APRIL 2019 | GET TWO YEARS OF CAR FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! WWW.GREATMAGAZINES.CO.UK 115for an air filter and a distributor cap. As if lured by the charismatic pinking
combustion noises, other Yugos (usually badged Zastava; Yugo was largely
reserved for exports) started creeping our way, their owners marvelling at
our car, praising the original paintjob, the ultra-rare L specification and the
slickness of the notoriously baulky transmission.
That evening we were introduced to Slavo and his bespoilered one-off
600 convertible, Aleksandar in a barely street-legal stealth 120bhp 55, and
Vladan at the wheel of a Zastava 600 on steroids with bordello-red velour
upholstery and a roof trimmed in black leather. Before everyone started
hitting the turps, the three Yugoista offered to give my 55 a thorough
check-up the following morning at 8am sharp. When we told them that
the original plan was to donate this piece of Serbian motor history to a
local charity for auction, there was an awkward silence. ‘In Kragujevac we
have more than enough Yugos, and even the best ones are worth almost
nothing,’ said Slato Bataveljic, the chairman of the Zastava owners’ club.
‘I value your car at approximately €600. After all, it is still possible to buy
brand new models for €4000 or less. In terms of street cred, a Yugo ranks
right at the bottom. Everyone who can afford to drives an import.’
In under two hours, Aleksandar changed the timing belt, distributor
finger, spark plugs, head gasket, oil and filter. The charge? Under €100
including parts. But bear in mind that Serbian wages are low – lower in
the Fiat factory than they were in the Yugo plant. You get the impression
the country has had more of a struggle to recover from the civil war than
Croatia and Slovenia. The signs are all around: unfinished buildings in
various states of decay, patchy infrastructure and a greying population, as
so many young people seek a better life in Western Europe.
Slavo started working at Zastava in 1971, six years before the Yugo was
launched. ‘From day one, extra TLC went into the cars earmarked for
Europe and the US. While the Florida was too big for Yugoslavia and too
rough for the rest of the world, the Yugo stood for basic affordable transpor-
tation at its best. The chassis and drivetrain were of course inspired by the
Fiat 127. To keep the price down, we could not afford modern technologies
such as ABS brakes or airbags, but to meet the tougher emission standards
the engine was at a later stage modified by Porsche at considerable cost.
In the Kragujevac factory, Zastava had plenty of excellent craftsmen at its
disposal, and yet it was the handful of robots that kept throwing spanners
in the works. What really did us in was corrosion.’
Unloved, unwanted and underrated in its home town, my Yugo headed
back north to Germany, and is now in the care of photographer Tom Salt
at his old-car nursing home somewhere near Hamburg. Even though the
actual mileage may after all be closer to 113,000km than to the claimed
13,000 clicks, and despite full-throttle emissions that still make birds drop
dead from the sky, the car once dismissed as the world’s worst is in fact
enjoying a second life as a practical urban runabout that should cost very
little to maintain.
Clearly, there are plenty of better cars available than this Eastern Eu-
ropean oddball, but in the course of the pending paradigm shift from big
engines to electrification, this light, compact and nimble underdog makes
a weird kind of sense.FOUR MORE EASTERN
EUROPEAN ’80S DELIGHTS
Skoda Favorit
1987-1995
With a body styled by
Bertone and engineering
done in-house, this was the
Czech manufacturer’s first
front-engined, front-drive car,
and its last before VW took
over and co-developed its
successor, the Felicia.Lada Samara
1984-2013
The first Lada developed by
the Soviets without any input
from Fiat. Lada is now owned
by Renault as a kind of sub-
Dacia budget brand that’s
huge in Russia.Wartburg 1.3
1988-1991
The East Germany company
had used rear-engined two-
stroke triples since the ’50s.
The 1.3 kept the same look
but actually used a front-
mounted four-stroke engine
driving the front wheels. Cue
collapse of Berlin Wall.Trabant 601
1963-1990
The symbol of East Berlin
when the Wall came down.
By all accounts a terrible
car, with a 500cc two-stroke
twin-cylinder engine that
would occasionally work.Signs are all around of
Serbia’s struggle to recover
from the civil war
Inside Yugo
Sure, we won’t
take any photos.
Not with one of
those, anywayAnd off it goes
to start its new life
in Hamburg, with
a bit of luck