The tale of the Lada Raven is a somewhat curious tale; forums have been awash with users proclaiming their surprise after seeing the word Lada on the rear.

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But this car is not a Russian made Lada, it's a supercar concept designed by a Russian designer called Dmitry Lazarev. Dmitry had a notion that it was about time that Russia joined the prestigious supercar market following the demise of Marussia, a Russian sports car manufacturer that began life in 2007 and sadly closed it's doors just seven years later.

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There is a catch though; in that Lada has turned down the chance to be involved in building the Raven. Lada's owners, AvtoVAZ, are quoted as saying that "…a low-riding sports car without a trunk is not our style…"

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I can only hope that they don't come to regret that decision, as Lazarev has now found a manufacturing partner for this concept car – a partner that plans to make the Raven a reality. Vector Construction is planning to build 100 Lada Ravens and turn Dmitry's dreams turn into reality.

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In fact, Vector's construction plans are apparently already underway, with a slight name change from Lada Raven to Vector Raven.

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It's still early days yet, and the team are actively looking for experts in various fields, including suspension, aerodynamics and a marketing team to thrash out a good price point for the Vector Raven. I suspect we may have some time to wait before this impressive looking beast hits the road.

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Lada's reluctance reminds me of Volkswagen's reluctance to beef up the Beetle in the sixties, offering similar reasons for staying away from producing what would be arguably a more exciting version of the popular car. Of course, it was left to Empi to take on the role of making the Beetle a more exciting proposition for young people and help guide it into a cooler niche.

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The creation of a sportscar can – if the car is received well – be a slice of marketing genius for a car manufacturer; you only have to take a look back into recent history to see how Nissan were perceived, prior to the introduction of the 350Z and the regeneration of the Skyline as the GT-R, plus a series of more funky cars like the Juke. There was even a car called the Cedric…

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Lazarev has not entirely given up hope of working with Lada in the future though, and I am sure their eyes and ears will be keenly listening and watching for any further developments on the Vector Raven. Watch this space.

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Images: Dmitry Lazarev, mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net, diseno-art.com

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