Author Topic: Monty273 - Solved: Baijah Stalker (2007)  (Read 3420 times)

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Offline Carnut

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #25 on: December 20, 2017, 11:09:49 AM »
Czech-built?
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Online kwgibbs

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #26 on: December 20, 2017, 11:47:15 AM »
Austrian?

Offline el_monty

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #27 on: December 20, 2017, 12:26:18 PM »
- France
- Spain
- Belgium
- Italy (but has a Fiat engine)
- Greece
- Switzerland
- Scandinavia
- Portugal
- Czech Republic
- Austria
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #28 on: December 20, 2017, 01:18:54 PM »
Poland?
« Last Edit: December 20, 2017, 01:47:58 PM by Carnut »
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Offline el_monty

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #29 on: December 20, 2017, 01:55:42 PM »
Sorry, kwgibbs had already said Poland but I missed it on the list

- France
- Poland
- Spain
- Belgium
- Italy (but has a Fiat engine)
- Greece
- Switzerland
- Scandinavia
- Portugal
- Czech Republic
- Austria
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon

Online kwgibbs

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #30 on: December 20, 2017, 02:29:51 PM »
Hungary?

Offline Carnut

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #31 on: December 20, 2017, 03:07:57 PM »
Is it from a former Eastern Bloc country?
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Offline el_monty

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #32 on: December 20, 2017, 03:24:00 PM »
- France
- Poland
- Spain
- Belgium
- Italy (but has a Fiat engine)
- Greece
- Switzerland
- Scandinavia
- Portugal
- Czech Republic
- Austria
- Hungary

Is it from a former Eastern Bloc country?
It's not from an Eastern Bloc country, but it uses many elements from a car of an Eastern Bloc manufacturer.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon

Offline el_monty

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #33 on: December 20, 2017, 03:36:40 PM »
Sorry I need to add a correction. I don't have much information but going over it again it seems that the intention of the manufacturer was to use a Fiat engine for production, but this first prototype (which is all that was built) actually has an Eastern Bloc engine under the bonnet too.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #34 on: December 20, 2017, 04:28:29 PM »
Romania?

Offline el_monty

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #35 on: December 20, 2017, 05:17:14 PM »
Romania?

The engine is not from Romania.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #36 on: December 21, 2017, 04:33:20 AM »
Russian?
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Offline el_monty

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #37 on: December 21, 2017, 06:39:11 AM »
Yes, it's based on a Russian car. But I repeat, its nationality is not Russian.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #38 on: December 21, 2017, 07:33:52 AM »
There aren't many countries left that we havn't tried and were not part of the Eastern Bloc.
There's Britain but with LHD it's probably not that; there the little states like Andorra and Liechtenstein - but let's try Holland first!
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Offline el_monty

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #39 on: December 21, 2017, 07:50:03 AM »
Have another look to see if there's any significant country missing from this list  ;):

- France
- Poland
- Spain
- Belgium
- Italy (a Fiat engine was planned for production)
- Greece
- Switzerland
- Scandinavia
- Portugal
- Czech Republic
- Austria
- Hungary
- Russia (but this prototype uses a Russian engine)
- Rest of former Eastern Bloc
- Netherlands
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon

Offline el_monty

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #40 on: December 21, 2017, 08:04:40 AM »
Also:
Romania?
This car doesn't have any Romanian elements in it, but there is a tenuous connection to a Romanian car. I haven't been able to find any explicit references to this connection anywhere, but it must exist, and it will be easy to show once the puzzle has been solved.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2017, 08:31:42 AM by el_monty »
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Re: Monty278
« Reply #41 on: December 21, 2017, 09:59:24 AM »
Germany?
For some reason I thought I'd already asked that and crossed it off but clearly not!
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Re: Monty278
« Reply #42 on: December 21, 2017, 11:38:44 AM »
I've found this car pictured below, called a Travec Tecdrah TTi (never heard of it before!) which looks far too similar for it not to be related/connected:

« Last Edit: December 21, 2017, 11:40:56 AM by Carnut »
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Re: Monty278
« Reply #43 on: December 21, 2017, 11:47:50 AM »
And now I've found this.  It's called a Baijah Stalker made by the (apparently) Russian off-roader specialist Baijah under the project name "Thundra", to be produced with Fiat Panda 4x4 mechanicals, although I believe this prototype is based on a Lada Niva.

Here are some photos of the Baijah Stalker, the last of which looks like a production version:

« Last Edit: December 21, 2017, 12:06:38 PM by Carnut »
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Offline el_monty

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Re: Monty278
« Reply #44 on: December 21, 2017, 08:05:23 PM »
Bravo! You solved the riddle.
The information I have read is that Baijah Automotive Gmbh was that it was a German company, founded in Bad Neuheim by one Marcus Nöske, and that they used to import UAZ models (the classic 469 and the Patriot), swapping the engines for EU-built units to comply with emissions regulations, and renamed them Baijah Taigah and Tulos respectively. Then in 2007 they presented this car, called Stalker, as a prototype based on a Lada Niva but announcing that when it went into production they would use the powertrain of a Fiat Panda 4x4. I wasn't able to find anything else about the Stalker, and since I had read that Baijah went under in 2008, I assumed that no more units were actually produced. You seem to have found another one with Russian plates, and I have no idea where and when that has been produced or if it's still a Lada Niva underneath.
What I did notice as I tried to research more about this car was, as you pointed out, that the bodywork is almost the same as that of the Travec Tecdrah, which had been a puzzle before (https://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/2012-41/solved-djetset-580-travec-tecdrah/). The Tecdrah is based on the Dacia Duster, and was developed by another German company called Travec Automotive GmbH. I haven't been able to find any source that links Baijah and Travec explicitly, but since the similarity of the bodywork is obvious, I assumed that the explanation must be that after the Stalker project fell through, Baijah sold the design to Travec, which then re-engineered it to adapt it to the Duster platform. Again, I don't know where that leaves that Russian Stalker that you found.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon

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Re: Monty273 - Solved: Baijah Stalker (2007)
« Reply #45 on: December 22, 2017, 07:12:54 AM »
The plot thickens, as if you follow the link to Djetset's earlier Apal puzzle there you will find pictures of the Apal Stalker, from which the Tecdrah was developed!  That was made in fibreglass, whilst the Tecdrah was in ABS, but it's back to fibreglass for the Beijah!  Seems there's a whole family of these things!

Apal Stalker:
« Last Edit: December 22, 2017, 07:15:01 AM by Carnut »
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Offline el_monty

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Re: Monty273 - Solved: Baijah Stalker (2007)
« Reply #46 on: December 23, 2017, 02:07:07 PM »
OK now I see. It's clear the original version of the car is the Russian Apal Stalker, which came out in 2003, and Baijah must have intended to import that, swapping the engine for the Fiat one, a bit like they did with the UAZs.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon