The next car that became part of our life was really as a result of the totally inappropriate nature of the Nissan 720.
The Subaru taught us that off-roading can be fun and a 4x4 can get you places that regular cars can't.
The 720 taught me that there was a real difference between what the Subaru could do (it was totally standard) and what a purpose built off-road 4x4 was capable of.
And actually, we traded both the Subaru and the 720 for the Niva, and if memory serve me correctly we even gained about $1000 out of that deal. One the few wins for me.
And actually, we traded both the Subaru and the 720 for the Niva, and if memory serve me correctly we even gained about $1000 out of that deal. One the few wins for me.
The Niva totally captured us for 4x4, and taught me how to take jokes as well.
Ours was actually more of a beige than the orangey-yellow of the one in this pic but it was the same body style.
We fairly quickly replaced the old worn-out road tyres with Pirelli Scorpions, which made a big difference, but it was this one in which we took a few off-road adventures, and in which I took almost every opportunity to drive on dirt.
In the Perth region we have a lot of opportunity for sand tracks and beach running, and also for some bush track work, but I have never gotten into full on rock work. Too much chance of damage for my liking. I want to be driving, not fixing if I possibly can.
But our new little family could all fit in this thing and I found out that it was actually not bad off-road. Actually, this car taught me more about off-roading than any other I think.
The Lada Niva was the butt of joke after joke in Australia, partly because they had some quality control and reliability issues apparently. But mine was faultless - never let us down.
It took some time for me to figure out how to use the thing off-road, because it was so different to the Subaru, and I had not really had much off-roading with the 720.
So first of all, I had to unlearn the bad practices that I learned with the Subaru - things like rushing any situation where it looked sticky. The Subaru just bounced over stuff if you hit it hard enough. But the Niva had the clearance and large wheels to go over things.
So I finally had a vehicle where I felt I could get into some serious off-road stuff.
But even that involved some learning. We had not up to this point even considered letting the tyres down, because the Subaru's tyres were already so small that I didn't want to lose any more clearance.
So I drove everywhere on road pressures for a long time. Spent a week driving around a place called Black Point on near to road pressures after my compressor died the first night pumping up our air mattress. We drove into our campsite on road pressures and I knew it was over 100km to the nearest petrol station to pump the tyres up again so we let them down a little bit, but not much.
I did however figure out during that trip that the Niva was a serious weapon off road once you got it right.
Low range is good and low, but it needs to be as the motor is based on a FIAT design and therefore it loves a rev. We dropped into low range at the first boggy section on the way in and it stayed there for the whole week. The tracks were such that about 50kph was the maximum you could do, and low range top gear was easy at that speed.
In fact I found that if anything was a bit sticky in any situation, find a gear lower than you think and give it more revs than you think and it is just about right. Of course that doesn't work for rock crawling, but that is not really my thing anyway.
It was great off-road, fun to drive, and it was a four seater, so it was going to suit us for a little while - at least until the kids outnumbered the seats.
Actually, I wish I never sold that one, and would love to get another.
But that is a sentence that I have uttered about a number of cars in my life.
So first of all, I had to unlearn the bad practices that I learned with the Subaru - things like rushing any situation where it looked sticky. The Subaru just bounced over stuff if you hit it hard enough. But the Niva had the clearance and large wheels to go over things.
So I finally had a vehicle where I felt I could get into some serious off-road stuff.
But even that involved some learning. We had not up to this point even considered letting the tyres down, because the Subaru's tyres were already so small that I didn't want to lose any more clearance.
So I drove everywhere on road pressures for a long time. Spent a week driving around a place called Black Point on near to road pressures after my compressor died the first night pumping up our air mattress. We drove into our campsite on road pressures and I knew it was over 100km to the nearest petrol station to pump the tyres up again so we let them down a little bit, but not much.
I did however figure out during that trip that the Niva was a serious weapon off road once you got it right.
Low range is good and low, but it needs to be as the motor is based on a FIAT design and therefore it loves a rev. We dropped into low range at the first boggy section on the way in and it stayed there for the whole week. The tracks were such that about 50kph was the maximum you could do, and low range top gear was easy at that speed.
In fact I found that if anything was a bit sticky in any situation, find a gear lower than you think and give it more revs than you think and it is just about right. Of course that doesn't work for rock crawling, but that is not really my thing anyway.
It was great off-road, fun to drive, and it was a four seater, so it was going to suit us for a little while - at least until the kids outnumbered the seats.
Actually, I wish I never sold that one, and would love to get another.
But that is a sentence that I have uttered about a number of cars in my life.
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