Back, and driving a ... YUGO?!

[Old Busted Hotness]

Hey kids!

Been away from the web for a while, but I thought I'd share a new project with you.

Back in 1988 (fire up the wayback machine, Mr. Peabody) I bought my first new car; a white Yugo GV. It was a fun little car, and with reasonable care I got 110,000 miles from the original engine. Definitely minimalist transportation. It didn't come with a radio, but it had a heater. Believe it or not, I drove that car 200 miles in two hours.

Anyway, enough weepy-eyed reminiscing. You want pics!

As usual, it's radio controlled, and the body is made from Depron foam and epoxy. This time I really should have sanded it some more. It's a bit wavy, but then again these things never won any JD Power awards.

Making the headlights look right is a little tricky. I scribed the inside with my X-Acto but didn't get much in the way of texture. Also the right side is slightly larger than the left. I can't trim it as the edges are folded back; it's like a clear box top.

So now, bring on the Yugo jokes. I've heard 'em all twice.

[Rick]

Hey, Yugo OBH! By the way, what are Yugo-ing to power it with?

[ScaleMotorcars]

When did Rodney Dangerfield get here??? 1strange1

[Old Busted Hotness]

Hey, Yugo OBH! By the way, what are Yugo-ing to power it with?

The chassis is an old-school Tamiya Mini Cooper, M01 chassis. Since replacement parts are scarce and kind of expensive, it's been a shelf queen since day one. So why not do a custom body?

[Don Garrett]

he1hehe1hehe1he

[Old Busted Hotness]

You're just jealous, Gramps gringrin

[Don Garrett]

For sure........1gramps1

[hot ford coupe]

This has got to be the only Yugo model in the entire world. You've definitely got something unique. 200 miles in 2 hours?!? I didn't think they could sustain that kind of speed.

[Noel Smith]

I would imagine your model of the Yugo actually outperforms the real thing.
My next door neighbour's son had one, and yes it was a bit basic to say the least.
It was only (slightly) a marginally better performer than than a Lada, FSO Polonez or a Trabant. Typical old Commie cars where quality assurance was totally non existant.
At least since the wall came down VW have sorted Skoda out. You don't hear Skoda jokes any more.

[Old Busted Hotness]

I would imagine your model of the Yugo actually outperforms the real thing.
My next door neighbour's son had one, and yes it was a bit basic to say the least.
It was only (slightly) a marginally better performer than than a Lada, FSO Polonez or a Trabant. Typical old Commie cars where quality assurance was totally non existant.
At least since the wall came down VW have sorted Skoda out. You don't hear Skoda jokes any more.

You have to make allowances for the time. Very few cars made in the 80's would get out of their own way. In fact I beat a few 944's and V6 Camaros in that thing. Once the breathing was opened up there was a good bit of power on tap, although it was above 5000 rpm.

My Yugo autocross racer would hang with the B Stock cars (5.0 Mustangs, etc), too bad I was running D mod against that guy in the Caterham Seven. I lowered it as much as I could, installed a 128 wagon rear spring, dropped a Fiat 1500 short block in, with a Yugo 1100 head for some more compression. And actually found a cam for the thing. Actually a Fiat cam, but same as. Torque steer was insane until I Lincoln-locked the diff; then it didn't want to steer at all! Obviously it was never a serious contender, I just wanted to see how much speed I could get out of the thing. Built the whole car for about $1200. And the best part is, I had actual sponsorship from ReaLemon! I raced pretty much for free for 2 seasons.

I find it fascinating that Yugo jokes persist 20 years after the last one was sold here.