Marussia: The Rise & Fall of Russia's First Supercar

[Your Old Comrade]

In today's video we're going to learn the story of Marussia - the first supercar / sports car made in Russia. Russia and the ex USSR are famous for creating such legendary cars as the Lada and others, but Russian cars have never been taken super seriously in the West. That has changed: a young Russian car brand called Marussia made a lot of noise in the late 2000s and early 2010s, being a huge success at foreign motor shows and appearing in Western video games such as Need for Speed and DriveClub. Marussia seemed like an upcoming success story, but at one point it all came crashing down. Let's examine why.

[Petalpusher]

Really a bad idea to bring such a young company into Formula 1, which is a bottomless pit when it comes to money, that could instead have been invested in R&D for the road cars.

[Your Old Comrade]

Really a bad idea to bring such a young company into Formula 1, which is a bottomless pit when it comes to money, that could instead have been invested in R&D for the road cars.

I agree. It seems to be a typically Russian problem: political pet projects that, with a lot of hype, have to show established Western firms at the very elite of their business what's what, only to silently fall apart and disappear within months, or, at best, a couple of years. It's corporate trolling,but instead wasting real money and real peoples' incomes.

[Petalpusher]

I agree. It seems to be a typically Russian problem: political pet projects that, with a lot of hype, have to show established Western firms at the very elite of their business what's what, only to silently fall apart and disappear within months, or, at best, a couple of years. It's corporate trolling,but instead wasting real money and real peoples' incomes.

The thing is, brand image is very important in that segment obviously, but they got it backwards. The brand has to prove itself and bring something new to the table into their cars first. It feels a lot like in eastern Europe in general, the success of the West is seen as something immaterial, solely based on marketing techniques and corporate strategies. The huge investments into marketing comes after the fact, say Ferrari and Porsche are recognized brands because they have a long history of innovation and success in various motorsport categories, not just because they put a massive amount in their images. Nobody is gonna buy your cars only because you have a sticker on an F1, it's skipping steps a bit too fast. Their supercar was structurally more or less a Lotus Elise with a Nissan or Cosworth engine for triple the price. Good luck with that to sell this to people into cars.

[Your Old Comrade]

The thing is, brand image is very important in that segment obviously, but they got it backwards. The brand has to prove itself and bring something new to the table into their cars first. It feels a lot like in eastern Europe in general, the success of the West is seen as something immaterial, solely based on marketing techniques and corporate strategies. The huge investments into marketing comes after the fact, say Ferrari and Porsche are recognized brands because they have a long history of innovation and success in various motorsport categories, not just because they put a massive amount in their images. Nobody is gonna buy your cars only because you have a sticker on an F1, it's skipping steps a bit too fast. Their supercar was structurally more or less a Lotus Elise with a Nissan or Cosworth engine for triple the price. Good luck with that to sell this to people into cars.

Exactly: the power of the West lies in its tradition and continuity, coupled with innovation. A certain evolutionary economic philosophy.