Russian Attack: Tuner Twists 6 Series Into Classic Volga

MOSCOW — When one thinks of road-racing superstars, the Soviet-era Volga probably does not come to mind. Nevertheless, in weekend racing on the streets of Moscow, Russian tuning company A:Level turned out a BMW 6 Series convertible reclothed to look like an old Volga.

One dead giveaway that the car was something, well, better than it appeared is that there never was a production open-top Volga.
A:Level's custom car resembles the 1960s Volga bestseller M21, which was exported outside Soviet territory to Western European countries including Belgium and France.
A:Level was inspired by a wave of nostalgia when it applied the design cues of the old sedan to a BMW 6 Series convertible. The German luxury car's 368-horsepower 4.6-liter V8 engine and interior were left unchanged.

The A:Level team published a series of photos depicting the project that you can see on the cardesign.ru forum.
The car made its public debut over the weekend at the Formula Don-Stroy race, an event for "two-door sports cars with power not less than 300 hp and acceleration to 62 mph in not more than 5 seconds."
The Volga-look BMW convertible appeared among a slew of Lamborghinis, Ferraris and other much more serious hardware and caused a stir there.

The people behind A:Level created an earlier Volga look-alike a few years ago, from a BMW 850i coupe. More recently, the company exhibited an ultra-luxury sports car, under the resurrected Russo-Baltique brand name.

© Source: original article on insideline