Chaborz M-3 to run 2025 Silk Way Rally

The Chaborz M-3, a lightweight military buggy used by the Russian Armed Forces, will enter the Silk Way Rally in 2025 pending upgrades to make it fit for rally raid competition. The entry will be overseen by the government of the Chechen Republic, where the car is made. Adam Khakimov, the Republic’s Minister of Industry and Energy, told TASS on Tuesday that entering the largest rally in Russia will help promote tourism and interest in off-road vehicles.

Once such modifications are performed, which include redesigning the chassis and certain body parts, the M-3 will likely race in the Open category. While sharing various traits with side-by-side vehicles, especially being based on the FunCruiser Lite UTV, it does not meet T3 or T4 regulation.

Sergey Zlobin recently tested the M-3 on the campus of the Russian Special Forces University in Gudermes. A former F1 test driver for Minardi and rallycross competitor, Zlobin won the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class as well as the European Le Mans Series’ GTE title before transitioning to a directorial role at SMP Racing, which currently competes in domestic series.

“[He] evaluated the characteristics and capabilities of the off-road vehicle,” Khakimov said about Zlobin. “The information obtained will be used to determine the necessary improvements and adjustments to the parameters of the buggy in accordance with the requirements of auto racing championships.”

The Russian Special Forces University, a school to train Spetsnaz personnel, commissioned ChechenAvto and FunCruiser Lite maker F-MotoSport to produce the M-3 in 2016. Chaborz means “bear wolf” in Chechen and is also the series name for the M-6, a larger six-seat patrol vehicle released around the same time.

The first pieces rolled off the line in 2017 and testing commenced shortly after. By 2018, the M-3 was already being used by Russian troops in the Syrian civil war. It has also seen action during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; in November 2023, state media shared videos and photos of paratroopers from the 7th Guards Mountain Air Assault Division driving one in Zaporizhzhia Oblast with a Kornet anti-tank guided missile mounted atop the roof (pictured below). In February, Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov stated more M-3s will be upgraded and provided to the Russian Ministry of Defence for the war.

Armenia, an ally of Russia (for now), deploys M-3s for the Border Guard. Serbia also has the buggy in its arsenal while China and Kazakhstan were interested as of 2018. Kadyrov claimed in 2019 that as many as thirty-five countries were intrigued by the M-3 when it was presented at that year’s International Exhibition of Arms Military Machinery MILEX in Belarus.

Credit: Pavel Lisitsyn/RIA Novosti

95 percent of the M-3 is made with locally sourced parts from AvtoVAZ, which produces the Lada marque and has supported factory racing efforts in the World Touring Car Championship and Dakar Rally. Renault considered reviving their rally raid programme in 2025 with Lada before selling their share to AvtoVAZ following the full-scale invasion and opting for Dacia.

Being a buggy, it is an open-air vehicle with pipe frames though body panels can be applied when necessary. It weighs roughly 820 kilograms dry with a load capacity of 400 kg, which includes a passenger sitting backwards in the rear. The three-seater uses a 98-horsepower 1.6-litre VAZ-21126 engine from the Lada Granta and has a five-speed transmission and independent suspension. Unlike the M-6, the M-3 is exclusively rear-wheel drive.

Military hardware, both in its original form and modified, is not uncommon in off-road racing. Various early Paris–Dakar Rally competitors, some of whom were veterans, drove vehicles like the Peugeot P4 and ALM ACMAT TPK which are eligible to compete today in the Dakar’s adjacent Dakar Classic. In the United States, the Mint 400 has two categories reserved for Army vehicles vintage and modern, the 2024 edition respectively being won by an AM General Humvee and Storm Search and Rescue Tactical Vehicle. The SKARLAT 1000, a UTV designed to transport supplies and medevac Ukrainian troops wounded in the Russian invasion, raced the Spanish Cross-Country Rally Championship’s Rallye TT Cuenca last October.

The 2024 Silk Way Rally will take place on 5–15 July, starting in Russia and ending in Mongolia.