Lada Samara T3

Ever hear the one about Ferdinand Porsche being enticed to Russia by Josef Stalin, who wanted the German as its ‘Chief Construction Director’ to revolutionize the Russian car industry?

No? 

Well, he didn’t sign, but he almost did: ol' Ferd was thought to be quite the talent back in the day — for reasons obvious to many. 

If that’d happened, and we knew Porsche as a Russian automaker, it's likely the Porsche-engineered Lada Samara T3 wouldn't exist today. 

In Porsche's lean years, engineers had to solve the problems of other car companies, instead of these days, where engineers get to draw special Macan stripe packages for god-knows-why. 

I'd rather they work on Ladas, actually, and it really did happen — the company completed a revised and updated prototype VAZ-2103 for the company, helped to engineer the Samara (even adding "System Porsche" to the cylinder heads), plus lent its talents to this, the Samara T3, a Dakar-worthy competition machine.

“Lent its talents” — what does that mean? You're looking at a Lada with the four-wheel-drive system from a Porsche 959, as well as a normally-aspirated flat-six from a Porsche 911. 

Thing is, the connection with Porsche likely came not factory to factory, but because the Samara T3 was a project taken on by the longtime French VAZ (and other Soviet machines, including Tatra) importer, Jean-Jacques Poch.

His connections in France resulted in the hiring of two ex-Formula 1 drivers, Jacky Ickx and Patrick Tambay to lead the squad. Racing through 1990 and 1991 in a number of desert and off-road endurance events, the Samara T3 was a fast truck and capable of the odd stage win. 

As a privateer team, however, no matter how good the components are — tubular steel space frame and carbon fibre body panels, by the way — once the Peugeot, Citroën, and other factory teams entered, their better-fielded operations were simply more effective once the going got rough. 

An interesting off-road machine, and one likely made better by its German heart…just as Stalin envisioned.

READ NEXT: The Autopian and Road & Track have both written about this car as well. My first draft of this story was sent to subscribers in 2015.