Most of the Soviet citizens had to drive practically same cars. Import of cars almost not existed at time. Soviet cars weren’t much different one from another. In order to add some kind of exclusivity for his own car Soviet men were pimping their cars, mostly with very primitive mod ideas. Here is a selection of some of those.

Some were getting rare Soviet Union country code stickers. Since those were needed only when you travelled abroad and Soviet people almost never travelled abroad with their cars they were very rare stickers.

Some were cutting rubber mats and making rubber bands that touched the ground when car was moving. There was a belief those help to remove static electricity from a car.

Some of those were having colored light reflectors on them.

Another thing was to place an “Avtoexport” sticker on the windshield. Avtoexport was a company that was exporting Soviet cars abroad, usually the better versions of those cars, so this sticker implied you got not a regular Lada but a “made for export” cooler version of it.

This things wre inserted in the doors. Were called “aerodynamic clamp” and sort of should help aerodynamics someway but mainly were probably used for their flashiness.

Inside some used this notepad holder. Was very schick.

Or the curtains, since there were no tinting film available.

Another version of curtains. Photo made in Soviet era.

And one more.

Also additional stop lights was a very cool add on some people were making with their own hands.

Those looked very cool too. They served two functions at once: were sort of curtains for the back passengers not get warm from the sun and also were sort of improving aerodynamics of a car.

Here is another type of clamps inserted in the doors.

Also different seat mats were used. Some were made from connected pieces wood like this ones, believed to be good for your back as they passively massaged you while driving.

Also hard to trace the roots but those gear shifting box handles made with transparent glue and a flower inside were a very must have for car enthusiasts. Lots of taxi drivers had those.

They were different style and as many other car mods were made by some enthusiasts manually and then sold to friends etc, as private commerce was prohibited in USSR.

Another hand made thing – a steering wheel cover made of different colored wires or rubber or plastic bands.

Some were making fans into their cars, as the air conditioning was unexisting in cars.

And a couple more of the mods:

Hope you liked this historical information about Soviet cars and their enthusiasts.