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 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.

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 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.