Combat "Niva"
As you know, in the Soviet Union, to one degree or another, almost all automobile plants were connected to the defense order. For example, in Naberezhnye Chelny they assembled a series of KAMAZ-4310, in Moscow at ZIL cars of the 131st family, in Lutsk a front-end conveyor LuAZ-967, but Togliatti did not have its own military "chip". According to all the rules, an exclusively all-wheel drive transmission was suitable for combat use, which did not exist at the VAZ for the time being. However, with the development of the theme of the future "Niva", everything fell into place - the Ministry of Defense needed a light waterborne all-terrain vehicle. At the same time, such a difficult task was given not only to the VAZ workers - in 1977 in Ulyanovsk, a prototype UAZ-3907 was developed, which was named "Jaguar". Of course, neither the VAZ development, nor the Ulyanovsk "Jaguar" went into mass production and we can now see them only in museums. However, the history of the development of these largely unique machines requires separate consideration, if only because now there is no such equipment in the Russian army.
The development of a military vehicle within the walls of VAZ has been carried out since 1972 under the design code "Reka" and the index 2122. It is noteworthy that a purely civilian enterprise had to introduce a secrecy regime and the machine in the internal plant documentation was referred to as "transport for fishermen and hunters." It was planned to create a 2-door amphibian with a soft top and folding windshields and side windows. At the same time, the designer Yuri Denisov managed to hide the initial amphibiousness of the car - the appearance practically did not give out the ability to swim in the VAZ-2122. The design was based on a sealed bath, into which the engine, gearbox and transfer case were removed, but the wheel drives, steering rods and propeller shafts had to be covered with special rubber stockings. The front suspension was taken out and attached to the sealed body. The car had two fuel tanks and was equipped with a motor (as well as a transmission) from "Niva" with a working volume of 1.6 liters. The muffler in this "wheeled boat" was mounted under the floor in the area of the front bumper.
The main problem of any amphibian is the choice of a propulsion device in the aquatic environment. The choice of the designers were classic propellers, a water cannon and wheels. Since the future "River" was a predominantly land vehicle, it was not required to have outstanding seaworthiness and was taught to swim by rotating the wheels. In addition, difficulties may arise when the VAZ-2122 leaves the reservoir on an unprepared shore - here you need a very good hold on the ground. Therefore, the new VLI-6 tires specially developed by the Volzhsky Tire Plant were installed on the combat "Niva", which were higher and wider than the standard ones. Developed lugs on the tires made it possible, firstly, to row more efficiently on the water, and secondly, to climb more successfully on slippery shores of water bodies. "River" on the water accelerated to 4.5 km / h and at the same time the turning radius of the machine (if scientifically, the radius of circulation) was equal to the land one.
Naturally, the engineers equipped the waterfowl VAZ-2122 not only with rowing tires and a sealed hull-boat - in the "hold" there was a pump from an armored personnel carrier, pumping water overboard. For this purpose, there was a drain window in the left front fender, and a kingston hatch was provided in the bottom, through which the water already on land left by gravity. Toothy tires, coupled with low weight, excellent off-road geometry and a relatively flat bottom made the "River" a real miracle - in tests the car confidently bypassed the UAZ-469B on rough terrain. These were the first two prototypes of the 1976 model, which received the E2122 index and were painted yellow and green.
Intensive tests of the novelty began, during which they forgot about one important feature of the car - a sealed body, for the assembly of which a separate production line at VAZ was required. The fact is that the military needed a floating car for company commanders, which they tried to unify with civilian vehicles as much as possible - that is cheaper. But for some reason they forgot about the assembly method. On the conveyor, the engine and transmission are mounted from the bottom of the body - this procedure is called "wedding". This has always been done, and now it is a ubiquitous technique. But this did not fit with the concept of the VAZ-2122. The sealed case, although it was not a monolithic structure and consisted of separate elements, was in no way suitable for the “wedding” procedure. Accordingly, the assembly of the amphibian was impossible on the assembly line, from where the civilian "Niva" departed. Remember this fact - in the future, it will be the main reason why a promising car has remained out of work.
Fighting overheating
The design features of the amphibian (sealed hull and powerful tires) made a significant contribution to one significant drawback of the VAZ-2122. During heavy traffic on rough terrain, the engine and transmission units mercilessly overheated due to the actual lack of air circulation inside the platform. The overly heavy and toothed VLI-6 tires were just excellent off-road, but with their powerful frictional properties they quickly overheated and wore out the transmission. They tried to deal with this by installing a "window" in the hood, which, when moving on land, opened towards the wind, and on the water unfolded on the contrary, simultaneously playing the role of a wave breaker. Did not help. A sophisticated double-floor ventilation system was designed in which air from the engine had to cool the transmission and exit above the rear wheel arch. This system was introduced on the machine of the so-called second series with the 2E2122 index, which was driven through water and land ranges during 1979. The cars could be distinguished by their gray color, the air intake in the front and the huge rear-view mirrors from KamAZ. Such mugs were removed over time - they seriously limited the driver's field of vision.
Inside the car, a number of measures were taken to strengthen the body and optimize the location of the crew for installing a stretcher. And again the car showed itself from the best side, except that it continued to overheat. The design headquarters of the ROC "Reka" had to take radical measures and thoroughly recycle the car. As a result, in 1982, the third series of cars, named VAZ-3E2122, was produced, which became noticeably smaller in size (the rear overhang was reduced) and in many ways resembled its older sister VAZ-2121 "Niva". The motor was supplied with a 1.3-liter with a capacity of 69 liters. with., reduced the fuel supply from 120 liters to 81, installed standard "Nivov" narrow tires VLI-5 and, most importantly, seriously optimized the cooling system. Now air entered the radiator through a large frontal window, which was hermetically closed by a damper during sailing. At the same time, engineers in the cooling system managed to get by with just two fans. The payload has decreased from 400 kg to 360, and the body itself has lost 50 kg due to thinner metal and lower sides.
It is noteworthy that the standard wheels from the "Niva" did not greatly worsen the seaworthiness of the "Reka" - the maximum speed fell by only 0.4 km / h, and the maneuverability did not suffer at all. The tests of the two built vehicles took place in 1983 from April 20 to November 30 and included the extreme of the Turkmen deserts and the high-mountainous Pamirs. At this time, the Volzhsky Automobile Plant switched to a new system of product indexing, and the experimental equipment of the ROC "Reka" was named the "four hundredth" series. In total, 120 comments on the design of the vehicle were identified, which were largely the result of the overstated requirements of the Ministry of Defense. The most serious flaw was the drop in brake efficiency in the highlands - the problem was solved by installing units from the VAZ-2108. Everyone was satisfied with the results of the tests, even taking into account the comments, and the state commission decided:
“The VAZ-2122 car basically complies with the TTZ, state and industry standards and other scientific and technical documentation. The car is recommended for adoption and serial production."
But the amphibian never appeared on the VAZ conveyor. They did not find several tens of millions of rubles (according to one version, only 6 million were looking for) for organizing a new production line, since a civil conveyor was not suitable for amphibians. The military department refused to spend extra money - initially, money for organizing the assembly was not provided at all. The Ministry of Defense was ready to pay only for assembled vehicles. In the 80s, VAZ made a couple of desperate attempts to modernize the stillborn project in the form of the 500th and 600th series, but they ended in nothing. The plant workers even carried out passive safety certification tests, apparently with an eye to the civilian market.
The saddest thing in this story is not even that the "River" project was not embodied in the production model, but the fact that all the developments turned out to be, in fact, useless to anyone. Neither in the civilian sector, nor in the army, a similar machine never appeared. In a country cut up and down by waterways and filled with lakes, the commander's floating jeep was not needed.
