
A Belarus artist still driving his home-made Soviet car - astrodust
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/10/belarus-artist-home-made-soviet-car-fantasy
======
gvb
Interesting tidbit: the barrier to legally registering a custom automobile in
the US appears to be pretty low: [http://www.dmv.org/other-types-of-
vehicles.php](http://www.dmv.org/other-types-of-vehicles.php)

The ones I browsed call out a safety inspection, which is probably the highest
hurdle to jump. I strongly suspect this is just basic safety, e.g. turn
signals and brakes work.

~~~
mzs
Next try getting insurance.

~~~
s_q_b
Some states don't require car insurance, e.g. Virginia.

~~~
awavering
Virginia requires the following minimum coverage: Bodily injury/death of one
person $25,000 Bodily injury/death of two or more persons $50,000 Property
damage $20,000

[https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/#insurance.asp](https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/#insurance.asp)

~~~
s_q_b
IFF you have insurance:

"The Virginia Uninsured Motor Vehicle (UMV) fee allows a motor vehicle owner
to register an uninsured motor vehicle. At the time of registration, the motor
vehicle owner must certify whether the vehicle is insured or uninsured. If the
vehicle is uninsured, the motor vehicle owner is required to pay to DMV a $500
uninsured motor vehicle fee in addition to normal registration fees. Payment
of the $500 fee does not provide the motorist with any insurance coverage. If
involved in an accident, the uninsured motorist remains personally liable.
This fee is valid for twelve months but may be prorated for a shorter amount
of time."

[https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/#uninsured_fee.asp](https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/#uninsured_fee.asp)

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laacz
I merely must add, that such DIY vehicle can't be safe. You should have
extensive knowledge not only to build a vehicle, but to make it road legal in
most parts of this planet.

Actually, if you're thinking that assembling your car from scratch would be
nice idea, and logic fails you, there are so-called "kit cars". Car
constructing kits, if you wish. On street I've seen only Fraser[1], though.

[1]: [http://www.fraser.co.nz/the-car/buying-a-kit-
car/](http://www.fraser.co.nz/the-car/buying-a-kit-car/)

~~~
mzs
He made it forty years ago and it passes yearly inspection. In 2000 you could
still get a brand new maluch* in Poland, I'd take my chances in in the Fantasy
personally and I drive a car made in '67 which is smaller than a current Mini
and Fiat 500.

* [http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/uploads/cars/fiat/429117.jpg](http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/uploads/cars/fiat/429117.jpg)

~~~
72deluxe
Ah a Fiat 600 isn't it? Does it still have an aircooled engine? I remember
sitting the back of one as a child and almost going deaf.

The same happens if you get into my Beetle :-)

~~~
mzs
No maluch was 126p, different car. There was bis version which was
watercooled, most were aircooled. Good roads to you 72.

~~~
72deluxe
Thanks!

I meant the 126! Duh! Thanks!

It was the incredibly noisy aircooled version I sat in.

I once went to a gig in my brother's Beetle but he'd taken all the
soundproofing out as he was getting a new interior fitted; I was deaf by the
time we got there, had an incredibly loud gig then got deafened on the way
back. I don't think my ears have ever recovered.

My Beetle is a 1972 Deluxe, original username don't you think?

------
userbinator
It's funny that what gets called "maker culture" these days in the West is
nothing like what goes on in the Eastern Bloc countries, which would fit the
term far more closely.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
It's nothing like what goes on in most of the US either. There are people
building tractors in their garages literally from scratch, welding together
backhoes and front-end loaders to riding mowers, making adapters to get
engines from one type of car onto another. This goes on all the time, in all
50 states and has been happening since the country was founded.

It just doesn't get labelled "maker culture."

Maker culture, as far as I can tell, is a term that applies to people who have
never built anything in their lives suddenly figuring out that they can.
Absolutely nothing wrong with that and I applaud it. I'm just not so thrilled
that it's now labelled and packaged up like a nice little commodity.

~~~
ethbro
_> Maker culture, as far as I can tell, is a term that applies to people who
have never built anything in their lives suddenly figuring out that they can._

Aka the difference between people who can wax poetic about a '6502' and people
who can do so about a '6011'.

------
EssenceOfStupid
>“Therefore, my advice for the do-it-yourselfers who might want to “reinvent
the wheel” as I did would be not to waste so much time on this venture. Buy a
car from a dealer, now it is not a problem anymore.”

Building your own car and making something sounds cool, but this really hit
home for me. What am I working on, and what problem am I really solving? A
good question we should ask ourselves, in my opinion.

------
72deluxe
Very interesting video that is embedded in the article. He gets about 10
liters per 100km, or 28.24 MPG.

~~~
carlob
That's pretty bad for a car that size nowadays. I'm sure you can get to 5-6
l/100 km, that should be 40-50 mpg.

~~~
72deluxe
He could put skinnier tyres on and coast everywhere. That would help.

~~~
carlob
Also remove the clutch and gears and brakes. Those just add weight. Moreover
stopping by backpedalling gives you a much better feel of the road.

~~~
72deluxe
He could put steel wheels on if they're alloys already. The steel wheels keep
momentum better.

Also, he could just drive down hills, not up them.

And with a prevailing wind.

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caloni
A good advice for programmers, too.

~~~
seyfulislam
Afraid not. A programmer re-invents the wheel to fully understand the inner
workings. I've never heard of anybody (non-programmer) who spent months/years
to program a software from scratch just because he can't afford buying it.
This guy wasn't a mechanical engineer or something, too.

~~~
Pxtl
If you weren't a programmer when you started, you are when you finished.
Wasn't Torvalds pretty much a hobbyist when he began?

~~~
rada
Torvalds graduated from college with a Master's in Comp Sci.

~~~
Pxtl
Yeah, but I think he was still an undergrad student when he started working on
Linux, wasn't he?

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b6
> Though some foreign collectors are ready to pay up to €10,000 for the
> unusual car, Karavkin says he is not ready to sell “a part of his life”.

Unfortunate. Seems like it'd be a smart play to sell it to a hipster and buy
two modern cars. Hopefully he'll get some better offers after this article.

~~~
mhurron
I too bemoan that not everyone on the planet can be bought. What is capitalism
coming to when greed is not the over arching purpose in life.

~~~
icebraining
Why would it be greedy of him to sell the car?

~~~
mhurron
The OP is complaining that the guy won't give up something he made just
because money is waved in his face. He is complaining that greed is not
motivating this person.

~~~
b6
No, that's not what I intended at all. I'm sorry if what I wrote made it seem
that way. I intended more like a gentle criticism of hipsters.

Could you consider applying the principle of charity to the seemingly nasty
things people say on the web? The other person might not actually be quite as
wicked as they seem.

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normloman
You can't sell a car in the US unless it goes through extensive safety
testing. How can I be sure this car is safe? DIY is nice, but my life is far
more precious.

~~~
gtCameron
I must have missed the part of the article where he was trying to sell you a
DIY car

~~~
normloman
He's not. My comment is that I wouldn't try to build my own car. And that
almost nobody should drive a car they designed themselves on a regular basis.

~~~
72deluxe
If only the same approach to safety and quality was applied to software!

Like me, I am sure you have used some absolutely abysmal software. Desktop
software from big organisations is the worst: Sony, BT, and Cisco come to
mind.

