Zastava Yugo 45a

My first car!
The above photos show a new Yugo and the last days of mine, when i removed the engine to play with it.

I was given this in November 1996 by a local garage - lots of panels had been used on another Yugo to get it through the MOT. So it came with a red doors, bonnet and tailgate off the rust bucket that someone had repaired. No door handle or locks were provided for drivers door or tailgate! No keys either. After modifying the ignition to be switched using a switch with a starter button, I was able to learn to drive by driving on the cart track outside my house.

With 1/2 a mile of bumpy muddy cart track to play with some fun was begging to be had....

So it became probably the fist and last rally Yugo 45a. Hammered down the cartrack it was capable of 50mph and was slightly sketchy on the mud - lift off oversteer was common. The interior was removed, some rally style lights were added and the car was really mashed about. The floor pan bent, the bonnet fell off and more. After the exhaust fell off, it was tied to the side of the car and appeared above the roof line. The car was driven with no exhaust at one point, just a foot of down pipe, and produced a fearsome noise that I was told could be heard a mile away ;-). The motor was often revved to 7500rpm and survived. Finally the clutch went on it and that was that. Respect to the car for taking nearly a year of punishment off road. The car was scrapped in 1996.

Taught me a lot about cars and driving this did. Learned all the basic driving skills, plus how to get a sideways car back and how to stop a speeding car on mud (after one minor crash). Being able to start my driving lessons in 1997 with good clutch control and the ability to drive the car was a great help. Most of my friends drove it as well with varying degrees of sucess - one even forgot to steer and drove into the field. I even got pulled over on the cart track by a police landrover - he was checking that the car wasn't stolen and had not been driven on the public highway!