The LADA NIVA T3 appeared in the frame of the off-road program of AVTOVAZ at the beginning of the 90s. Then the rally raid team of AVTOVAZ was preparing for participation in the transcontinental marathon “Paris-Moscow- Beijing”. The first preparation stage for this race was the running in the rally-raid ''Magyar MAVAD Raid-4'' in Hungary in 1991. The hardest distance was conquered by the crew of Alexander Nikonenko and Sergey Talantsev in a hard-won fight. The outcome was the first place in the final standing and the first victory in the marathon of the celebrated VAZ team. Then the trials of the prototype LADA NIVA T3 in the Kara Kum desert followed in July within the framework of the super marathon preparation. But in connection with August events of 1991 in Russia the super marathon “Paris-Moscow-Beijing” did not take place.

In 1992 the cars LADA NIVA Т3 could contend with the best teams in the marathon standing at the rally “Atlas”, and then thanks to qualitative preparations show good results on the route “Paris-Beijing”. Those were the years when an invaluable experience for creation of sport automobiles for rally raids was accumulated.

In 1995 two teams on the car LADA NIVA T3 took the tenth and the eleventh places in the super marathon “Paris – Moscow – Ulan-Bator – Beijing”. They were the teams of Alexander Lakeyev – Valeriy Kolchugin (10th place) and Anatoliy Krivibokov – Sergey Gogunov (11th place).