The ZAZ-965 was produced from 1960 to 1969, but the appearance of this model was preceded by years of work. The car in the photo is exactly the first running prototype of the "hunchback" that left the gates of the Kommunar plant (as ZAZ was called before its renaming in 1961) on June 18, 1959.
As can be seen in the photos, the prototype differed somewhat from the production version. Namely, it has different fenders and headlights, there were stampings on the sides (doors, fenders), plus the different shape of the air intakes catches the eye. In addition, the hood bore the inscription "ZAZ-Kommunar", and on the lower front stamping there was a large badge "Zaporozhets". Finally, the last and perhaps the most noticeable detail is the sliding vent windows of the side windows.
Few people know, but the legendary ZAZ-965 was originally not a Zaporozhets, but a Moskvich. The beginning of this car was laid in the 1950s, when the ZAZ plant was yet to be converted from a combine harvester plant to an automobile plant, plus our enterprise lacked a design bureau. That is why the car was first developed by the Moscow Small Car Plant (MZMA) together with the NAMI automobile institute, and only in 1960 all prototypes and documentation were transferred to Zaporozhye from Moscow. The most famous prototype of the pre-ZAZ era is the Moskvich-444 (see photo above), which was created with an eye on the technical solutions of FIAT and Volkswagen. At first, the Moskvich-444 had a 2-cylinder opposed engine with a displacement of 0.65 liters and a power of 17.5 hp, later a 0.76-liter V4 appeared, producing 23 hp, which was subsequently used to equip the production ZAZ-965.
