Moskvich 434

The Moskvitch 412 is a small family car produced by Soviet/Russian manufacturer MZMA/AZLK in Moscow from 1967 to 1975, and by IZh in Izhevsk from 1967 to 1982. It was a more powerful and prestigious version of the M-408 model, offering more features for a higher price.
The Moskvitch 412 derived from the Moskvitch 408, differing in more powerful 1. 5 engine. The earliest engines for the 412 were built in 1964. The Moskvitch 412 had a slanted inline-four engine with a block, head, and inlet manifold cast in aluminium alloy to keep the engine weight down, and a hemispherical combustion chamber. Steel cylinder liners were replaceable to enable easy repair of the engine instead of having to replace it entirely. Since it was of an OHC design, it was taller than the OHV MZMA-408 engine it replaced, which is why it was mounted at a slant. The UZAM-412 had a capacity of 1,478 cc c. c. and developed 75 horsepower. Its more powerful version, the Moskvitch-412-2V, had 100 h. p. and was installed on sports cars. The 1,478 cc UZAM-412 engine, with a light alloy block, was designed by Igor I. Okunev. According to some observers, it bore some similarities to the contemporary BMW M 115 motor used in the BMW 1500 model, although in other ways they are different from each other. The similarity between the two engines is purely superficial and limited only to the tilt angle of the cylinder block and between the valves and the gear of the overhead camshaft. The gearbox inherited from the M-408 was improved, with the gearbox ratios being revised to make better use of the increased power output. Until early 1969, M412 had the gear lever on the steering column, just like M-408, and did not have bucket seats, but a front bench, making M408 and 412 very hard to distinguish. From early 1969 on, because a new improved gearbox was installed in order to make a better use of the power and torque and to improve performances, M-412 had the gear lever mounted on the floor....