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“Baikal Mile-2023”: why “Valdai 4×4” could not find rivals

  • March 17, 2023
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“Baikal Mile” is a festival of speed on ice. Once a year, people with a passion for technology gather here and compete both in the absolute result of

“Baikal Mile-2023”: why “Valdai 4×4” could not find rivals
“Baikal Mile” is a festival of speed on ice. Once a year, people with a passion for technology gather here and compete both in the absolute result of speed and in pair races.

Cars began to compete for speed almost immediately after the creation of self-driving carriages. There are many competitions and they are all very different. Perhaps one of the most famous places is the dry Lake Bonneville in Utah (USA).

The creation of a “Russian Bonneville” has been thought about for a long time. And in 2019, the first “Baikal Mile” was held – high-speed races on the ice of Lake Baikal (the length of the distance is 1642 m, which corresponds to the deepest point of the lake). And since then the festival has been held in Barguzin Bay near the Buryat village of Maksimikha. They come in different ways. Some load material onto car transporters, others use rail transport and unload it in Ulan-Ude. But there are those who come here alone. In 2023, 90 pilots, 41 teams and more than 60 different equipment arrived at Baikal.

Homemade and serial cars, motorcycles, snowmobiles, airboats, helicopters, unicycles, etc. perform here, which is why there are many different classifications. Cars are divided by engine size, fuel class, category, body type. Motorcycles – also by volume and type of engine, frame, etc. Each vehicle is identified by a letter abbreviation. If there is an opponent, go into battle with him. And if there was no opponent, then with a stopwatch.

“We brought four cars,” says Vyacheslav Subbotin, head of the GAZ Raid Sport team. — Sport “Gazelle NN” trades in the prepared light commercial vehicle category (category GDM-LCV) with a supercharged diesel engine up to 3 liters. This car is equipped with a Cummins 2.8 engine, 200 hp. Of. Sport “Sadko NEXT” falls into the category of LDTV – a medium-duty all-wheel drive truck with a displacement of up to 5 liters. And finally, two factory novelties: “Valdai NEXT” is in the category of medium cabover trucks with a displacement of up to 4.5 liters (diesel, supercharged), and “Sobol NN” is in the category of vans and small trucks. vans with an engine up to 3 litres. I would like to note that we are exhibiting here an absolutely serial Sobol NN and that it has already aroused great practical interest among the participants, as one of the best offerings in its class …

Interesting list of commands. There are both serious ones and those who came to relax, to see others and show themselves. For example, a team from Ulan-Ude called “Old car, crooked wheels…” (yes, that’s what the name sounds like, with ellipsis!) brought a Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 car, which they could accelerate to 180 km/h. The Moscow team Old School drove the classics: VAZ-21013 showed 171.3 km/h, VAZ-2107 – 170.2 km/h. Of course there are real altimers. The RM Rail Abakanvagonmash team surprised with the Moskvich 408 (152.2 km/h) and the very rare Volga M21 with a Chaika engine, demonstrating 156.3 km/h!

“We showed the Valdai 4×4 for the first time on the Baikal Mile,” says Mikhail Shklyaev, head of the sports department of the Gorky Automobile Plant. — This machine is a prefabricated construction in which GAZ uses the best solutions of the entire model range. The frame, front axle and front suspension therefore come from the four-wheel drive Gazelle. The rear axle with air suspension is from Gazelle City. Spacers are mounted on the bridges for 19.5-inch wheels. Engine – YaMZ-534 (310 hp and 1080 Nm) from the sport “Sadko”. A PAZ gearbox is used for this. The engine itself is not located under the cabin, but shifted to the center of the car for better weight distribution.

By the way, it is the cabin that is the only element really borrowed from Valdai for Valdai4x4. The sports body is original. I often get the question what is really from GAZ in this car? I answer: everything! Racing “Valdai 4×4” is composed entirely of components and assemblies already used on production cars! At a distance of one and a half kilometers, I accelerated the car to 143.5 km/h. And on the ⅛ mile drag race track, we had few rivals. Valdai has a great start and almost always crossed the finish line first. He persuaded the participants to participate, but no one wanted to! ..

In the absolute standings, the main rivals were three teams: “Teslakarsbay” from Minsk on the Tesla Model S Plaid, “Scumbags Engineering” (aka “Shitheads of the World”) on a very interesting vehicle equipped with a jet engine from the Yak40 and the team from Vladivostok StealthPCM on the Toyota Mark II. The latter became champion of the 2023 Baikal Mile.

Photo avtovzglyad.ru
Photo avtovzglyad.ru

Cars began to compete for speed almost immediately after the creation of self-driving carriages. There are many competitions and they are all very different. Perhaps one of the most famous places is the dry Lake Bonneville in Utah (USA).

The creation of a “Russian Bonneville” has been thought about for a long time. And in 2019, the first “Baikal Mile” was held – high-speed races on the ice of Lake Baikal (the length of the distance is 1642 m, which corresponds to the deepest point of the lake). And since then the festival has been held in Barguzin Bay near the Buryat village of Maksimikha. They come in different ways. Some load material onto car transporters, others use rail transport and unload it in Ulan-Ude. But there are those who come here alone. In 2023, 90 pilots, 41 teams and more than 60 different equipment arrived at Baikal.

Homemade and serial cars, motorcycles, snowmobiles, airboats, helicopters, unicycles, etc. perform here, which is why there are many different classifications. Cars are divided by engine size, fuel class, category, body type. Motorcycles – also by volume and type of engine, frame, etc. Each vehicle is identified by a letter abbreviation. If there is an opponent, go into battle with him. And if there was no opponent, then with a stopwatch.

“We brought four cars,” says Vyacheslav Subbotin, head of the GAZ Raid Sport team. — Sport “Gazelle NN” trades in the prepared light commercial vehicle category (category GDM-LCV) with a supercharged diesel engine up to 3 liters. This car is equipped with a Cummins 2.8 engine, 200 hp. Of. Sport “Sadko NEXT” falls into the category of LDTV – a medium-duty all-wheel drive truck with a displacement of up to 5 liters. And, finally, two factory novelties: “Valdai NEXT” runs in the category of medium cabover trucks with a displacement of up to 4.5 liters (diesel, supercharged), and “Sobol NN” is in the category of vans and small trucks. vans with an engine up to 3 litres. I would like to note that we are exhibiting here an absolutely serial Sobol NN and it has already aroused great practical interest among the participants, as one of the best offerings in its class …

Interesting list of commands. There are both serious ones and those who came to relax, to see others and show themselves. For example, a team from Ulan-Ude called “Old car, crooked wheels…” (yes, that’s what the name sounds like, with ellipsis!) brought a Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 car, which they could accelerate to 180 km/h. The Moscow team Old School drove the classics: VAZ-21013 showed 171.3 km/h, VAZ-2107 – 170.2 km/h. Of course there are real altimers. The RM Rail Abakanvagonmash team surprised with the Moskvich 408 (152.2 km/h) and the very rare Volga M21 with a Chaika engine, demonstrating 156.3 km/h!

“We showed the Valdai 4×4 for the first time on the Baikal Mile,” says Mikhail Shklyaev, head of the sports department of the Gorky Automobile Plant. — This machine is a prefabricated construction in which GAZ uses the best solutions of the entire model range. The frame, front axle and front suspension therefore come from the four-wheel drive Gazelle. The rear axle with air suspension is from Gazelle City. Spacers are mounted on the bridges for 19.5-inch wheels. Engine – YaMZ-534 (310 hp and 1080 Nm) from the sport “Sadko”. A PAZ gearbox is used for this. The engine itself is not located under the cabin, but shifted to the center of the car for better weight distribution.

By the way, it is the cabin that is the only element really borrowed from Valdai for Valdai4x4. The sports body is original. I often get the question what is really from GAZ in this car? I answer: everything! Racing “Valdai 4×4” is composed entirely of components and assemblies already used on production cars! At a distance of one and a half kilometers, I accelerated the car to 143.5 km/h. And on the ⅛ mile drag race track, we had few rivals. Valdai has a great start and almost always crossed the finish line first. He persuaded the participants to participate, but no one wanted to! ..

In the absolute standings, the main rivals were three teams: “Teslakarsbay” from Minsk on the Tesla Model S Plaid, “Scumbags Engineering” (aka “Shitheads of the World”) on a very interesting vehicle equipped with a jet engine from the Yak40 and the team from Vladivostok StealthPCM on the Toyota Mark II. The latter became champion of the 2023 Baikal Mile.

Source: Avto Vzglyad

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