In 1964, the ZAZ-966 entered state testing. At least 3 cars of the new model took part in the run, including one with a front end design looks like the future ZAZ-968M model (1979).
Opponents of the ZAZ-966 were the BMW-700A and Simca 1000. At the time of state tests, the ZAZ-966 was still extremely far from the future assembly line version.