News

December 08, 2009

Mikhail Slipenchuk, head of METROPOL Group, donated a unique collection of cars of the former AZLK to Moscow

The solemn ceremony of donation of the collection of cars of the former AZLK to Moscow was held on December, 7, 2009 in the Moscow Museum of Retro-cars. Head of METROPOL Group Mikhail Slipenchuk, chairman of veteran committee of Soviet motorsports Tatiana Sokolova, deputy senior test run engineer, head of the Soviet team of the rally “Tour of Europe - 74” Pavel Ranenko, head of the design engineering bureau of sport-racing cars, Merited Master of Sports of the USSR, merited coacher of the RSFSR, senior coacher of the Soviet team of the rally “Tour of Europe - 74” Victor Shchavelev, Merited Masters of Sports of the USSR and members of the team “Moskvich”, who participated in the competitions in car of the legendary plant AZLK.

This event was coincided to a significant date for the Russian motorsports – 35 years ago the team “Moskvich” won Gold and Silver Cups in the rally “Tour of Europe - 74”, and the team Stasis Brundza – Alexander Karamyshev got the first place in the competition.

During the speech within the ceremony Mikhail Slipenchuk mentioned that he had bought the collection in order to preserve it from purchasing by different private collectors and to donate it to the city. Head of METROPOL Group assumes that knowledge and experience of AZLK may be useful for Russian car industry with account taken of modern technical requirements and design. In his opinion Russian car industry is capable to move to the fore, but to achieve this large capital investments together with contribution of the government are essential.

The collection includes twenty two cars, fifteen industrial samples and eight engines. All this issues are in good technical state and are maintained regularly.

At the ceremony veterans of Russian car industry expressed their gratitude to Mikhail Slipenchuk for preserving the unique collection.
The demonstration of the retro-models of “Moskvich” М 408, М 410 and 412 IZh Rally (the participant of the legendary heat of 1974) by veteran racing car drivers became the culmination of the ceremony.

About the Collection of cars of AZLK plant
In 2006 METROPOL Group became a successful tenderer for a piece of “Moskvich” property. The collection of cars of the former AZLK was purchased as well. The new owner maintained the collection properly and provided the necessary technical support. The collection includes twenty two cars, fifteen industrial samples and eight engines. The most valuable issues are “Ford-A” of 1932, “Gaz-AA” of 1935, “Moskvich 400/420” of 1954 and other models. It is difficult to overestimate the collection in the sense of uniqueness and historical value. First of all this is a bright stage of history of the Russian car industry. A lot of items exist in a single copy. Electric traction models and special purpose vehicles are of the great interest. Foreign collectors were interested in purchasing the items and the whole collection for several times.

The Museum of Retro-cars
Moscow public institution “The Museum of Retro-cars” was opened in 2004. The exposition of the museum consists of one hundred and eighty items of retro machines (including cars, motorcycles, auto-trucks, autobuses, special vehicles) and approximately tree thousand participative items (ancient subjects and attributes).
Historical line-up of Soviet cars, European and American cars are presented to the public. The collection includes the unique cars such as
• The first mass produced car of Soviet car industry of Gaz-A, that was manufactured from 1932 untill 1936 on the Gorkovskiy car plant and from 1933 until 1935 on Moscow plant KIM. Approximately forty two thousand cars was produced;
• GAZ-24 owned by Lev Yashin, the best goal keeper ever;
• American car Hudson of 1936 which was given to the Soviet pilot Valeriy Chkalov.

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