Nowadays you won’t surprise anyone with lowered domestic cars and so-called collective farm tuning; the new trend has become the conversion of ordinary cars into luxury cars of premium brands. Rolls Royce is the leader here; craftsmen from all over the world try to make their cars look like it. Next, we suggest taking a look at what results from such tuning.
Further words from the author:
After the story with the famous Kazakh Rolls Royce from the old Mercedes, this topic went viral and several tuning studios even appeared in Kazakhstan, offering a budget option for converting your Mercedes into a sparkling Rolls Royce Phantom, putting the process on stream. But the Kazakhs had followers. One of them, the most wonderful, is a Vietnamese who bought an old Lada-2107 for $500 and, using an angle grinder, welding and a hammer, and spending another $500 on materials, turned it into a car. of course in a Rolls Royce! They did even better in the Middle East. It turns out that not everyone there can afford exclusive cars, but they don’t want to feel like poor people either. What do you think they make their Rolls out of, so that they can cut through the desert? From Nissan Patrol. But that's not all. I scoured the net and found a dozen more Rolls Royces made from various auto junk, and one even from. Bentley!
The first in this parade of freaks, of course, is the AvtoVAZ Rolls Royce Special Edition from the Vietnamese Kulibin. The guy didn’t bother too much with the appearance, the main thing is the radiator grille) Lights, mirrors, wipers, interior - everything remains original. It will do in his village, said the author of the car.
Well, it's a cool car!
This is the Kazakh Rolls Royce Phantom, famous throughout the Internet, made from a Mercedes 124. It was made in his garage in Shakhtinsk by Ruslan Mukanov. Initially he was with Shah-Tuning and now makes exclusive tuning for. any cars.
This is how they make another Rolls-Royce Phantom from a Mercedes.
The final appearance. Almost no different from the original. I mean, the Kazakh original.
They even participate in exhibitions now, selling exclusive body kits for Mercedes!
And this is the Middle East. Rolls Royce Arabstan Edition. You can use it to drive camels through the desert and transport apricots to the market.
And this is Ukraine and the Nikolaev oligarch, who proudly drives around the city in a Rolls Royce Phantom GAZ-31 Edition. As you understand, he cut it out of the Volga. Well, why not? If it’s possible from the Zhiguli, then from the Volga God himself ordered it.
The British annealed and made a Rolls Royce from a Mini. Patriotic!
But the strangest alteration is this one. Rolls-Royce from Bentley. Complete nonsense! Especially considering that the classic 1987 Bentley Turbo RL was mutilated
Chen Yanxi
Three years ago, 26-year-old Chinese prop maker Li Weilei was so impressed by the character from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight that he built a replica. It took him and four friends 70,000 yuan (about 11 thousand dollars) and only two months of work. Lee took the steel for the body from a landfill, shoveling 10 tons of metal. To help offset the costs, he now rents out his Tumbler for photo and video shoots for just 10 bucks a month. But tenants must be prepared to roll the “replica” by hand. The car cannot drive, since it has neither a power unit nor a functional steering wheel. In addition, in China only cars produced by certified manufacturers are put on the road.
Registration of a converted electric car in Russia - is it realistic?
There are interesting nuances here that are worth considering. Back in 2008, the government issued a decree that allows owners of electric vehicles with a power of up to 4 kW to drive without registration. But even in this case, it won’t hurt you to go to a certified service station and get a conclusion confirming the safety of your vehicle. It makes sense to carry the text of resolution No. 562 with you to avoid trouble.
If the machine is more powerful than 4 kW, you will have to perform the following procedure:
- contact the traffic police and write an application addressed to the head of the department, there is a prescribed form for such an application, you can get a sample from the traffic police or look at it on the Internet;
- your application will be reviewed and responded to as soon as possible; it is quite possible that a conclusion from an authorized body will be required, which will give an idea of the safety of the car;
- the next step will be either obtaining a conclusion from the traffic police, or contacting the Moscow NAMI to study the situation and obtain such a paper (often this is a formality, but it costs money);
- after receiving permission, you can remodel your car, and then come to the traffic police to register and receive a new registration certificate with new technical parameters of the car;
- Of course, in this case you will have to undergo a technical inspection, perform an inspection at the traffic police site and be prepared for the fact that every police officer you meet will ask you with interest about the project.
By the way, be prepared for the fact that the traffic police do not know about the possibility of such a modification. During the consultation, you may receive a sharp negative response from a police representative. It will be based on the fact that the department has no experience in such certification of the machine. But you can safely carry out explanatory work by referring to documents and regulations that are quite possible to find with a simple search on the Internet. As a rule, achieving the truth will not be difficult.
Batmobile
Another Chinese craftsman, Wang Jian from Jiangsu province, made his own “copy” of the Lamborghini Reventon from an old Nissan minivan and Volkswagen Santana sedan. And he also hauled metal from a landfill. I spent 60,000 yuan (9.5 thousand dollars) on this matter. The car has a carburetor engine, it smokes mercilessly, it does not have an interior or even glass, but the author himself likes the result, and the neighbors believe that Jian’s car is a fairly accurate copy of Lambo. The author claims that he is able to accelerate to 250 km/h in his supercar. No one risks dissuading him.
Why is this necessary?
All-wheel drive on a VAZ 2108 is a do-it-yourself thing, but at the same time quite complicated. As a rule, the main problem arises with the fit of rear-wheel drive parts. Car enthusiasts overcome this inconvenience in different ways. Usually they use various assemblies from the transmission of real all-wheel drive SUVs. Most often you can find 2 options for a fitted transmission:
- Niva;
- Volkswagen Golf Syncro.
Moreover, the first one is somewhat less common. Indeed, in general, the transmission on Nivas cannot boast of ideal operation and high reliability.
Such modifications are usually done by people who love domestically produced cars. In addition, making a real SUV out of an ordinary car is considered a sign of superior skill among people who are fond of tuning. Many people make such modifications to comfortably overcome off-road conditions. Of course, such a car is not suitable for a serious raid, but you can easily just crawl through the mud.
This is a rather difficult option to remake. But it is quite possible to make an SUV from 2108 using Niva components. To do this you will need the following structural elements:
- Handout;
- Cardan;
- Rear bridge.
In addition, you will need a bunch of bolts and some small elements, also borrowed from the Niva. These include parts of the brake system and suspension.
The most difficult part of the preparation is the placement of the gimbal. It is located at a slight angle. Therefore, you will have to adjust it using the fitting method. A bridge is also being installed. The figure-of-eight beam fasteners do not fit under the bridge. In this regard, you will have to struggle with welding new fasteners suitable for the rear Niv axle. But in general, this will allow you to raise the car, increasing the ground clearance. You will also have to tinker with the transfer case. It is necessary to make additional gadgets.
To do this you will have to contact an experienced turner. You will also have to cut an additional hole for the transfer case control lever. The result is a good SUV.
Lamborghini Reventon
As you can see, most of all do-it-yourselfers love to copy Ferrari and Lamborghini. Externally. Inside this car, designed by Mr. Meath from Thailand, is a quarter-liter Lifan motorcycle engine.
- The funniest and most touching creation is by Chinese farmer Guo from Zhengzhou. He made a Lambo for... his grandson. The car has children's dimensions - 900 by 1800 mm and an electric motor that allows it to accelerate to 40 km/h. A battery of five batteries is enough for 60 km of travel. Guo spent $815 and six months of work on his brainchild.
The main advantages and disadvantages of an electric car in Russia
We have already said that not every person is suitable for an electric car. However, even if you only drive around the city, this car has a number of disadvantages. For example, in winter, your mileage is significantly reduced, and after a long period of sitting in a parking lot, you may not move at all. Cars of this type are forced to constantly save electricity, so many have to freeze or fry inside in order to save the required kilometers.
But there are a number of important advantages of such a machine:
- there is no need to constantly maintain the engine and main components, it is enough to come to the service center once every 10,0000 km and inspect the suspension, no additional adjustments need to be made;
- in traffic jams you stand almost free of charge, you don’t need to burn gasoline or diesel fuel, all car systems are automatically turned off so as not to consume excess energy in a traffic jam;
- there is no need for peripheral equipment, such as starters, generators and other attachments, which regularly break down in cars with internal combustion engines and require constant attention;
- the cost of operation is much lower, fuel costs are reduced almost 10 times in comparison with a machine of comparable power with an internal combustion engine;
- The traction of an electric car is constant and powerful, you get excellent acceleration and very decent speed maintenance, so there are plenty of advantages in operating such a car.
Of course, you shouldn't choose Mercedes ML for conversion. Take a small car, with thin wheels, a light body. Many are experimenting on the OKA base, but the body is too short-lived to invest money in it. Mitsubishi Colt, Lada Kalina, Smart ForTwo, Daewoo Matiz and other small cars are suitable. You can also choose a C-class car if comfort is important to you. But keep in mind that it will be very difficult for batteries to drag a heavy body.
We invite you to watch a video about converting a regular car into an electric car:
homemade rolls royce
In the vast expanses of the former USSR, the traditions of self-construction are also strong. During the Soviet years, there was a movement called “samavto”, which united enthusiasts of homemade cars and motorcycles. And there were quite a few of them, since in those years it seemed that it was easier to assemble a car with your own hands than to buy it - despite the total shortage of spare parts and bureaucratic obstacles. And what interesting projects were born in those years! Yuna, Pangolina, Laura, Ichthyander and others... Yes, there were people. However, they remained.
Several years ago, I wrote about the brainchild of Muscovite Evgeniy Danilin called “Kalistrat” - an SUV reminiscent of the Hummer H1, but significantly superior to it in cross-country ability.
How to technically convert a car into an electric car?
Unfortunately, the technical process is quite complex, but you can organize the simplest options in your own garage with the help of a couple of smart friends. We will not describe the process in detail, since for this you need to go through it yourself. But in the vastness of data on the Internet there are full-fledged guides and recommendations, as well as personal blogs of people who decided to make such a change. You can even get advice from them.
So, the most important aspects of remodeling and products for this are as follows:
- electric motor - it will take the place of the current internal combustion engine and will receive a simple gearbox, which is not only cheap, but also has a clear, reliable technical design;
- controllers and control units - these parts will be quite expensive, they must control all machine functions and energy distribution, it is extremely important to buy good computers;
- interior heater - the internal combustion engine heats the car as a side effect of its own heating, but the electric motor practically does not heat up, so you need to think about an electric heating system for the interior;
- Batteries are also an expensive purchase, but today you can find many lightweight and technologically advanced battery sets with a fairly long service life, the investment may vary;
- assembly and layout - it is very important to assemble everything correctly so that each part performs its functions; it will also be necessary to test the machine in the field.
The correct implementation of each point and high-quality products for the implementation of your idea are the main factors of success. Pay attention to the ready-made kits offered on the market for converting a car into an electric car. Very often they are not the most profitable, but they can replace a set of batteries and get a completely ready-made set to work with your car. Please note that there will be quite a lot of alterations, and this needs to be understood.
Homemade car by Evgeny Danilin
I immediately remember my long-standing acquaintance with Alexander Timashev from Bishkek. His workshop ZerDo Design in the 2000s created a whole series of interesting homemade products, the first of which was the “Darkhan”, also a similarity to the Hummer based on the GAZ-66. Then the “Mad Cabin” appeared, a type of American hot rod, made from the cabin of the ZIL-157 army truck - “Zakhara”. A detailed story about this project is here.
The Crazy Cab was followed by homemade products in retro style - the so-called replicars, speedster and phaeton. And for them, Kyrgyz craftsmen made not only bodies and interiors, but even frames.
Let's sum it up
The current times require a new approach to transport. Many drivers noticed that they began to spend too much money on driving a car due to the rise in gasoline prices and the increase in the cost of car maintenance. Therefore, ideas are often heard that we need to switch to electric vehicles. In today’s article, we tried to adequately present the main pros and cons of electric transport, the main capabilities and limitations of this type of car. Of course, converting a regular car into an electric one will take some time and cost money, but buying a ready-made vehicle will be much more expensive.
In Russia, it is quite possible to convert a regular car into an electric one, there will not be any big problems with this. Trouble may arise if your renovation turns out to be of poor quality and unsafe. In such a situation, the traffic police will not be able to issue a permit to operate the vehicle on public roads, and your money will simply be wasted. Therefore, such projects are best carried out jointly with specialists or receive advice at each stage. Would you be interested in converting your car into an electric vehicle?
Method two: electric drive
In Japan, you often see cars with the “e-4WD” nameplate glued to the rear. The tricky abbreviation means that this is, by and large, a front-wheel drive car that has a compact electric motor installed to drive the rear wheels. The power of such an “electric assistant” is small (since it is powered by an additional generator), so the benefit is very conditional. Although the system will, of course, make starting on a slippery slope easier.
The concept of e-4WD itself appeared quite a long time ago - take, for example, the Mazda Demio and Nissan Cube of the 2002 model. However, except for the Japanese, almost no one used this solution. Russian engineer Anton Guba, head of the Togliatti company, seized on the idea: the company’s plans were to develop and produce a universal kit that would make it possible to turn any front-wheel drive Lada into an all-wheel drive one!
One option is to take a ready-made system produced by the Japanese Hitachi and gradually switch to domestic components. Alas, in 2015, “Super-Auto” began to suffer, and in 2016 the company was officially declared bankrupt (for details, see the material “Priora 1.8 and other Ladas that will no longer exist”). In this situation, management had no time for exotic transmissions. To date, there is no information about the domestic e-4WD.
