Photo: Lada Sport

Lada drivers tour the manufacturer’s factory in Togliatti

Lada Sport’s driver trio of James Thompson, Rob Huff and Mikhail Kozlovskiy visited the Russian manufacturer’s base in Togliatti yesterday, visiting the factory workers who will build the road going model of Lada Sport’s new car, the Vesta, which will make its debut next season.

Thompson, Huff and Kozlovskiy will all remain with the Russian team for next season, and were given a tour of the factory by Lada president Bo Andersson, visiting the foundry shop, welding and assembly shops as well as the production facilities. The drivers also got to sit behind the wheel of the prototype Vesta road car, which is the basis of their new WTCC challenger, with the road model going into production in September next year, while the TC1 class touring car will be ready for the opening round of the season in Argentina in March, after commencing testing in late January.

“To say that I’m impressed is not enough,” said Huff. “The scale of the company is just amazing, much more than I expected to see. I was very happy to see the team’s commitment, high technologies and modern production lines. The new model line-up, which we saw at the R&D center, shows the great progress. I was also impressed by Lada Sport production. It’s great that Lada has now a special sports model row for motorsport fans. These cars allow people to feel involvement in motorsport.”

Thompson, whose WTCC career at Lada started back in 2009 with the Priora, added:
“I’ve been to Lada several times before. The last time I had a factory tour was 2011 and I was pleased with positive changes at that time, but what we saw today is a huge step forward. It’s nice to see that the company continues to work effectively on a new level. For a driver in the WTCC, where there is strong link between race cars and road cars, it’s important to see improvements not only in his race car, but in the serial production as well, it gives me even more motivation.”

Kozlovskiy, who heads into his third season of the WTCC next year with Lada, said:
“We were very pleased to receive such a warm welcome, to feel the support of all our fans, because this support contributes much to the team’s success. It was very interesting to see a new Lada Vesta – not as a concept that we first saw at the Moscow motor show, but as a real car. I look forward to testing the Vesta racing version in the beginning of 2015. I’m sure it will be a very competitive car.”

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