News from our eastern neighbor: The Marussia B2

When you bring up Russia in a conversation it's not likely you're going to end up talking about cars. You'll end up somewhere way more... Russian. This time though, I will go there.

So what's interesting about a car made in Russia? Well, you'd be surprised. As history tells us, only moving things with engines to have come out of Russia have been the likes of Ladas, GAZ:s, ZIL:s and other soviet-era time machines, which are notoriously known for not making it up a hill and being overtaken by dogs. Cars, where, according to the manual, the most luxurious feature is the ability to open a side-window (yeah, that's Lada alright). Cars, that, because of their qualities, have become widely recognized synonyms for shit. Not a prestige-victory for the Russian automotive industry.

But this one is. It's the Marussia B2, and at this point you'll probably be asking "the what??" Firstly, I suspect you haven't heard of Marussia as a car-maker before. I know I haven't. Marussia is a relatively new car manufacturer, founded by the Russian millionaire/ex-race-car driver Nikolai Fomenko. Marussia has been affiliated with F1 for a couple of years now so you might have seen a sticker on an F1 car at some point, but it turns out to be quite a lot more than just a sticker on an F1-car.

Notice that front-end looks like an 'M'? Coincidence? I think not.

What Marussia makes is a super-car, and, by the looks of it, not just a super-car. It's looks are quite resemblant to something that at some point might rise on its feet and enslave the human race.
Something that could've been built as a top secret weapons-experiment during the cold war. So quite cool, then. And what's even better, they'll be building it here, in Finland, at the same factory where currently the Fisker Karma is being made. This country really attracts the eccentric, it seems.


Production is due to start soon and the first Finnish B2:s will be rolling out of the factory in late 2012. The features you get to enjoy, provided you're brave enough to go near it, are 420 brutal Russian war-horses combined with a weight of just 1100 kilos, which should propel you from 0-62 in a respectable 3.8 fear-filled seconds.

I'm quite scared of this thing to be honest.


-HS





Cool, or Russian? What are your thoughts, dear readers?