by Automotive historian Roman Urraco recalled the unusual homemade car “Horyn”, created in the Ternopil region in the early 1980s. The author of the project was an engineer from the “Quantor” plant in the city of Zbarazh, Yaroslav Tsymbrovskyi, who built a sports coupe by hand, inspired by Western concept cars.
The car was named after the Horyn River, which flows near the designer’s native village of Bodaky. Work on the car began in 1980 and lasted about five years.
The “Horyn” car was created inspired by the legendary BMW Turbo
During development, Yaroslav Tsymbrovskyi was guided by the 1972 BMW Turbo concept car, created by French designer Paul Bracq.
The homemade car received a spatial metal frame and a fiberglass body. The doors were made according to the “gull-wing” scheme, like the German prototype. The roof had a folding hatch, and the interior was entirely made by the project author.
Components from production models were used to create the car. The windshield was borrowed from a GAZ-24 “Volga”, the rear lights were made from reworked elements of a VAZ-2103, and under the hood, they installed an engine from a “Moskvich-412”.
A separate feature was the trunk. Its lid had an unusual design, and the compartment itself could hold up to ten sacks of potatoes.
The homemade car “Horyn” was officially registered and operated for many years
After the construction was completed, the owner had to go through a complex car legalization procedure. Registration required technical calculations of the safety cage, confirmation of the origin of the main components, and passing tests.
After fulfilling all the requirements, the car successfully received state license plates and was allowed to operate on public roads.
The maximum speed of the “Horyn” was 140 km/h. According to Roman Urraco, Yaroslav Tsymbrovskyi, together with his wife, made numerous trips around Europe in this car.
Later, the car was used by the designer’s son. Thanks to the durable fiberglass body up to 10 mm thick, the car withstood operational loads well. In photos taken in 2008, the “Horyn” was still running and was kept in the owner’s garage. Currently, the further fate of the unique Ukrainian homemade car remains unknown.
