The Volga M21: iconic Russian cars ressurecting in the Monte Carlo Historic Rally
07.02.2019
The Volga M21: the resurrection of two iconic Russian cars participating in the Monte Carlo Historic Rally.
The Volga M21 (GAZ-21) model was produced in the Russian GAZ /Gorki, URSS/ during the years between 1956 and 1970. With a modest power output, varying from 70 to 85 horsepower, depending on its construction year, not the typical Rally car you’d expect.
Back in the days, the Gorki factories owned their own racing workshop « Torpédo-GAZ », and prepared their Volga cars for extreme challenges such as rallies, track races and off-road rallies.
Since 1961, the race pilots from the Russian Torpédo-GAZ team participated in numerous international rallies. Including the world-famous Monte-Carlo rally in 1964 and 1965. The URSS team ceased the use of the Volga cars however from 1968 of.
Fast-forward to 2015. There was only one from the tree original rally cars left in a decent state. This car participated in the Monte-Carlo Rally in 1965, and was bought back by race driver Viatcheslav MOSSOLOFF, and reconverted to its original state during a 3-year process, however improved with some modern technology.
2019 marked the 55th anniversary of the first participation of the Russian team in the Monte-Carlo Rally. In proud memory of this event, the Motul Gorkyclassic team restored and prepared two Volga M21’s for the 22nd edition of the Monte-Carlo historic rally.
On the 30th of January, Anastasia Nifontova gave the official start signal for the two Volga rally cars on the Red Square in Moscow.
Technical data of the two cars:
- Type M21
- Construction year 1961
- Owner ALEXEY VASILYEV
- Chassis number 135826
- Type of engine 402, 421
- VIN M021OA750RUS
- Type GAZ-21
- Construction year 1962
- Owner ALEXEY VASILYEV
- Chassis number 200936
- Type of engine 402, 421
- VIN E646PX99RUS
The official Monte Carlo Rally website: http://acm.mc/en/accueil/