Some pictures from Russian motorsport history

[helgi]

I've tried to collect some pictures to notice that there was some racing in Russia...


One of the first racing cars. Russo-Balt S24-55. Participate in Monte Carlo rally. 1912


Another Russo-Balt S24-55. Series III. Already totaly racing car

And then revolution came. There was no time for racing for a long time. USSR needed heavy trucks more than civil cars to build the roads, factories and so on. Besides, there was not enough money for racing.
And then WW2 began....


Pobeda-Sport, based on GAZ 21M 'Pobeda'. Sport became a national project. Pilots were usually taxi-drivers, and I think most teams were based in Taxi-parks and 'automobile-combinates' All the decisions were checked by the Party, so the bureaucracy machine was started. But nobody in the head of the Party was fond of racing so they always looked at it as it was only games....


Kharkov-6 with the 'Pobeda' engine. 1952
After the war record cars were the priority way for racing. Speed records fall one after another


Sports car ZIL 112S. Of this cars is still alive. Red-coloured car is somewhere in Estonia or Latvia


Moskvitch G-5 1969
Since 1960 open-wheels became popular


The most famous Soviet formula - Estonia


Homemade GTSch of Scherbakovy brothers. 1969
Russian plants didn't manufacture any GT cars. So people had to use homemade cars like this.