Ownership Verified: '77 Zastava 101 "The Flying Shite"

Beni

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Whilst the finalgear pre-ringmeet roadtrip crossed Serbia Adrian and I noticed the vast amount of old Zastavas and Yugos and it was obvious one had to be bought. We contacted 47, who had a lot of work preparing for our hungry mouths arriving the day later but still managed to find an old model on the interwebs.

With lots of help and research from 47, nicjasno and his local friend Ivan a small team consisting of Liga, Adrian and IceBone took the ferry to the isle of Rab off the Croatian coast to have a look at the Zastava 101.

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After some running around for paperwork and stuff I bought the car for 4000 HRK, around 530 ?. As getting export plates were a hassle to get and would cost around 250 ? the previous owner offered me to drive the car to Germany on his plates.

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We boarded the ferry shortly after.

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I had a puncture a few miles down the road, spare was flat and we had no 19mm tool, so it took some time. Later that night, somewhere in Italy and torrential rain the hose connecting fuel filler and tank perished and stated leaking. I still made it to the campsite and got it fixed the next day. Other than that 4th gear wouldn't engage all the time but everything else was fine (there is of course little to go wrong).

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Arron's smile was a bit forced whilst taking the 101 uphill on the Autostrada.

That day we drove the Zastava over Passo Staulanza (1773m), Passo Pordoi (2239m) and Timmelsjoch (2509m) into Austria.

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On our way up to Timmelsjoch. DaBoom should have some pics of the incredible fog up there.

Assorted pics from Ringmeet, not by me:

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by Thujalvi

Arriving on Friday evening

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by matt2000

Stress test before ringlap

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Spotted by confused (and proud) Coratians on the ringlap. Did a 15:20.1 but heavy traffic and only 3 gears for half of the lap (racing driver excuses)

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by Thujalvi

http://www.nordschleifenbilder.de/go/displayimage.php?album=1240&pos=40 link because copyright

(At about 50s)
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by Adamar

Sup?


More to come, including the first fix I did (exhaust bracket). I don't have a proof pic at hand, I'll add it when I get back to the car!


Feel free to post pics, videos and stuff here!
 
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That's a very nice Bentley indeed.
 
"She'll go 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene."


Thats cool as fuck.
 
Well, that's another first for FG!

An orphaned Zastava picked up on the roadtrip. :thumbsup:

Have you also caught the 1970's classic cars thing or are you Richard Hammond doing an Oliver? :p
 
Looks like an excellent find. Should be pretty rare in Germany, I assume. I've always had a soft spot for crappy old cars like this in good condition. If I ever find a roundlamp Lada in good nick and low price, I'm so going to buy it. Zastava would do the trick too, but I've never seen one here.
 
Yaay, Zastava thread! :D
Now I'm a bit bummed I couldn't stay and at least see it live, but I hope to get a chance someday!

Waiting for more photos and status report, still haven't heard your overall opinion on the state of tha car and the car itself.
Also, is that steering wheel not aligned properly?
 
A saywhatsava? Oh yeah, this was the Bentley! Nice find and story, my respect to you sir. I want to see a picture of the engine, does it have one? :D
 
All in all I'm quite happy with it. It's an honest car with lots of patina but little structural rust. I was even thinking of putting it straight through an MOT but when inspecting the underside closer I found the rubber bushings are very worn, not just cracked but actual parts missing.
Still, regarding that it doesn't drive too bad, it's not painfully slow either. The suspension is independent all around with McPherson struts in the front and a transverse leaf spring at the back. It even has an anti-roll-bar in the front!
Brakes are disks in front and drums rear, they were up to the job, but unassisted. Steering wheel is off centre but the alignment feels allright.

The engine is a 1100cc unit, I kept boring people that it (in the Fiat 128, the car the Zastava is based on) was the first cambelt driven overhead camshaft engine in a mass produced car. The ringmeet pub quiz revealed that a cambelt engine was first used in the Glas 1004, but it was a dodgy design where the cylinder head had to be removed to adjust the belt's tension, and only 40.000 or so were made. Fiat's engine was the first do use the now common tensioner pulley design.
As it has a bore of 80mm but a stroke of just 55mm it wants and needs to be revved. Having only 4 gears means it's quite loud on the Autobahn though.

Weakest point of the car are it's tyres. Seller claimed they were seven year old Croatian winter tyres, as it turns out they are just around 5 years old, still really bad as soon as it was mildly damp.
 
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Weakest point of the car are it's tyres. Seller claimed they were seven year old Croatian winter tyres, as it turns out they are just around 5 years old, still really bad as soon as it was mildly damp.

What brand? Cause, to my knowledge, we don't have a tyre manufacturer.
Sava would be my first guess, slovenian and relatively cheap.
 
Well, that's another first for FG!

An orphaned Zastava picked up on the roadtrip. :thumbsup:

Have you also caught the 1970's classic cars thing or are you Richard Hammond doing an Oliver? :p


I have two 70s cars already, a '71 Mercedes W115 and a '79 Fiat X1/9, so it's not a completely new experience to me. But I love the little Zastava and it'll have a lasting spot in my little collection!

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I think nicjasno is right, they are Kormoran tyres with a 145 cross section, so of course expectations shouldn't be too high.

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Epic!

I regret missing out that part of the roadtrip.

I'll come to Romania again and get an old Dacia, then we can drive it to another ringmeet, kay?
 
Fun fact: They continued to build these cars until 2008 according to Wikipedia.
 
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