing the GAZ 51 Retro makes me wonder if we are to witness a new cold war between the two countries. This time one of burned rubber and horsepower.