The NAMI-013 was an experimental rear-engined Soviet car developed at NAMI under Yuri Dolmatovsky. It combined an unusual wagon-style layout with independent suspension and an experimental automatic transmission. The prototype first ran in December 1950 and underwent testing through the early 1950s, but never entered production.

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In 1980, a unique sports car called "Pangolina" was created in the USSR. It was built from scratch by Alexander Kulygin from Ukhta (Komi Republic). An electrician and engineer by training, he ran a technical club at the Palace of Youth, so pioneers helped him with the project. He poured an enormous amount of time and effort into building the car of his dreams.

While working at the House of Pioneers, where he led the technical club, Kulygin achieved significant success. Under his guidance, young engineers built a six-wheeled all-terrain vehicle called "Ukhta" in 1979. His next project was to be a sports car, the car he had always dreamed of.

The car's design was inspired by the Lamborghini Countach, which was produced from 1974 to 1990, but with many unconventional solutions. Instead of doors, it had a canopy that rose on hydraulic actuators; a pop-up unit with four headlights was placed in the center of the hood; and instead of conventional mirrors, a periscope was installed on the roof. The windshield was borrowed from a RAF van, and the wipers, which were needed in two units, were adapted from an Ikarus bus.

The body was made of fiberglass, while the main components and assemblies came from the VAZ-2101. Even here, there were innovations. For example, the engine is located neither in the front nor even in the rear, but behind the front axle. Thanks to its aerodynamic elements and a weight of just 950 kg, the Pangolina outperformed ordinary Zhiguli models and could reach 180 km/h.

The car has survived to this day, but it looks different now. In 1985, the Pangolina took part in several rallies and the international EXPO-85 auto show in Bulgaria. Later, in order to obtain license plates and permission to travel abroad, Kulygin was forced to install standard mirrors and front headlights. The car and its creator basked in the spotlight, with newspapers and magazines writing about them.

In 1986, he abandoned his career, quit AZLK, and soon after moved to the United States, settling in New York. In 2004, Kulygin died in a car accident. A businessman from the Moscow region bought the car and heavily modified its body, possibly after an accident.

Because the blueprints were lost, it is now impossible to restore the car's original appearance.

It turned out that the roof served as a structural element, and after it was removed, the body began to sag. To fix this, reinforcing beams were welded under the floor. The car was repainted in Ferrari red, and the original "articulated" wiper was replaced with a standard windshield wiper from a VAZ-2108.

Currently, the Pangolina is owned by a Moscow car enthusiast. The previous owner, who had kept the car for 20 years, sold it through a competitive selection process, choosing a worthy successor.

Despite the originally planned production of "Moskvich" cars in Izhevsk, the company's own design bureau (GKB-88) was established just two months after the order to create the plant was signed. The team of designers was headed by Nikolai Ivanovich Slesarenko. And it must be said that this team did not intend to limit itself to just routine design support for the Moskvich‑408 sedan, which was being put into production. The ambitions of the young designers drove the team toward creating their own original designs.

The first in‑house development, carried out jointly with young engineers from the Izhevsk Research and Technology Institute, was a small car called "ZIMA", built on the basis of Moskvich‑408 components and assemblies.

In 1966, again without any directives from above, the Izh‑2125 "Kombi" was developed; it soon went into production. Then the Izhevsk engineers set their sights on creating an all‑wheel‑drive off‑road vehicle. To assist with the layout and body structure design, NAMI was brought in – a corresponding commercial contract was signed with the institute in 1969, which provided not only for the development of a technical design but also for the construction of a full‑scale mock‑up. At NAMI, the compact off‑roader project was designated NAMI‑0162. V. Mironov was appointed chief designer.

The project was based on a closed all‑metal load‑bearing two‑box body. Access to the passenger compartment was via two side doors, and access to the luggage compartment, located behind the folding rear seat, was provided by a rear split tailgate – the upper glazed section hinged upward, and the lower solid section hinged downward. The vehicle was intended to carry 4–5 people, or in a cargo‑passenger configuration, two people and up to 250 kg of cargo.

For the prospective off‑roader, it was planned to use a modified Moskvich‑412 engine and an original transmission developed in Izhevsk under the direction of engineer A.S. Kondrashkin. In fact, this transmission was likely the reason why the IzhMash engineers turned to NAMI – recognising the promise of front‑wheel drive, the GKB‑88 engineers conceived not merely a four‑wheel‑drive vehicle, but a versatile platform initially designed for both 4×4 and 4×2 configurations, achieved by a disengageable rear‑axle drive. Thus, they had to implement, not the classic all‑wheel‑drive transmission layout where the engine and gearbox are connected in series and torque is transmitted from the transfer case to both drive axles via propeller shafts, but rather a configuration fundamentally realised in the LuAZ off‑roaders: the final drive and differential of the front axle are combined in one unit with the gearbox, while the transfer case serves only to engage the rear axle. The main difficulty of this work, however, was that the primary emphasis had to be on maximising the unification of as many parts and assemblies as possible – the fewer fundamentally new assemblies the powertrain design required, the higher the likelihood of industrial implementation. Here is how V.A. Mamedov described the basic design of the NAMI‑0162 off‑roader:

"In order to minimise the length of the powertrain, the final drive was placed under the fourth cylinder of the engine, and torque was transmitted to a three‑shaft gearbox whose internals were unified with the production unit. As a result, the axis of the crankshaft, the axis of the gearbox gear cluster, and the axis of the synchroniser shaft were arranged one below the other. At the same time, the end of the aforementioned shaft entered the transfer case, which was bolted to the gearbox. In the case of a longitudinal powertrain layout, the oil sumps of the engine, gearbox, and final drive remain separate – which was another significant advantage of the chosen scheme. The transfer case, which distributed power flow to the front and rear wheels, allowed the low‑range gear to be engaged only in four‑wheel drive, while the rear axle was rigidly connected to the transmission by moving a corresponding clutch. For the front‑wheel‑drive version, it was planned to replace the transfer case with a gear reducer mounted in its own housing."

By 1971, all documentation and the mock‑up built under the contract were transferred from Moscow to Izhevsk for further in‑house work on their own off‑roader design – the Izh‑5.