by Few people know that the Tavria is not the first front-engined and front-wheel-drive development by ZAZ. There were several prototypes before it, and the earliest of them is the NAMI-0107 from 1966. 
NAMI-0107 was discussed in the Facebook community “Ukrainian Cars”. It closely resembles the ZAZ-966 in appearance, which is not surprising as the body was taken from the Zaporozhets. 
But the internals of the prototype are entirely different.
The thing is, at that time NAMI was actively studying the construction of the first Mini, and the front-wheel-drive layout with a transverse engine appealed to the engineers. 
This is exactly the scheme applied in the NAMI-0107. It was equipped with a 1.4-liter engine from Moskvitch-408. Interestingly, a new transmission and clutch were created specifically for the car, with a 4-speed manual transmission placed in the engine’s oil pan. 
The front suspension was built on transverse arms with torsion bars, while the rear was on longitudinal ones.
However, during tests, it was found that the Zaporozhets with the front engine placement was raw and unreliable, so development of the model was abandoned.
