The vodka burner

Panic! · 24 Jul 2012, 5:03 pm

Back in the days when I was young and life was so much simpler I owned a little Russian vodka burner, the dreaded Lada Niva. Oh, I loved that car, but in reality it was totally underpowered, slow, very labor intensive and not comfy to sleep in. But the adventures I had in it!
I drove through no less than 8 drains in it!

Drove it from Melbourne to Adelaide and Sydney, as well as heaps of trips around Melbourne and Victoria. It was very economical, $20 would last me all week even in the days of $140 fuel. But it was slow. I got it up to 140 km/h on a runway once and that was as fast as it wanted to go.

I ended up selling it to a guy who drove it up to Queensland and after a few years drowned it on a beach while trying to pass some rocks as the tide came up. Poor little car.

binjuice · 24 Jul 2012, 5:18 pm

Love the Lada Niva this little thing is famous all over the web go Mini tenths.

Nuggs · 24 Jul 2012, 5:54 pm

Panic! wrote:I drove through no less than 8 drains in it!

Haha, nice work!!

Any more pics?

Titan · 25 Jul 2012, 8:00 am

Ahhh motherland Niva Lada, Volga, 4igul etc great cars.

You can buy a 4 door Lada over there for around 8k.... like....brand new.... We had one back when i was living in my country. Great vehicle

Extra respect point for owning a Niva

Panic! · 02 Aug 2012, 1:35 pm

Lets see if this will work

If not; http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread_arch ... adid=17130

Nineball · 30 May 2014, 11:05 pm

You're the one with the Lada Niva! Lots of respect for you for owning a Niva in the first place, and also for driving it down drains.

When I was first getting into urbex I'd see various photos of your car in drains, always thought Melbourne was awesome for that!

DeScent · 31 May 2014, 12:13 am

Draining in a car. Very cool
Looks like some wild adventures
Its giving me an idea or two

Thanks for sharing

danny_ · 01 Jun 2014, 8:05 pm

The next car on the list is a niva.. I have always wanted one after watching an old top gear video.. they seem to be built like a tank..
I wish i could say that about my 2 current cars.....
66 morris mini and 66 mini moke..
I wouldn't mind taking the moke in a few drains..

Dynamite · 01 Jun 2014, 8:45 pm

You have a Mini Moke?!!
Mate, I salute you!
When I was a kid, lots of farmers in my area had them as paddock bashers. Used them as shooting rigs cos no door pillars etc, just hang the rifle out in any direction and BAM!
Haven't seen one driving around in years, apart from the occasional restoration job.

danny_ · 02 Jun 2014, 2:45 pm

Dynamite wrote:You have a Mini Moke?!!
Mate, I salute you!
When I was a kid, lots of farmers in my area had them as paddock bashers. Used them as shooting rigs cos no door pillars etc, just hang the rifle out in any direction and BAM!
Haven't seen one driving around in years, apart from the occasional restoration job.

It's driven as often as possible and i enjoy driving it to work at 5am in the morning

It works well as an elevated platform for sports photography.
It would be light enough for 6 or 8 people to carry into a drain.

When i previously looked at niva's the 3 for sale at the time were full of rust and finding parts was hard.. I was younger then and didnt know much about cars.

Titan · 04 Jun 2014, 6:23 pm

That Moke is superb!

My good mate has one which he re-built ground up. Sand blasted the bare shell. Welded up any rust spots and now fitted the 1.3L engine from England.... lost of time and money goes into these things.

But looks on peoples faces when you cruise this thing... PRICELESS!!

Spill the beans, whats done to yours ?

danny_ · 05 Jun 2014, 2:47 pm

I used to get pulled over a lot by the cops but they seem to know me by now..
Still get all the photos / looks from people driving.

Mine is a 1966 little wheeler moke, number 3450 off the production line,
Not really sure of its history but it had the front welded back onto it before it got it..
Its a rust free bog free body with lots of dents which gives it character.

I rebuilt the motor last year and bored it out from 998cc to 1132cc with a bit of head work, fitted a 40mm weber carb.
It will happily sit at 110km/h and tear up most modern cars round corners.

I have added 6" wide revolite wheels,
chopped the windscreen by 2",
lowered it by an inch
and i installed a 162db train horn and compressor

The moke owes me close to 14k and it looks like that figure will slowly go up.
The mini owes me more and i am still finding things to fix on it.. Never buy an English car unless you have bottomless pockets.

Edit: I fitted a toyota sc12 supercharger to the moke earlier this year and decided to take it off after a couple of months as it ruined the ride.

No+Pro · 05 Jun 2014, 5:09 pm

danny_ wrote:Never buy an English car unless you have bottomless pockets.

i got a 67 Mini Deluxe as my first car - a year or two into uni i had to buy a laser as the mini was costing too much to keep running - still got it, need to get rid of it. hasn't moved in around 10 years, whoops

danny_ · 05 Jun 2014, 6:42 pm

No+Pro wrote:
danny_ wrote:Never buy an English car unless you have bottomless pockets.
i got a 67 Mini Deluxe as my first car - a year or two into uni i had to buy a laser as the mini was costing too much to keep running - still got it, need to get rid of it. hasn't moved in around 10 years, whoops

Roundies are worth a bit of cash even as "resto project cars"
Saying that you should hang onto it and slowly restore it.
The purple mini is a 66 deluxe and i have a 1964 850 which is parts.

No+Pro · 06 Jun 2014, 7:42 am

That was the plan but a house, 4x4 and 2 kids later and I dont think I could justify the cost of becoming interested again. When i sell it ill prob buy some camera gear anyway. Dad has 3 more roundies tucked away and my brother has just bought 4 minors, where does it end haha
I have a weber 40 n some short inlets to flog off on the side but other than that itll go all at once
sadface

danny_ · 06 Jun 2014, 2:10 pm

i was the opposite, I sold about $7000 worth of lenses to buy my first mini 3 and a half years ago and regret selling the gear..
It never ends with minis.

No+Pro · 06 Jun 2014, 5:26 pm

found an old pic, its tiny, which is fitting i suppose

....sigh....

danny_ · 06 Jun 2014, 6:16 pm

The photo is private

danny_ · 06 Jun 2014, 6:18 pm

danny_ wrote:The photo is private

edit:
you could sell your 4x4 and buy this..
best of both worlds.
http://goo.gl/WgZAW3

No+Pro · 06 Jun 2014, 7:14 pm

danny_ wrote:
danny_ wrote:The photo is private
edit:
you could sell your 4x4 and buy this..
best of both worlds.
http://goo.gl/WgZAW3

unprivated, i'll delete it later, too hard to just post pics in here

that, is scary, not to mention not very practical, haha

No+Pro · 28 Aug 2014, 9:03 pm

have spent a couple of half-days tidying up the mini, will get it into the sun for some sales pics n stick them up. am currently more excited by the prospect of working on it and selling it than going for a walk in a drain... something wrong with me at the moment...

Aydun · 29 Aug 2014, 11:39 am

Well good luck selling it. I've more or less just finished getting my car running well again. Although that's so I can go draining.

Nothing is more fun than catching a bus 40mins to check out one possible drain, find it's no good/tidal then have to wait for a bus to the next location or catch the same bus home..

danny_ · 06 Sep 2014, 7:29 pm

Its fun working on minis.
I ended up buying 3 projects not so long ago and its kept me very very busy.

Bangers · 15 Sep 2014, 11:21 pm

Some cool little vans there, certainly looks like those Mini's have some good potential, and I thought the Ford Escort panel vans were small...

Here's one of my projects - 1978 Escort Van....

danny_ · 16 Sep 2014, 6:40 pm

I don't think i have ever seen an escort in van form before.
The bubble window at the back is awesome.