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# Homemade car by Soviet engineer Oleg Kucherenko on show at the Museum of Moscow
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/eta-mashina-vygliadit-tak-slovno-chto-to-zamyshliaet/
- Published: 2023-10-19T19:04:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:37:51.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Moscow, Museums, Observations

This Car Looks as if It Is Plotting Something.

A splendid home-built automobile with the touching name "Trud" ("Labour"), the work of the Soviet engineer Oleg Kucherenko, is on show at the exhibition "Garage Wanted" at the Museum of Moscow, organised jointly with the Transport Museum.

Look closely and the model appears to be the child of a Chevrolet Impala and a Studebaker Lark-6\. But the "Trud", which dates from the 1960s, has its own original metal body, something of a rarity for machines of this kind. Home-built cars in the USSR were, it is true, a sort of rarity, yet still a fairly normal phenomenon: at times it was far easier to assemble one's own car than to acquire a factory-made one.

Home-built cars were put together from whatever came to hand: bodies were made using plywood, casein glue, every kind of metal section, linseed-oil varnish, and parts from motorcycles, household appliances and old cars. In 1959 the state took a step towards motorists and permitted citizens to build cars themselves and use them, provided that the engine power did not exceed 25 horsepower per tonne of weight.

Incidentally, registering a home-built car today is very difficult: one must demonstrate that every component meets the standards of Rosstandart, have the car recognised as a one-off vehicle, enter it on the register, and obtain permission to use public roads.