OREANDA-NEWS. December 18, 2009. The Great Route of Russian Civilization, an automobile rally organized by the United Russia political party arrived at Korabelnaya Naberezhnaya in Vladivostok on November 17.  UAZ Patriots, UAZ Pickups and Fiat Ducatos covered the distance of over 11,000 km in 35 days.

The rally began in St. Petersburg on October 14.  The participants, who included Duma Deputy Robert Schlegel, visited 18 large Russian cities: Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Chita, Blagoveschensk and Khabarovsk.  The idea behind the rally was to show unity among various Russian regions, to promote education and discuss important regional development issues.

The official vehicles of the rally, two UAZ Patriots, one UAZ Pickup and one Fiat Ducato, successfully completed the entire route without any mechanical failures, and served their crews reliably and faithfully.  Travelling at an average speed of 70 km per hour the vehicles covered the most difficult sections of federal highways from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk and from Chita to Blagoveschensk without any problems.  The UAZ and Fiat Ducato vehicles that took part in the rally are ordinary serial vehicles which were not specially prepared for the trip.

“We are happy that UAZ and Fiat Ducato vehicles completed the difficult and long journey across the entire country without any problems,” said V.A. Shvestov, General Director of SOLLERS Company. “This proves again that Russian-made SOLLERS vehicles are fully adapted to the climatic conditions and roads in Russia, and therefore can meet the needs of Russian consumers in any region of the country.”

“The vehicles showed their reliability and excellent off-road qualities,” says Robert Schlegel, the leader of the expedition. “We travelled across rugged terrain, and never had any problems, arriving everywhere on schedule.  UAZ Patriots and UAZ Pickups are very spacious and comfortable, both for passengers and drivers.  I was both a passenger and a driver in both of these vehicles, and all I can say is they suit Russian roads very well: you can sleep inside and work on your PC too.”

Vladivostok was specifically selected as the final point of the rally.  SOLLERS is building the first automobile plant here to build SsangYong SUV’s, Isuzu trucks and various modifications of Fiat Ducato.  Growing interest in Russian-made vehicles across all regions shows the timeliness of this project.

The entire route of the rally is available on-line at http://autoexpedition.autotracker.ru/.  All the vehicles were equipped with AutoTracker GLONASS-based vehicle positioning software, and it worked well throughout the route.