The Moskvitch 400-420 is a

car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

that was introduced in 1947 by the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

manufacturer Moskvitch.

Background

In 1940 and 1941 500 units of the KIM-10-50, the first Soviet

compact car Compact car is a vehicle size class—predominantly used in North America—that sits between subcompact cars and mid-size cars. "Small family car" is a British term and a part of the C-segment in the European car classification. However, before ...

, were produced. It was inspired by the similar-sized four-door Ford Prefect and, despite its low price, equipped with such features as a mechanical clock and indicators of the level of oil and the temperature of water in the radiator.KIM-10-50, azlk-avto.ucoz.ru
/ref> However, national priorities changed with the German invasion in summer 1941, and production of the car was halted and not resumed after the war. At war's end, the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

deemed the plans and tooling for the 1939 Opel Kadett K38 to be part of the war reparations package, since the tooling in the Rüsselsheim factory was largely intact; residents dismantled the Kadett production tooling and loaded fifty-six freight carsThompson, p.76. bound for Moscow and the newly built "Stalin Factory" (ZIS). However, according to recent Russian sources, the Kadett plans and tooling were in fact not captured from the factory, because they did not survive there (and what survived was appropriate for producing a two-door model).

Development

Development began in 1944, following a prewar plan to produce a domestically built car able to be used and maintained by citizens living outside major cities.Thompson, Andy. ''Cars of the Soviet Union'' (Haynes Publishing, Somerset, UK, 2008), p.74. The KIM factory was selected to build the car, with the prewar

KIM-10-52 KIM-10 was the first Automotive industry in the Soviet Union, Soviet Compact car, small car designed for large-scale mass production. History The very first passenger car designed in the Soviet Union, the NAMI-1, was supposed to combine the si ...

(not built due to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

) as a basis, with production approved in May 1945 and prototypes intended to be ready in December. By the end of May, however, these plans had faltered. It was

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

who personally chose in June 1945 a four-door

Opel Kadett The Opel Kadett is a small family car produced by the German automobile manufacturer Opel from 1936 until 1940 and then from 1962 until 1991 (the Cabrio continued until 1993), when it was succeeded by the Opel Astra. Originally, the Kadett was ...

to become the first mass-produced popular Soviet car, so plans and tooling of a four-door version had to be reconstructed with help of German engineers, who worked upon them in a Soviet occupation zone. The Soviet Union was not the only country to adopt the design at that time: the Kadett had impressed Louis Renault and heavily inspired his Renault Juvaquatre produced in 1937–1960.Odin, L.C. ''World in Motion 1939 - The whole of the year's automobile production''. Belvedere Publishing, 2015. ASIN: B00ZLN91ZG.

Moskvitch 400

After KIM was renamed MZMA (Moscovskiy Zavod Malolitrazhnyh Avtomobiley, Moscow Factory for Making Small Cars) in August 1945, the new car was ready for production before the end of 1946 (somewhat behind the planned June deadline): the first 400-420 was built 9 December, "400" meant a type of engine, and "420" the (saloon) body style. With unitized construction,

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

front suspension, three-speed manual transmission. and hydraulic brakes, it was powered by a inline four (with a

compression ratio The compression ratio is the ratio between the maximum and minimum volume during the compression stage of the power cycle in a piston or Wankel engine. A fundamental specification for such engines, it can be measured in two different ways. Th ...

of 5.6:1). Acceleration took 55 seconds, and achieved (the best of any Soviet car at that time). With a

wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...

of ) and ground clearance of ), it measured long overall wide, tall. Approved for mass production by the Soviet government on 28 April 1947, 1,501 were built the first year, with 4,808 for 1948 and 19,906 in 1949, the same year a mesh

oil filter An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsatur ...

was introduced. In 1951,

synchromesh A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission system where gear changes ...

was introduced on the top two gears, and the gear lever relocated to the steering column. In 1948, a woodie van, the 400-422, with an payload, went into production but the similar prototype 400-421 estate and a pick-up never did. The 400-420A cabriolet debuted in 1949. The 400 went on sale in Belgium in October 1950, making it a very early Soviet automotive export product, priced at £349: below the Ford Prefect and Anglia, and well below the

Morris Minor The Morris Minor is an economy car produced by British marque Morris Motors between 1948 and 1971. It made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6 ...

.Thompson, p.78. ''Motor'' praised its engine's quietness, the calibre of its finish, and the quality of the ride. The 100,000th Moskvich was built in October 1952. Several prototypes were also built. In 1949, proposal for an improved 401E-424E and a 403E-424E saw only six examples built.Thompson, pp.78 & 80 caption. Following this, in 1951, the factory produced the 403-424A

coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...

with a four. The "stunning" 404 Sport of 1954 used a new,

overhead valve An overhead valve engine, abbreviated (OHV) and sometimes called a pushrod engine, is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with flathead (or "sidevalve") engines, where the v ...

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engine.

Moskvitch 401

The Moskvitch 401 (full designation: Moskvitch 401-420) was introduced in 1954, an improved variant of the 400-420.Lev M. Shugurov, ''Avtomobili Rossii i SSSR. Ch.1'', Moskva, 1993, , p. 192-195 It weighs . and was powered by an

sidevalve A flathead engine, also known as a sidevalve engine''American Rodder'', 6/94, pp.45 & 93. or valve-in-block engine, is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the engine block, instead of in the cylinder head, as ...

inline four engine, uprated from to ,''Moskvitch-400-420A'', Avtolegendy SSSR Nr.5, DeAgostini 2009, ISSN 2071-095X, thanks to a higher compression ratio, of 6.2:1, and improved

intake An intake (also inlet) is an opening, structure or system through which a fluid is admitted to a space or machine as a consequence of a pressure differential between the outside and the inside. The pressure difference may be generated on the ins ...

and

exhaust manifold In automotive engineering, an exhaust manifold collects the exhaust gases from multiple cylinders into one pipe. The word ''manifold'' comes from the Old English word ''manigfeald'' (from the Anglo-Saxon ''manig'' anyand ''feald'' old and ref ...

s.Thompson, p.81. Other changes included a new

starter motor A starter (also self-starter, cranking motor, or starter motor) is a device used to rotate (crank) an internal-combustion engine so as to initiate the engine's operation under its own power. Starters can be electric, pneumatic, or hydraulic. T ...

dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos employed electromagnets for self-starting by using residual magnetic field left in the iron cores ...

, wheel bearings, and handbrake. Both models were externally identical. It had a top speed of . The ''400-422''

sedan delivery A panel van, also known as a delivery van (United Kingdom), blind van, car-derived van or sedan delivery (United States), is a small cargo vehicle with a passenger car chassis, typically with a single front bench seat and no side windows behind ...

variant was renumbered ''401-422''. (Its production continued until December 1956.) There was also a pickup version, the ''401-420B''. Some of the production was exported, among other countries to East Germany and Norway. Production ended in 1956, when the design was heavily outdated. Private users in Norway at the time needed a foreign exchange permit to buy a new imported car. This did not apply to Russian cars that as a "friendly gesture" were supplied in exchange for fish. Production of the saloon ended 20 April 1956, when it was replaced by Moskvitch 402. 247,439 had been built, counting both the 400 and 401.

References

External links

Moskvitch 400-420 - plaster model cars
{{Authority control Cars of Russia Compact cars 1950s cars 400-420 Soviet automobiles Cars introduced in 1947 Germany–Soviet Union relations