The Lada Samara became the export lineup of Russian stamps and have had great success in the international market. However, none of them were convertibles, but it’s fixed Belgian company EBS.
Company EBS (Ernst Berg Systems), based in Belgium Zaventem, liked to turn different vehicles into convertibles. She released the Renault 5, Citroën AX and the Mercedes 560, designed a special housing type “Targa” (with removable roof — approx. transl.) for the Ferrari Testarossa, but also created a Renault 25 as a station wagon and a convertible version. It also owns a prototype of the Volvo 480ES.
Volga-Scaldia S. A used “Muscovites” and “Volga”, and in 1990 became the main distributor of cars Lada, produced by AVTOVAZ. “Samara” pretty well sold in Belgium and neighboring countries it was cheap, practical, sturdy and for the then most modern car.
But image and prestige, he was not. And Volga-Scaldia wanted in the line appeared a bright “nail program”, which attracts buyers. Of course, it was supposed to be a convertible.
The company and EBS, given the task to turn the “Samara” in the car, in the style of small, open and very popular Volkswagen Golf, the Talbot Samba, Fiat Ritmo, and the like.
In the fall of 1990, the EBS has demonstrated a new open “Samara”, dubbed Natascha.
Natasha was very attractive small, and most importantly, cheap convertible. Convertible Renault 19, which appeared in 1991, was sold in France for 149 500 francs. “Natasha” is worth 89 400.
EBS worked hard: she had not only to supply cars for the Belgian market, but also to be exported to France and Germany, and the competition it was pretty small.
German Deutches importer of Lada has released several versions of the convertibles in this series.
The main Finnish distributor of the brand Konely OY heavily invested in the appearance of the “Samara” and create a line of at least one prototype convertible.
“Natasha Samara” were sold until December 1995. In the same year, the company “Lada” and she has designed a convertible called Bohemia, realizing that in the market there is a demand for such models.
Then, many agreed that “Natasha” was a fiasco. If you look only at the numbers — five years, was released only 456 copies — it really seems that it is too short. 164 car sold in France, and 104 went to Germany. But given that “Samara” in all respects was the outsider in Western Europe, it in General and had no chance to compete in this market. In addition, these vehicles EBS was done by hand, so actually the figure is impressive.
But EBS is not saved: a year later the company ceased to exist. After a while the problems started and the Russian “Lada”. Her own project convertible “Vanessa” was never implemented, and after 1997, Russia almost completely ceased to export the cars “Lada”. At AVTOVAZ could not afford to redesign their cars in accordance with the new rules and requirements that were presented to modern machines.
