Test drive UAZ 469 1972 - HB SUV

UAZ is under me ...

Preserving the production of old UAZ for outright off -road and offering a new car capable of driving well on asphalt, the Ulyanovsk plant kills two birds with one stone at once.
A powerful frame, all -wheel drive, a dependent suspension with stabilizers in front and rear, a huge salon, a thrust three -liter engine with a capacity of one and a half hundred horses, a new gearbox, bridges with an extended track, almost three tons of full weight, a power steering ... about this can be approximately like this Look UAZ in the near future.
VISITORS FROM THE FUTURE
The Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, whose position is hard to call stable today, continues to work on the modernization of its products. We recently wrote about the long -playing machine UAZ 3162 (ZR, 2000, No. 7). It is already collected, although a little. The new nodes and units are only undergoing tests, but the factory’s leadership nevertheless dared to show them to journalists. By the way, the tests continued in this run, where factory specialists worked on the side with us. We evaluate the courage of this step and agree that possible claims against new technical solutions should not be perceived not as criticism of products (these are not products at all), but as wishes for further improvement. On this we will complete the official part and get acquainted with UAZ from the future.
Although more precisely it will be said - with UAZs. The novelties shown to us were scattered through two cars. The first is an ordinary, now already small -scale long -playing. Of the unusual in it - the sixteen -valve engine ZMZ -409 (they don’t put this on the commodity UAZs) and an experienced five -speed gearbox. Another difference from commodity machines is the altered transfer of the main pair - 4.37 instead of 4.11. The index of this car (in the pictures it is blue) - UAZ 31622. The second UAZ, white, more further from the series. A tall roof, bridges with an extended track, a salon with three rows of seats - these are visible differences. In addition, under the hood he has a new engine, which is still called 094V. The Ulyanovsk Motor Plant seriously took up the modernization of his elderly structure. First, the working volume was increased to 2.9 liters and made a number of improvements (dry cylinder sleeves, cuff cuff seals), then equipped with distributed injection, now they transferred the distribution shaft to the cylinder head. Another novelty is an advanced back suspension. The springs are smeared wider, the angle of installation of shock absorbers has been changed, a reptile stabilizer appeared. The index of this car: UAZ 31622-300.
To the sea sea
- Do you take the UAZ again? - the colleagues asked and, having received an affirmative answer, began to scream: do not forget the swamp boots, the cable is thicker and a bottle of the tractor driver who is from the th ..., from the mud, that is, it will drag. Having learned, however, that instead of clay near Moscow, the mountains of the Caucasus are outlined, the wits were shaved, and their fun was replaced by a poorly disguised sense of envy.
In fact, not by asphalt to travel on UAZs. The worse the road, the better UAZ - such an image has developed at this brand. In the swamp, we were already drowning the goat, we knitted in the arable land, climbed along the slopes, kneaded snowdrifts. But in the mountains were not yet. Where? Yes, in Krasnaya Polyana - there are not only skiing tracks, but all that is needed to check the car: sections of an excellent highway from Sochi to Adler, Sochi himself with narrow streets and crazy motion, old, narrow mountain serpentine and, of course , mountains with rocky sags, raw clay rises, brodes, oblique and forest treads. In addition, the climate is also unique - it is hot, wet, the salty sea is nearby - almost subtropics. What else to wish for?
Mountain goat reserve
Krasnaya Polyana is a small village. The people who are living here are for the most part feeding from the mountains. Who serves tourists, who grazes the cows, who bred bees, who is the forest. The asphalt is not yet laid in the mountains, so the roads are so -so - from broken to impassable. And transport corresponding to operating conditions: Ural, ZIL-157, GAZ-66 and, of course, the UAZs of all stripes and any age. Another sixty -ninth is working with might and main! Wealthy tourists are taken to the jeep-spari, to the mountains. What a jeep is used is easy to guess: UAZ, of course. One trouble - the gentlemen of tourists in army, in fact, a car, is terribly shaking. And a rare daredevil agrees to such a test again, especially for his blood.
In general, they know a lot about UAZs here. Our guide, a local resident Yuri, usually travels on the Lada. But in the yard he has under a canopy ... That's right, a loaf. By the way, in the future, Yuri continually compared new UAZs with the usual goat, based on local operating conditions. He said, by the way, a lot of interesting things, and far from always his comparison were in favor of the new machine. However, we got sick - it's time ...
...TO THE MOUNTAINS
The first day is a warm -up for both people and for technology. The road that leads us up, of course, is broken in some places, and in some places there are revenge. From the point of view of the driver of the UAZ - nothing special. For most imported all -wheel drives, this route already presents difficulties. Parquet simply do not break here, while serious cars usually stop climbing after the first blow with a brilliant threshold against boulders. But the photographer here is expanse: sunny, the air is transparent in the autumn, the views open amazing-you can shoot standing, lying, from the knee and from two hands, in Macedonian.
The road loopes between huge beeches, the trunks of which resemble giant concrete columns: even, gray, rough. Suddenly the forest breaks off. Before us is a bright grass, not still touched in the fall, yellow crocuses, a bolota lake, a shepherd's house. This is an alpine meadow. But this is a construction! What are you building, men? Hotel? I wonder if there is enough money to live here for a week in silence and peace? ..
Pretty lyrics - how is UAZ? Normally, the roads are not from those that can scare a serious all -terrain vehicle. True, on lifts covered with wet clay, the difference in tires made itself felt. The blue car, shod in the road K-153, was much less confident in clay than white UAZ on the toothy K-151.
Second day: big plans and big bummer! They should have climbed almost on the highest local mountain, but pouring rain confused all the cards. Still, we went, although, let's say right away, the goals did not reach: the rivers swelled, the slopes were smacked ... But they traveled enough on both cars.
The third day is a kind of test. The route is not long, but demanding - protracted rises (steepness 24-26), boulders, heavy, viscous soil ... A very useful day: much has been confirmed, much has manifested. Now let's start exposing ...
... own impressions
Of course, the owner of the imported jeep can only cause a salon. If you approach the standards of the 469th, then you immediately forgive everything - and a somewhat old -fashioned already interior, and rough plastic upholstery, and elements made using a bypass technology. After all, this is a real car: with normal devices, comfortable seats, a radio. Even the steering wheel is adjusted in height. The interior is spacious, roomy, on the go - silence. What else does? In our opinion, for complete happiness, it would be done with temporary details of ABS plastic. They do not add any beauty or silence. More - slightly move back the front seat. And then the car is huge, and there is nowhere to put your legs. Large rear view mirrors would not have prevented. You don’t really see anything to the Muscovichski, and they look absurd on a large UAZ.
Now about driving. The first thing you pay attention to when carbing over the cobblestones is a hydraulic power steering. At any speed, on any coating, the steering wheel now does not require a scrap force and does not strive to beat his fingers to the driver when the wheel enters the hole (the ancestor liked to indulge in this). But on the highway, the amplifier seems unnecessarily powerful - it is easy to steer, but it is difficult to feel the car in corners, especially at speed. And the speed, by the way, has such a UAZ under one and a half hundred ...
The suspension, by UAZ standards, is soft. Of course, the car is off -road and shakes and goats, but everything is known in comparison. Would drive along the same village and on an ordinary UAZ, but with military bridges! On the asphalt, the twenty -second is generally just a class, but ... until the first sharp movement of the steering wheel. Well, he is heated! No wonder the rear suspension has been changed on a white car and a stabilizer was introduced. The car has already been made rather speedy - now, it seems, they are trying to make more obedient.
There are claims to the new gearbox, or rather to the switching mechanism. She has a not quite ordinary switching scheme, but this is not a problem. It is worse that it is impossible to find the right program without a special skill. The second is very close to the back and no lock, even there is no spring or it is too weak. The fourth, in turn, is attributed very far towards the passenger ... Although the box has a box and useful for the rogue: the first is located opposite the rear - it is convenient to rock the stuck car.
The upper Ulyanovsk engine is still clearly damp. Fortunately, no mechanical breakdowns with him happened, but he still needs to correct his brains: he pulls so -so from below, touches the rise reluctantly, makes him hold high speeds, and when protection from the crossroads triggers, at the most inopportune moment drops the momentum to idle. And the stop in the middle of the rise is a thing, you know, unpleasant. No wonder the factory workers carry a shoe with them and are trained by a honed movement instantly slip it under the wheel.
The multi-valve ZMZ-409 showed itself better in the mountains, not least thanks to the shorter main pair. And so it turned out: White got up on the rise, because the engine was sour, and the blue would go further, but the tires were clogged with clay ... By the way, about the main program. A long pair allows you to save fuel on the highway, maintain higher speed. But for a rogue, especially in the mountains, much more important is the supply of traction.
In general, the cars were most missing the right motor - quite powerful, with a scrap moment at low speeds. The Volga multi -valve has remarkable capabilities, but at high speeds. The new motor has yet to be brought.
More UAZs, good and different!
The plant, which has long been producing harsh army-agricultural vehicles, clearly decided to end the utilitarianism of its products and reached progress on this path.
The new car, of course, is more comfortable, much easier to drive - both on the lane and on the highway. It can be seen that they were no longer counting on a soldier at the wheel, which the charter tells ... steadily transfer all the hardships and hardships ... and to the consumer, he will not pay his money for these very hardships. Why is he invited to pay a round amount?
Any modern all -around, which UAZ is trying to become, must combine the qualities of an all -terrain vehicle and a road car. Foreign manufacturers of such machines have recently made a noticeable roll in the direction of road qualities, sometimes to the detriment of cross -country ability. UAZ is not the same - off -road qualities still remain his skate. Behind the new body, soft salon and other attributes of civilization, a fierce conqueror of off -road is hidden. Here, a beginner is unlikely to give in to his predecessor. The highway has a new car, much more comfortable and high -speed, it would be nice to train good manners. Large bodies of the body, a steering wheel amplifier, which practically deprives the feedback driver, cotton brakes - all this does not allow for the asphalt to consider UAZ behavior approximate.
In fact, no one has yet been able to combine the quality of Porsche and Hammer in one machine. After all, any compromise implies an improvement in one parameter due to the deterioration of another. UAZ today has a real opportunity to shoot two birds with one stone - in production both cars of the new family, and old utilitarian goats. The first subject to thoroughly refinement of road qualities (even at the cost of a certain decrease in patency) can become a full -fledged asphalt jeep. Well, the old man is still out of competition in the category of extremely cheap purebred all-terrain vehicles. In addition, the new model can support the veteran with more modern nodes and assemblies. Then the buyer will have a real choice. One dreams of a large beautiful alternate, but does not have a lot of money - here is a domestic analogue, albeit less perfect, but affordable. The other needs a working car - get the old UAZ: the prestige is zero, but climb the mountains and carry the manure, and pull the cannon, if necessary. To each his own!
Igor Solidov
 
 

Source: The magazine "Driving"