Detroit.ru was the address of the Nizhny Novgorod automotive project "Nizhny Novgorod — Russian Detroit." The site was run by the Nizhny Novgorod internet center, later a design studio, "INFORIS"[2]; the footer of the earliest surviving snapshot, from June 13, 1998, reads "Copyright © 1997 Internet Center 'INFORIS'"[1]. The site was devoted to the Nizhny Novgorod auto industry and the region's car market: the products of OAO GAZ, the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant, the Zavolzhye Tracked Tractor Plant, the Special Vehicle Plant, and the Zavolzhye Engine Plant[5]. From the mid-2000s a different site was hosted at the same address — the auto.nnov.ru portal; the last snapshot with content was taken on June 7, 2012[14].

The project and its creators

The "About the Project" page described it thus: "The information project 'Nizhny Novgorod — Russian Detroit' was developed by INFORIS, the largest Nizhny Novgorod internet provider." Its stated goal was "supporting Nizhny Novgorod automakers and promoting their products on the Russian and international market," and its distinguishing features were named as independence from specific manufacturers and dealers, and reliance solely on official materials supplied by participants[2].

The "Contacts" section listed an office: 603600, Nizhny Novgorod, 150 Gorky Street, office 1107, "Inforis" design studio; phone and fax (8312) 358-213 and 354-249. The same section named project manager Dmitry Vorobyov and content manager Sergei Semyonov[3]. Different numbers were given for advertisers — (8312) 30-00-93 and 37-62-53, fax 37-62-68 — along with the address reklama@detroit.ru; the project was divided into an information section and a commercial section, and companies were invited to send in materials and banners[4]. The design of the first version was credited to Evgeny Lisin[1].

What the site looked like

The 1998 version opened with a switch between five encodings (KOI, WIN, DOS, MAC, LAT) and offered "search across participants' price lists" — by keyword and by model. The model list included Volgas and Gazelles from the GAZ-3102 to the GAZ-33097, the GAZ-66-40, the UAZ-31514-032, a range of VAZ models including the Niva and the Oka, as well as the Nexia, Tico, Espero, and Musso. A separate block, "Model Rating," was, as the page explained, "determined monthly, by number of visits." Below it was a news feed of the auto industry for April through June 1998: a shareholders' meeting of VAO Nizhegorodskaya Yarmarka, the Zavolzhye Engine Plant's preparations for its 40th anniversary, the "NizhegorodMotors" dealer network, ZMZ dividends, and reprints from the newspaper Avtostop[1].

By 2001 the site had grown. The left-hand menu listed "Production," "Tuning," "Auto Market," "Prices, Analytics," "Auto Firms," "Auto Insurance," "Appraisal and Expertise," "Test Drive," "Auto Legislation," "Traffic Police Informs," "Traffic Police Exams," "Master Class," "Fuel Prices," and "Photo Gallery"; the top bar carried "Traffic Police Exams," "Auto Forum," "Auto Mail," "Auto Press," and "Auto Map." On the right was a block titled "Car Market in N. Novgorod" with uniformly named sections such as "GAZ in N.N.," "VAZ in N.N.," "PAZ in N.N.," "Foreign Makes in N.N.," "Special Vehicles in N.N.," "Tuning in N.N.," "Driving Schools in N.N.," and others. A "We Recommend" block listed Nizhny Novgorod firms: Avtoobzoz, Avtopoisk, Avtotekhnika-NN, Avtotreid, Agat, VolgaTreid, "Lastochka," NizhegorodAvto, Tekhnoservis, TSS, Kvarts, TsentrGAZ, and Lorri-NN[5]. By 2003 this list had gained Avangard Avto, Volga-Vest-NN, Galant-Avto, Zavod RIDA, and Pingo-Avto, and the searchable "Used Car Prices" database — listings from owners across Nizhny Novgorod Oblast with photographs — was run, the page stated, by the editorial staff of the newspaper Avtomobilny Nizhny and the auto reference service of the company Avtopilot[6].

The site's news was factory- and locally-focused. In late November 2001 the home page reported on a conference summing up a year's work at the Gorky Automobile Plant, attended by Sergei Kiriyenko, the presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District, on GAZ's plans to begin mass production of a new class-D Volga in 2006, and on negotiations between Ruspromavto and FIAT Auto[5].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site's pages carried the Counter.nn.ru counter numbered 10513, as well as Rambler Top100 and top.list.ru[6]. In the nn.ru directory, "Russian Detroit" was listed under "Projects: Auto Projects"; in the snapshot of September 16, 2003, it was shown with "Rating: 4070," linking to the same counter. The category of 28 sites was sorted by this metric, and only "Avtogid" (8520) and the "Avtoplatform AUTOINTERNET.RU" trading site (4759) ranked above "Detroit," while below it came "Nizhny Novgorod Auto Hub" (1149), "Japanese Cars in Nizhny Novgorod" (686), the firm "VOLGATREID" (627), and "Avtobanner.ru" (366)[7]. A year-by-year breakdown of the rating and the site's standing among other addresses of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet can be found in the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

The domain also hosted pages for participating firms: in the "Firms (Enterprises): Auto: Tuning and Modification" section of the same directory, a separate entry listed ZAO "Lastochka-NN" at detroit.ru/lastochka/, described as "Tuning and sale of components"[8].

Fate of the address

In December 2004 the address still hosted the earlier version, with the caption "Copyright © INFORIS Design Studio, 1993-2002"[9]. By July 16, 2005, the site had been redesigned: "Russian Detroit :: A Site About Cars in Nizhny Novgorod," with sections "Information Catalog," "Firms," "Flea Market," "About the Site," a "Nizhny Novgorod Auto Industry" section, and buy-and-sell listings. The footer read "2005 © IP-Center.Ru," and the search box was labeled "Search across auto.nnov.ru"[10].

By September 1, 2006, the address detroit.ru already opened onto the home page of the Nizhny Novgorod auto portal auto.nnov.ru[11]. In the snapshot of July 26, 2007, this was a catalog of makes, a "Used Car Market" with listings, a "Complaints Book" (the latest entry a complaint about tire service "at the Peugeot service center on Rodionova Street"), a traffic-jam feed ("accident at the Proletarskaya stop toward the auto plant," a jam "toward Shcherbinki on Gagarin Avenue, from Surikov"), photo reports from a Nizhny Novgorod BMW club meetup and the "Formula Avtoradio" championship, a "View of Lyadov Square" window, and forums. The footer read "© 2006 WWW.NNOV.RU," with the phone number (8312) 18-08-60 and the address reklama@auto.nnov.ru[12]. The same portal still stood at the address on January 8, 2010[13].

The last snapshot with content was taken on June 7, 2012: it was still auto.nnov.ru, with the latest complaints-book entry dated March 3, 2012[14]. From May 30, 2013, the web archive records only a permanent redirect from this address to auto.nnov.org[15]. As of a check in August 2026, the site at this address responded.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 1998 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — "About the Project" section, 2003 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — "Contacts" section, 2003 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — "Terms of Participation" section, 2003 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Projects: Auto Projects" section, 2003 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Firms: Auto: Tuning and Modification" section, 2003 (archive)
  9. web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (archive)
  10. web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
  11. web.archive.org — Home page, 2006 (archive)
  12. web.archive.org — Home page, 2007 (archive)
  13. web.archive.org — Home page, 2010 (archive)
  14. web.archive.org — Home page, 2012 (archive)
  15. web.archive.org — Domain redirect to auto.nnov.org, 2013 (archive)