1997 Mara Kraplya Concept
“All good cars are alike, but every bad car is bad in its own unique way.” - A. Karen Ninna, Gasmean car journalist “Car and Pieces”
An unrealised predecessor to the Mara Zorya city car of the late 2000s was the Mara Kraplya (‘droplet’) concept car in the mid-1990s. Faced with an increased country-wide fuel consumption after an influx of foreign cars due the market liberalisation in 1990, a shortage of fuel resulted and even fuel rationing was on the horizon in Archana. In reaction, Mara developed a concept car with an emphasis on fuel economy above all else.
The concept’s name referred both to the car’s aerodynamic droplet form and to the fact that it only consumed 5.7 l/100km in the standard test cycle. The all-new SOHC I3 1.1 litre ‘Troika’ concept engine produced around 34kW at 5,600 rpm and 79 Nm at 2,400 rpm and was mated to a 4-speed automatic taken from a regular Irena sedan. In the Kraplya, however, the gearing was changed so that it essentially became a 3-speed automatic with an overdrive gear in order to allow cruising at very low rpms at common speeds. The Kraplya accelerated from 0-100 km/h in just under 18s and could reach a (theoretical) top speed of 150 km/h. On paper, this setup indeed allowed driving at standard city and highway speeds with very low revs. However, even small changes in gas pedal depression led to a frantic downshift of the autobox, and every intended speed change essentially required a kickdown, thus negating the increased fuel efficiency potential in practice. While a 5-speed manual may have been a more suitable choice from an engineering standpoint, at the time manual gearboxes were seen as very much out of fashion by the intended city car buyer demographic. A 5-speed automatic was under development back then for the upcoming Zvezda car family but not yet ready for use in the Kraplya prototype. Sourcing an external gearbox was never really considered.
The Kraplya’s droplet-like body shape together with the unique rear ‘kammback’-inspired style was thought to help aerodynamics (hint: at least the latter did not - all it did was making the rear door operation more awkward than necessary) and the same applied to the minimisation of engine cooling through limited grille and ventilation openings at the front. Since it was a car primarily aimed at the domestic market, the concept was geared towards being cheap to produce, and that was a strong factor in the development of all other aspects. A positive side effect of this, however, was the low dry weight of 820 kg.
A second focus of the concept car development was the ability to absorb low-speed impacts and contacts and be cheap to repair. Along with increased fuel consumption due to faster cars, car insurance cases and premiums in Archana had also risen in the 1990s due to an increasing number of small ‘fender bender’ accidents between motorists who were still getting used to their now more powerful cars, compounded by a much more crowded environment on the roads. The resulting repair bills led the Archanan car insurance industry to bribeencourage Archanan car designers to make cars more resistant to low-speed mishaps and accidents. The Kraplya’s designers therefore paid special attention to features such as plastic impact-absorbing bumper bars all round, lamps being recessed or in places far away from areas affected by impacts, and the like. The unintended side-effect of this was that things such a lightbulb change would have been quite difficult since the recessed lamps prevented easy access.
By the time the first prototypes had been presented to the Archanan public, the fuel crisis had disappeared from the horizon, however, and thus the prime need for the ‘droplet’ car had evaporated. The foreign press thus had hardly an opportunity to make the obligatory jokes about the unfortunate naming*. Critics remarked that there should be a new panel material option ‘Partial Plastic’ for this car, or that the Mara engineers should bloody make up their mind where to put the oil - into the tank or onto the car. Nevertheless, the extensive plastic bumper designs were unfortunately carried over to the production versions of the Zvezda vehicle family which debuted in the late 1990s. The lessons learned developing the Troika I3 concept engine also helped Mara produce a more advanced 9 valve version for the Zorya city car in the 2000s. Beyond that, public consensus was that the concept was krap, and so Mara ultimately dropped it.
* The name is indeed transliterated Ukraininan for ‘droplet’.
BDC-AndiD_Mara_Kraplya_-_96_Concept.car (36.6 KB)