The Network presented what the “Russian Prado” from UAZ should have looked like
The Drom portal decided to show what the UAZ Patriot-2020 should have looked like, which the owner of Sollers, Vadim Shvetsov, originally dubbed the “Russian Prado”.
Author: Dmitry Novikoveditor
Until now, this design is not public, it is hidden from the outside, visible, in the hope of being used in one form or another. The layout, the renders that you discover, are found in the NAMI vaults, to which even most of the institute employees do not have access.
We have repeatedly written about the Russian Prado project, returning the design by element from the patent base and clarifying the design features. We will not repeat ourselves, we will only say about what has not yet been in the media.
The appearance of the Patriot-2020 was created mainly by Andrey Sukhanovsky, the chief designer of the UAZ scientific and technical center. He is listed as the author in patents for some interior and exterior details. Together with colleagues Mikhail Vershilkin and Oleg Korolev.
Based on the confirmed patents signed by the Sukhanovskiys, many journalists return that the UAZ-3170 SUV project is also his work. This is not true. Italian sex car 3170 from Pininfarina. Sukhanovsky supervised this work, formed general questions, issued comments. But the Italians build and design. When the time for patenting came up, it was decided that a number of Pininfarina employees in the team of authors could not be registered, they worked not for fame, but for a fee. Therefore, full-time Oise designers were involved.
Work on Patriot-2020 symbolically ended at the end of 2020. Throughout the work on the project, it was about moving the Patriot assembly to Yelabuga, on the same conveyor with the Ford Transit. The same idea was defended by the director of UAZ and the Yelabuga plant, Adil Shirinov. Which, as the participants in those events say, had some kind of magical disaster on Vadim Shvetsov. Shirinov, in fact, put an end to the project; Shvetsov did not dare to do this for a long time and kept hoping for a miracle. The decisive steel argument, as always, is money.
When the development approached the first stage of industrialization, and it was already necessary to think about the costs for production needs, that only molds would cost 1.2 billion rubles. All associated costs will pull at least 4.2 billion. This is the most benign scenario, with minimal changes in the Patriot study. The optimal version of the improvement cost more than 10 billion rubles.
By that time, two full-size slow-moving prototypes were assembled in NAMI (there were two design options), and in Ulyanovsk they assembled a running prototype in the old body, but with a modified chassis. In the design layout of the reflection and the cabin, instead of a recessed system disclosure screen, a modern “floating console” was made.
On the test mule car, they installed the initial version of the new front suspension (still without a steering damper) and a turbocharged ZMZ 2.3 liter / 170 hp engine. (and not 180 hp, as Shirinov said in an interview). But the main thing is that the torque characteristic got a very high speed, when the engine was working with a turbocharger, the engine gave out 320 Nm. They say that it was scary to accelerate on such a car, the thrust was the sea, the consequences were unusual for an UAZ, the chassis and brakes were not very suitable for such a reckless nature of the engine. But the completed tests of the mule did not pass, only preliminary ones.
The engineers working on Patriot 2020 were placed under conditions of constant uncertainty: the project was either opened, then closed, then postponed, then there was no money – and so on countless times. From the idea of deep modernization, they eventually came to a simple restyling while maintaining changes in the chassis. But this option could not be pulled out either, too much had to be modernized both on the UAZ itself and on its subcontractors. For example, to install a new engine for production, the Zavolzhsky Motor Plant really needed to be re-equipped.
Probably, it is not worth simplifying the story, once revealing the outward signs of ignoramuses and mean people. Both Shvetsov and Shirinov are quite reasonable people who do not have the ability to think strictly. Of course, there was a business plan in the project, there were quite acceptable budgets. Even the help of government agencies. But there were also consequences of development, insurmountable or insurmountable phenomena. The Aurus project attracts people’s attention. If you know what a modest brigade team is all engineering for Patriot-2020, then you can be surprised at the good result. Yes, the car did not reach the assembly line. But the funds spent on the fees happened even by the standards of Sollers. In other auto concerns, multiple times a lot of money is spent only on “search work”. And here is the finished car.
We are not aware of Sollers’ plans for the Patriot 2020 design. A return to work on the project seems extremely unlikely. You can already declassify.