My third Kiva taxi cab driver

Kiva is a micro-lending site that hooks up 1st worlders with 3rd worlders.  I, along with a dozen or so other people, each lend an entrepreneur $25 for their business.  Over the span of a year, that person pays us back.

When I signed up in 2008, I decided to focus on cab drivers because, if you have not noticed, I like cars.

The first person I signed up to give a hand was Salom in Tajikistan.  He paid all the money back on time.

After he paid me back in 2009, I lent the same $25 to Fayez in Lebanon.  He paid it all back today.

Now, I am on my third cabbie-- Carlos from Bolivia.   Would you join me?

Medvedev's personal car, the Pobeda (Victory)

Medvedev is one of my favorite world leaders.  His bold-colored fat-knotted ties.  His Putin-like gait.  And now, his cool 1948 Pobeda.  This classic was the first Soviet vehicle to come with turn signals, TWO electric wipers, and a radio.

Moscow Russian Victory Parade rehearsal

This is my favorite parade.  The Soviet era aircraft, ZIL limousine convertibles, and mobile missile launchers rawk!  This is the 65th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War, by the way.

Putin-Chavez press conference

Love them or hate them, Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez are extraordinary personalities.  This incredibly uncomfortable press conference between two allies, beamed to us from Russia Today, gives us a unique glimpse into their minds.  A psych grad student can spend years analyzing their body language, banter, and inflections in this short video.

+1 to Chavez for encouraging his countrymen and countrywomen to run out and buy a Lada.

A WTF?! to Putin for saying that he wouldn't cheat because it's close to Easter time.

 

Renault F1 Lada livery

As soon as the official Renault F1 store comes online, I am gonna get me-self a Petrov Renault/Lada jersey.

1986 Soviet USSR Land Transport Video

It's got trains, trams, ambulances, fire trucks, everything.

Soviet Veterans of Afghanistan War Documentary

Odessa Robot Statue

"Take me to your leader."

Source.

Putin Lada Kalina

Putin will be kicking ass and taking names as soon as he tops off the tank of his wee Lada.

Putin's excellent adventure this summer took him all over the Russian Far East and Siberia. He shot a whale with a crossbow in Kamchatka (for scientific research purposes only), visited the new cosmodrome near the Chinese border, and test drove this yellow Lada Kalina. Here is an interactive map showing where he's been.

Volga Siber=Chrysler Sebring?!

The Chrysler Sebring is not a great car. For whatever reason, the Russians didn't get the memo and bought the rights (and factory) to the Sebring and started building it in the old GAZ facility in Nizhny Novgorod.

The only changes GAZ made include:

• re-named to Volga Siber,
• new headlamps with headlamp washer,
• Audi-esque grill,
• better rustproofing, and
• more robust suspension and higher ground clearance for rougher Russian roads.

Fortunately, the Russian consumer was savvy enough not to buy into this scheme. The factory is capable of churning out 150,000 Sibers a year. In its first 12 months, only 2,439 were produced.

Here is the presentation video for the Siber. At first, I laughed out loud, especially when they started playing the theme from Dallas. But then, after seeing all those poor workers, I felt really, really depressed.

Cars of Waltz With Bashir

The realism of this animated movie is supported by a huge cast of accurately rendered cars.

VW Microbus

Volga and Mercedes

Peugeot 404

Mercedes

Mercedes

Chevy Blazer

Cadillac Eldorado

BMW E21

Alfa Romeo 166

Incidentally, I wonder if Ariel Sharon still weighs the same.

1/43 Car Collection Sales And Bargains

In this economy, hardly anyone is buying frivolous products. People are hoarding cash. As a consequence, the scale model car market has taken a nosedive that will even take AIG stock holders' breaths away. If you can spare a few dollars a month, this is an excellent opportunity to pick up some raging deals.

Here are my three favorite stores, in no particular order.

• EWA. This is an East Coast outfit. They have a huge selection and its website is very easy to navigate. They have a 30% off everything 30th anniversary sale. I just got an IST Uaz 452 and a Minichamps Alfa Romeo 159 today. More on that later. The packaging/shipping has always been top notch.
• Not A Toy. An outfit in Michigan run by a really nice and helpful guy. Though there is no sale going on now, their prices are always low and extremely competitive.
• Scale Cars. This business has a physical store in Napa. The owner is really cool and lets me at his cars whenever I stop by. I really want this place to succeed. If you go to the store, check out the helmet signed by every F1 driver (save DC) at the USGP a few years ago.
  

Buying a few cars a month (or even more) will not only keep the manufacturers in business, but it will keep these American small businesses going. Go for it. You know you need a 1/43 model of that obscure car only you and three other people in your time zone covet.


As for what I got today. First, I got an IST UAZ 452. It was advertised as an IXO. IST may well be a subsidiary of IXO. IST has its own website and it is a virtual Garden of Eden of 1/43 Soviet/Warsaw Pact goodness. It's got UAZ, Volga, EMW, Barkas, Melkus, and even ZAZ! The 452 I got for $17 rivals in detail with $40 Minichamps models. I am very happy.


The other car I got is a Minichamps Alfa 159. Since I can't buy the real thing in America, I might as well settle for a 1/43 version.

CKY

Zebra Striped Nissan 300ZXs

Yesterday, I went to a Warhol-inspired art show. The centerpiece, for me, was an inflatable Trans Am. What really grabbed my attention was the car parked outside belonging to a patron of the arts-- a zebra striped 300zX. This morning, I search the web for a picture of it. I couldn't find it but I found this picture of a different zebra striped 300ZX. I know they are different because the one I saw had fewer and thicker black stripes and it did not have those fart cans.


Here are some more zebra cars. All of these are courtesy of flickr.

Corolla zebra

Smart zebra

Sentra zebra

Russian zebra

Renault zebra

Ford zebra

Fiat 500 zebra

CKY

IZH 412

A while back, I told you about Salom, the Tajik cab driver on Kiva.org. Yours truly, along with about a dozen other people, each lent him $25 so that he could fix up his IZh 412.

It seems that James May of Top Gear recently, and coincidentally, reviewed the exact same car.

For you fellow Soviet bloc car nuts, I suggest the following books, which I will get around to reading sooner rather than later-- Cars for Comrades and Cars of the Soviet Union.


CKY