The ZAZ Zaporozhets subcompact: A Soviet Car with Several WTH Features

When was the last time you rode in a car with a hole in the floorboard? Probably never, but it's entirely possible, say, if it was a very old car with a rusted out floorboard. Perhaps the hole even had an ad-hoc covering over it. There was a car with a hole in the floorboard right from the factory...

Vladimir Putin with his ZAZ-968. Photo by www.kremlin.ru

The ZAZ interior. One of my 2005 pictures.

The ZAZ Zaporozhets subcompact was produced from 1966 to 1994, in numerous variants. (An earlier variant was produced from 1960-1969, but this article is on the second generation models) You won't see a Zaporozhets simply called by its name. These models were produced as the ZAZ-966 (1966-1972), ZAZ-968 (1971-1978), ZAZ-968A (1973-1980), and ZAZ-968M (1979-1994), each version updated and modernized over the last. This is the first point of unusuality. Normally, when a car is redesigned, it is totally replaced, not produced concurrently with an older version. (Some other vehicles have used this practice, but the majority haven't)

The Zaporozhets also came with "trim lines", but they were not trim lines in the usual sense. The trim lines had unusual names (B, B2, A, and others for the 968) and were designed for people with missing limbs. There were variants for people missing one foot, both feet, and arms. These were sold to the disabled with permission from the Soviet government, many to veterans with war related injury. An additional variant had a less powerful engine than the base variant. 

And then there was the fishing hole. On the passenger side floorboard, there was a hole drilled with a cover over it. The idea was to park on a frozen lake or body of water, dig a hole in the ice, and fish while in your car. This was the only vehicle ever produced with a hole intentionally put on the bottom of the car. 

Fishing hole not included.