The Scorpion was a RHD UAZ, with a turbo diesel engine known as Andoria(from poland), it had obviously a different body, but underneath it was mainly 31512/514 chassis. It actually had gained a bit of traction and a order of 500 units had began at the main UAZ plant. However, something fell through, as most things do when it comes to such one off projects and the Scorpion original concept was scrapped for the Scorpion 2 project. However the UAZ factory now had a few hundred RHD chassis lying around that they didn't know what to do with, so they decided to put regular 31512 bodies on top of them and send 250 units to Kenya. And this is where the story of my UAZ begins.
In 2003, the first batch of these turbo diesel RHD UAZs had started to arrive, one of them being mine. The company/dealer responsible for them was actually run by my father so it made sense why i got into these things at such an early age, and have so much information about them now. He had also brought in a few RHD Kamazs as well, and decided to put both the UAZ and KAMAZ through the Kenyan army tender in 2005, to see if maybe the Kenyan army would be interested in using them. And guess which UAZ was taken to the tender? Yup mine!
Unfortunately, despite both vehicles absolutely dominating the tender competition, it was the price of them which the Kenyan army couldn't handle, as due to the large tax and import cost, the cheap Russian machines were about the same price as the DAF trucks, so the tender ended up going to the much cheaper Chinese trucks. So the next chapter of my UAZ began, my father had decided to register it, and buy it for himself, and in 2008 it got fresh number plates and was sent as a rental safari vehicle in the masai mara, so it could start making some money for us during the periods that we werent using it! It first went as it was, but later on got a full fibre glass roof, with a sun-roof split opening, i dont really know what to call it, basically the typical african safari roof haha.
However the safari rental vehicle part of its life didnt really last long, only unitl 2010, and the car was back sitting in our house. With everyone getting depressed with it just sitting there, my father decided to put it to use again, and decided it should be a delivery vehicle, so a fresh paint job/wrap later it became the official delivery vehicle for JackLinks Jerky Kenya!
But it was not to last, as the lack of a proper refrigerating unit in it, made it very difficult and expensive to make deliveries further than 10-15kms from the main refrigerated unit, so it was replaced, and left to rot once again, but this time it wasn't rescued within a few months.
It sat for 3 years in the back of our house, never driven, never moved, just sitting rotting away, through 3 floods during the rain season and 4 6 months long dry spells. It wasnt in good shape, and i decided to ask my father to buy it off him and make it my new project in 2013. The first part was to get it moving, new oil/filters, pumped the tyres back up, new battery and decided to see if it would start, and what a shock, fired right up, a bit of white and black smoke at first but cleared up after a few minutes, so it was time for a test drive. It moved, so thats a good sign, gears seemed to engage, clutch and brakes seemed to work, so i went out and regretted all my life choices! The brakes blew as soon as i got up to any speed and tried and tried to stop as the had gotten so corroded during the floods the cylinders just blew out! The clutch died a few minutes later and it also got completely corroded and shred itself to pieces! And the last hit was the turbo, it began making worse and worse noises until it also blew up, the feed and drain lines had been clogged with old oil and starved the turbo! GREAT START!
So i had to pause for a second and decide what to do with this thing, the parts werent an issue as due to the fact my father was the official dealer for them i still had access to any parts i needed, but it was gonna cost me! So i decided to start with the serious ones that would stop me driving it first, so i replaced the clutch, and the entire brake system, lines, pads, cylinders, to make sure it was all new and i wasnt gonna get any scares in the future. At the same time i had decided that i would like to not only swap the turbo but to upgrade it to something bigger and give the car a bit more umpth! So as i saved up and waited for my parts, i began the cosmetic process. First thing to go was the god awful fibre glass/steel safari roof, which had started to fall apart after all the years of sitting out in the sun and then floods. Was a pretty difficult process and you dont realise how heavy the roof is! When we removed it we ended up scrapping the whole thing and it came in at a whopping 380kilos! With the roof gone i began to scavenge for old remaining parts from the tent roof, and managed to get about 90% of the parts i needed, with the only things missing is some minor bars that support the roof from the top and the rear windows.
Great progress was being made, and just in time as my new turbo had arrived! It was a Garrett T28 turbo, a lot lot bigger than the stock Garrett T17 turbo these came with, and with the possibility of this thing going from blowing 7 psi max to well over 20 psi (which is what it does now), i knew the engine needed a slight overhaul too, as all of its oil leaks would multiply with that much POWER going through it, so as i began to fit the new turbo, i had also decided to do a slight rebuild on the engine!
FInally, the car was in fully functioning condition again, and it hauled ass, with the removal of 400kilos of roof and the addition of the rebuild and an extra 12 PSI, the thing really moved! I was in shock just how rapid it became, and the torque in low range was unbelievable! I still did not have all the components to restore the original tent roof, so i decided to have a custom one made that covered up the rear windows, and as i waited for that to be made i took the UAZ out as much as i could, getting sun burnt everywhere i went, but enjoying every bit of it! During one of out offroad tests my friend ripped half his fuel filters off jumping off a boulder, and me doing the same stupid mistake ripped my exhaust off, however, unlike his now horrible fuel spilling everywhere situation, mine was great as the UAZ straight piped sounded incredible! And from that day forward it stayed that way!
After the roof arrived, i thought it was a good idea to get rid of the red, and painted it crudely with a paint can, to what i thought was gonna be a dark green, but turned out a frog green, oh well, no turning back now. It was also at this time i had decided to take it to a few more events, everything from rally raids, to hill climb events, i took it everywhere! And it was during these events i realised that it was really suffering on its current tyres, so it also got its first major upgrade since the rebuild, a nice set of 32inch M/Ts.
With the new tyres on, the green really started to stand out more and i didnt like it, so i had decided to go back to my Russian roots, and give it a camo paintjob, using spray cans, brush, leaves and sticks lying around the house, it came out really well to my surprise! It was at this time i decided to take the competitions more seriously as well, and my biggest achievement came in coming in 2nd place in my class at the local Champagne Park 4x4 event, i was really proud of this as i came with a rig that was considered extremely under prepped compared to the unimog axle, 40inch tyre, v8 powered rigs there, but the little UAZ showed them up and came out on top, and the buzz i have from that day still pops up every now and again when i look at the trophy!
However, the thing you dont realise during all these events as youre filled with adrenaline, is how much abuse the car is going through, it absolutely kills every aspect of the car, and i genuinely started to feel bad for the UAZ, it had already gone through so much, had so much put into it to give it a new life, and i was just killing/abusing it, so my plans changed! I decided let me restore it, back to its original glory, kinda. I call it more like a restomod than a true 1-1 restoration, the car got an actual booth respray, back to original khaki green, i had swapped all springs/shocks, and bushes, the engine got another overhaul, and a few interior/exterior touches here and there and this is how the car is now!
Hope you guys enjoyed this read, i understand its very long, but i dont know how else i could have made it shorter! I hope to keep this car for as long as i can, and keep making more memories and more stories with it!
