ZIL-130

ZIL-130's were being made in Moscow on the giant ZIL truck manufacturing plant since 1962 and until 1994. Damn 32 years of conveyor life! It's no wonder why they are still in abundance in Moscow, and in great variety of verisions. They have petrol engine, that is common for the old models of ZIL trucks.

MAZ-5335 tanker

Good old MAZ-5335's are almost extinct now, especially in their tanker versions. You can't just go out and see them, you have to be in the right time in the right place. I've been to that very place again today only to realise that the tanker is no longer there. Thus the pics now are invaluable.
There were two improvements to the basic MAZ-500 design (1965-1970): MAZ-500A (1970-1977) and MAZ-5335 (1977-1990). It was a good truck and drivers loved it.
Although MAZ manufacturing plant is located in now sovereign Belarus, there are really many of modern MAZ trucks and even some buses here in Moscow. You will see the pics of them in the future.
Notice that truck's front wheels were steered towards each other. That does mean that arms in its steering unit were either absent or unlinked. I wonder why.

ZIL-157 army truck

This veteran has been found standing peacefully not far from my home. This is 6-wheel drive ZIL-157, the standard USSR army truck of the past. It's production began in 1958 and continued until 1982.
It is very rare to meet in Moscow, I've been so lucky to catch it.

The foreword

Welcome to my blog!

I’ve created “Brutal vehicles” for the purpose of expressing my admiration towards rude aesthetics of heavy vehicles. I intend to post here the pictures of various heavy and special vehicles I meet throughout the Moscow city — trucks, trailers, tankers, construction vehicles, and so on. Be sure there are plenty of them over here!

Beauty has many sides. Ugly and sluggish heavy vehicles are no less nice to see than shiny Jaguars or streamlined Aston Martins — at least for me. Being the professional engineer I am in favour of real problem solution process rather than just process of finding most fine-looking shape, what makes functional heavy vehicles look even more appealing.

Finally, I believe that knowing a bit about trucks and special vehicles in use in Russia would be interesting to those into the car history in general. Nowadays we use many Western-made trucks, but there are also many domestic made trucks and vehicles of both modern Russian and old USSR designs, what creates a very contrasting picture. I shall try to take pictures of as many interesting vehicles as I can. I also promise to provide explanations when possible.

Blog’s motto is “Power before beauty”.