Aleko About
The Aleko is a Russian car that was presented to the public in 1986 and was being manufactured between 1988 and 2000 by the now bankrupt Moskvitch Stock Company, based in Moscow, Russia.
Aleko was a huge improvement over previous Moskvitch models, which were dependable but old-fashioned saloons and station wagons (estates) with rear-wheel drive and a solid rear axle. In fact, Aleko had no common parts with previous models apart from the engine.
For Moskvitch, Aleko was innovative, having front-wheel drive, a hatchback body style, McPherson strut front suspension and torsion-crank rear suspension. The wheelbase went up almost 20 centimeters, the body got 14 centimeters wider, the wheel size went up one inch. The car became more spacious, comfortable and safe. For the first time in the history of Russian car making, the car’s profile was optimized for aerodynamics, with the help of Russian and French aircraft and space engineers.
The car originated as a front-wheel drive “proof of concept”, based on foreign models. In the late 1970s Moskvitch bought about two dozen compact cars built by different manufacturers, and thoroughly tested them. French and Swedish cars were favored for their utility and reliability. The final decision was made by the Minister of Automobile Industry, who chose the French Simca 1307 as the best candidate for the Russian market.
Engineers modified an existing Moskvitch engine for front-wheel drive layout and fitted the drivetrain into the Simca. After the tests were successfully completed, it was decided by the rights to copy the Simca 1307 bodyshell almost entirely, starting from the A-pillar. While this decision helped to cut the development costs, it came as an insult to engineers and designers, who had their own mock-ups of future car ready. The morale of the staff had been damaged, and Aleko never became a beloved project among Moskvitch engineers (testimony by the Chief Designer of the Moskvitch Stock Company at the time, Igor Zaitsev. Autoreview, 2002, #5, in Russian)
The existing engine was too long for transverse placement, so it was placed longitudinally, like on the Audi 80/100 series. Many ideas and design decisions were borrowed from Audi cars, including torsion-crank rear suspension, McPherson strut front suspension, rack-and-pinion steering and a collapsable steering column. The spare tyre was located underneath the boot and was accessible from outside, in the tradition of French cars.
Despite “second-hand” styling and design, the Aleko turned out to be quite a breakthrough for the Russian automotive industry. It almost became the first production front-wheel drive car of Russia, but after development it took a further two years for Moskvitch to setup the manufacturing, and the Lada Samara arrived first.
Simca 1307 and AlekoAleko was sold mostly on the domestic market, but in the late 1980s it was exported too. In some export markets, including Germany, the cars were advertised as the Lada Aleko, and diesel engines from Ford and Indenor could be delivered in addition to the standard petrol engines. Some of the last Moskvitch models to be built, such as the Svjatogor and the Dolgorukij, (1997-2002), were based on the Aleko.
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