Moskvitch 400
| Moskvitch 400-420 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | Moskvitch |
| Production | 1947-1956 |
| Body and chassis | |
| Body style |
|
| Layout | FR layout |
| Related | Opel Kadett K38 |
| Powertrain | |
| Engine | 1.1L MZMA-400 I4 |
| Transmission | 3-speed manual |
| Chronology | |
| Successor | Moskvitch 402 |
| Moskvitch 401 | |
|---|---|
1949 Moskvich 401-424E
|
|
| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | Moskvitch |
| Production | 1954-1956 |
| Assembly | Moscow |
| Layout | FR layout |
| Powertrain | |
| Engine | 1.1L MZMA-400 I4 |
| Transmission | 3-speed manual |
| Chronology | |
| Predecessor | Moskvitch 400-420 |
| Successor | Moskvitch 402 |
The Moskvitch 400-420 was a car introduced in 1947 by the Soviet manufacturer Moskvitch.
In 1940 and 1941 500 units of the KIM 10-50, the first Soviet compact car, were produced. It was inspired by the similar-sized four-door Ford Prefect and despite its low price equipped with such features as a mechanical clock and indicators of the level of oil and the temperature of water in the radiator, but national priorities changed with the German invasion in Summer 1941, and the production of the new car was not resumed after the war. It was Joseph Stalin who personally chose in June 1945 a four-door Opel Kadett to become a first mass-produced popular Soviet car, so plans and tooling of a four-door version had to be reconstructed with help of German engineers, who worked upon them in a Soviet occupation zone. The Soviet Union was not the only country to adopt the design at that time: the Kadett had impressed Louis Renault and heavily inspired his Renault Juvaquatre produced in 1937-1960.
Development began in 1944, following a prewar plan to produce a domestically built car able to be used and maintained by citizens living outside major cities. The KIM factory was selected to build the car, with the prewar KIM 10-52 (not built due to the Second World War) as a basis, with production approved in May 1945 and prototypes intended to be ready in December; by the end of May, however, these plans had faltered.
At war's end, the Soviet Union deemed the plans and tooling for the 1939 Opel Kadett K38 as part of the war reparations package, since the tooling in the Rüsselsheim factory was largely intact; residents dismantling the Kadett production tooling and loaded fifty-six freight cars, bound for Moscow and the newly built "Stalin Factory" (ZIS). However, according to recent Russian sources, the Kadett plans and tooling were in fact not captured from the factory, because they did not survive there (and what survived was appropriate for producing a two-door model).
...
Wikipedia