VAZ-2105 VFTS-rally

Everyone involved in rallying in the Soviet Union pronounced the word VFTS (Vilnius Vehicle Factory) with a special feeling. Many dreamed of getting a VAZ-2105 VFTS, but the supercars of the Vilnius Vehicle Factory, with rare exceptions, were given only to members of the national team. And even VAZ pilots drove Lithuanian cars to some foreign races! The heyday of the VFTS was the beginning of the eighties. The factory, covering an area of ​​about 1500 sq. m, there was an experimental workshop, a design bureau, laboratories for testing engines and electronics. During the year, a team of 50 people made up to 200 racing cars of various levels of training. First they built sports VAZ-21011 of group A with a 1600 cc engine. see, and with the introduction of Group B into the world rally, a new model was prepared according to its requirements. VFTS features
foreign pilots also appreciated - the cars were successfully sold in Sweden, Norway, Germany and even in Panama and Colombia. Basically, they were teams of local importers of VAZ cars. But someone bought a Lada as a training car - among cars with such a serious level of training, the Soviet one, which then cost about 20 thousand dollars, was perhaps the most affordable. The museum of VFTS chief designer Stasis Brundza keeps
Porsche 911, which one of the Bulgarian teams exchanged for two VAZ-2105 VFTS. Group B regulations allowed changing the track of the car - the racing "five" was noticeably wider than the standard one, and fiberglass, aluminum and titanium alloys were widely used in the construction of the car. Of the latter, for example, connecting rods, valve spring plates and a safety cage were made. The power of the 1600 cc forced motor, equipped with two horizontal Weber carburetors, reached 160 hp. The kinematics of the suspension was changed, more powerful brakes were installed on all wheels. It was planned to build a car with an all-wheel drive transmission, but they did not have time to make it - in 1989 the FIA ​​banned group B. And a couple of years later the USSR national team also ceased to exist. VFTS, transformed into an independent enterprise EVA (Experimental Vilnius Automobile Plant), prepared cars based on G8s for several more years, but few people needed this in independent Lithuania, and gradually the racing production was transformed into a group of enterprises for the sale and maintenance of imported cars .