The SMZ

cyclecar A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the car. A key c ...

was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

microcar Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are often ...

, manufactured in

Serpukhov Serpukhov ( rus, Серпухов, p=ˈsʲɛrpʊxəf) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Oka and the Nara Rivers, south from Moscow ( from Moscow Ring Road) on the Moscow—Simferopol highway. The Moscow— T ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, by ''Serpukhov Motor Works'' (russian: Серпуховский Мотозавод, ''Serpukhovskiy Motozavod''), later known as the now-defunct SeAZ. The most common models were the S-3A (S-Three-A) and S-3D (S-Three-D). They were specially designed for disabled drivers and were distributed in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

free or at a large discount through the Soviet Union's social welfare system, and were not officially sold to non-disabled people. The S-3A-M was produced between 1958 and 1970. It was powered by a 346 cc single-cylinder two-stroke engine, giving and a top speed of . The S-3D, produced between 1970 and 1997, was a twin-seat, four-wheeled cyclecar, in length, but rather heavy (≈500 kg) due to all-steel body. It was powered by IZH-P3 air-cooled two-stroke engine (18 DIN hp). In the

the model was commonly known as a "motor-wheelchair" (russian: инвалидка, ''invalidka'') because they were only leased via the social care system to

disabled Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, se ...

people for five years without permission to sell (in a similar way to the British Invacars, made by AC, Thundersley and Tippen). After five years of use, a lessee had to return his "motor-wheelchair" to the social care organisations, and was given a new one. Like the Invacars, not all "invalidkas" were scrapped, because some of their disabled lessees managed to register them as their private property. However, nowadays they are rare, and earlier models are exceptionally rare and have become collectors' items. Since the 1980s the use of SMZ cars has been in decline because disabled drivers prefer to use conventional cars with modified controls:

Zaporozhets ZAZ Zaporozhets ( uk, Запоро́жець) was a series of rear-wheel-drive superminis (city cars in their first generation) designed and built from 1958 at the ZAZ factory in Soviet Ukraine. Different models of the Zaporozhets, all of whi ...

models, for instance, or the later

VAZ-1111 The Lada Оkа (VAZ-1111, SeAZ-1111, КаmАZ-1111, Astro 11301) (russian: Ока (ВАЗ-1111, СеАЗ-1111, КамАЗ-1111)) is a city car designed in the Soviet Union in the later part of the seventies by AvtoVAZ. It entered production in 1 ...

"Oka", which were sold to them at substantial discounts. Nevertheless, the last 300 S-3Ds left the SeAZ factory as late as autumn 1997. S-3D production was discontinued without a direct replacement. The VAZ-1111 "Oka", which filled this role later, was a much larger, four-seater car.

S-3A specifications

* Weight – * Length – * Max velocity – * cylinder – 346 cc, in diameter * max power –

S-3D specifications

* Weight – * Dimensions – 2595 mm 102in(length) x 1380 mm 54in(width) x 1350 mm 53in(height) * Track width – * Wheelbase – * Min turning radius – 3,8 – 4,2 m * Max velocity – * Fuel consumption – * Engine – IZH-P3-01, located in the rear ** cylinder – 346 cc, in diameter ** piston stroke – ** max power – ** compression index – 7,5–8 * four-stage

gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

Welfare cars

File:С-1А.jpg, SMZ S-1L File:SeAZ car in Paernu.jpg, SMZ S-3A File:Flickr - plushev - IMGP2462.jpg, SMZ S3D File:Automobil Oka (2004).jpg, SeAZ Oka

References

External links

SZA images
on

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SZD
{{in lang, ru City cars Soviet automobiles Microcars Subcompact cars Convertibles Cars introduced in 1958