Almost all cars created in the USSR were copies of foreign models. It all started with the first samples produced under license from Ford. As time went on, copying became a habit. The USSR Automotive Research Institute bought samples in the West for study and after a while produced a Soviet analogue. True, by the time of release, the original was no longer produced.
GAZ A (1932)
GAZ A - is the first mass passenger car of the USSR, is a licensed copy of the American Ford-A. The USSR bought equipment and documents for production from an American company in 1929, two years later the production of Ford-A was discontinued. A year later, in 1932, the first GAZ-A cars were produced. 
After 1936 the obsolete GAZ-A was banned. Car owners were ordered to hand over the car to the state and purchase a new GAZ-M1 with a surcharge.
GAZ-M-1 "Emka" (1936-1943)
GAZ-M1 was also a copy of one of the Ford models - Model B (Model 40A) of 1934.
When adapted to domestic operating conditions, the car was thoroughly redesigned by Soviet specialists. The model surpassed later Ford products in some positions.
L1 "Red Putilovets" (1933) and ZIS-101 (1936-1941)
The L1 was an experimental passenger car, an almost exact copy of the Buick-32-90, which by Western standards belonged to the upper-middle class.
Initially, the Krasny Putilovets plant produced Fordson tractors. As an experiment, 6 copies of the L1 were released in 1933. Most of the cars could not reach Moscow on their own and without breakdowns. Refinement L1 was transferred to the Moscow "ZiS".
Due to the fact that the Buick body no longer corresponded to the fashion of the mid-30s, it was redesigned at ZiS. The American body shop Budd Company, based on Soviet sketches, prepared a modern body sketch for those years. The work cost the country half a million dollars and took months.
KIM-10 (1940-1941)
The first Soviet small car, the Ford Prefect was taken as the basis for development.
Stamps were made in the USA and body drawings were developed according to the models of a Soviet designer. In 1940, the production of this model began. It was thought that the KIM-10 would become the first "people's" car of the USSR, but the Great Patriotic War prevented the plans of the USSR leadership.
"Moskvich" 400.401 (1946-1956)
It is unlikely that the American company liked such a creative development of its ideas in the design of the Soviet car, but there were no complaints from it in those years, especially since the production of "large" Packards was not resumed after the war.
GAZ-12 (GAZ-M-12, ZIM, ZIM-12) 1950-1959
A six-seven-seater passenger car of a large class with a "six-window long-wheelbase sedan" body was developed on the basis of the Buick Super, and was mass-produced at the Gorky Automobile Plant (Molotov Plant) from 1950 to 1959 (some modifications - until 1960.)
The plant was strongly recommended to completely copy the Buick of the 1948 model, but the engineers, based on the proposed model, designed a car that relies as much as possible on the units and technologies already mastered in production. "ZiM" was not a copy of any particular foreign car, neither in terms of design, nor, in particular, in the technical aspect - in the latter, the plant's designers even managed to some extent "say a new word" within the global automotive industry
"Volga" GAZ-21 (1956-1972)
The passenger car of the middle class was technically created by domestic engineers and designers from scratch, but outwardly copied mainly American models of the early 1950s. During the development, the designs of foreign cars were studied: Ford Mainline (1954), Chevrolet 210 (1953), Plymouth Savoy (1953), Henry J (Kaiser-Frazer) (1952), Standard Vanguard (1952) and Opel Kapitän (1951).
GAZ-21 was mass-produced at the Gorky Automobile Plant from 1956 to 1970. The factory model index is originally GAZ-M-21, later (since 1965) - GAZ-21.
By the time mass production began, by world standards, the design of the Volga had already become at least ordinary, and it no longer stood out against the background of serial foreign cars of those years. Already by 1960, the Volga was a car with a hopelessly outdated design.
"Volga" GAZ-24 (1969-1992)
The middle class passenger car became a hybrid of the North American Ford Falcon (1962) and Plymouth Valiant (1962).
Serially produced at the Gorky Automobile Plant from 1969 to 1992. The appearance and design of the car were quite standard for this direction, the technical characteristics were also approximately average. Most of the "Volga" was not intended for sale for personal use and operated in taxi companies and other government organizations).
"Seagull" GAZ-13 (1959-1981)
Executive passenger car of a large class, created under the clear influence of the latest models of the American company Packard, which in those years were just being studied at US (Packard Caribbean convertible and Packard Patrician sedan, both 1956 model years).
"The Seagull" was created with a clear focus on the trends of American style, like all GAZ products of those years, but was not a 100% "stylistic copy" or Packard's modernization.
The car was produced in a small series at the Gorky Automobile Plant from 1959 to 1981. A total of 3,189 cars of this model were manufactured.
"Seagulls" were used as a personal transport of the highest nomenclature (mainly ministers, first secretaries of regional committees), which was issued as part of the prescribed "package" of privileges.
Both sedans and convertibles "Chaika" were used in parades, served at meetings of foreign leaders, prominent figures and heroes, were used as escort vehicles. Also, "Seagulls" came to "Intourist", where, in turn, everyone could order them for use as wedding limousines.
ZIL-111 (1959-1967)
Copying the American design at various Soviet factories led to the fact that the appearance of the ZIL-111 car was created according to the same patterns as the Chaika. As a result, outwardly similar cars were simultaneously produced in the country. ZIL-111 is often mistaken for the more common "Seagull".
The high-end passenger car was stylistically a compilation of various elements of American middle and high-end cars of the first half of the 1950s - predominantly reminiscent of Cadillac, Packard and Buick. The exterior design of the ZIL-111, like the Seagulls, was based on the design of the models of the American company Packard in 1955-56. But compared to the Packard models, ZIL was larger in all dimensions, looked much stricter and “square”, with straightened lines, had a more complex and detailed decor.
From 1959 to 1967, only 112 copies of this car were assembled.
ZIL-114 (1967-1978)
A small-scale executive passenger car of the highest class with a limousine body. Despite the desire to move away from American automotive fashion, the ZIL-114, made from scratch, still partially copied the American Lincoln Lehmann-Peterson Limousine.
In total, 113 copies of the government limousine were assembled.
ZIL-115 (ZIL 4104) (1978-1983)
In 1978, the ZIL-114 was replaced by a new car under the factory index "115", which later received the official name ZIL-4104. The initiator of the development of the model was Leonid Brezhnev, who loved high-quality cars and was tired of the ten-year operation of the ZIL-114.
For creative rethinking, our designers were provided with a Cadillac Fleetwood 75, and the British from Carso helped domestic automakers in their work. As a result of the joint work of British and Soviet designers, ZIL 115 was born in 1978. According to the new GOSTs, it was classified as ZIL 4104.
The interior was created taking into account the intended use of cars - for high-ranking statesmen.
The end of the 70s is the height of the Cold War, which could not but affect the car transporting the first persons of the country. ZIL - 115 could become a shelter in case of a nuclear war. Of course, he would not have survived a direct hit, but there was protection on the car from a strong radiation background. In addition, it was possible to install hinged armor.
ZAZ-965 (1960-1969)
The main prototype of the minicar was the Fiat 600.
The car was designed by MZMA ("Moskvich") together with the NAMI Automobile Institute. The first samples received the designation "Moskvich-444", and already differed significantly from the Italian prototype. Later, the designation was changed to "Moskvich-560".
Already at the very early stage of design, the car differed from the Italian model by a completely different front suspension - as on the first Porsche sports cars and the Volkswagen Beetle.
ZAZ-966 (1966-1974)
The passenger car of an especially small class demonstrates a considerable similarity in design with the German subcompact NSU Prinz IV (Germany, 1961), which, in its own way, repeats the often copied American Chevrolet Corvair, introduced at the end of 1959.
VAZ-2101 (1970-1988)
VAZ-2101 "Zhiguli" - a rear-wheel drive passenger car with a sedan body is an analogue of the Fiat 124 model, which received the title "Car of the Year" in 1967.
By agreement between the Soviet Foreign Trade and Fiat, the Italians created the Volga Automobile Plant in Togliatti with a full production cycle. The concern was entrusted with the technological equipment of the plant, training of specialists.
VAZ-2101 has been subjected to major changes. In total, over 800 changes were made to the design of the Fiat 124, after which it received the name Fiat 124R. "Russification" of the Fiat 124 turned out to be extremely useful for the FIAT company itself, which has accumulated unique information about the reliability of its cars in extreme operating conditions.
VAZ-2103 (1972-1984)
Rear-wheel drive passenger car with a body type sedan. It was developed jointly with the Italian company Fiat on the basis of the Fiat 124 and Fiat 125 models.
Later, on the basis of the VAZ-2103, the "project 21031" was developed, later renamed the VAZ-2106.
Even today, we can hardly imagine ourselves in a car with an engine in the form of a small nuclear reactor or in a so-called microwave vehicle that receives energy from a contact network hidden under the road. And, over which they conjured for more than a decade, trying to adapt them to cars, they did not take root on them. But half a century ago, all this was written in the automotive press almost seriously. And in Soviet publications - with special enthusiasm. Indeed, in the mid-1950s, when the country was building tall residential buildings and large factories with might and main, blocking rivers, launching rockets into space, and new cars on conveyors, much of what was unrealizable yesterday was seen very close.
Amazing, sometimes fantastic projects of the Soviet automobile industry is a big and very interesting topic. But first, let's recall only a few of its bright pages: projects that, it would seem, could just about become a reality. After all, something from the anthology of Soviet automotive fiction was embodied in experimental running models!
Vanguard for Chairman
Oh, this Tatra 77! The ingenious, although not without madness, the machine of the work of the great Czech designer Hans Ledwinka excited many minds around the world. Including in the USSR. A streamlined load-bearing body with a keel on the roof, independent suspension, an air-cooled V8 engine located at the rear - all this was so different from the usual cars of the mid-1930s! But the serial Tatra 77 appeared in 1934, even before the famous German Beetle, and even more so other structurally similar machines.
Of course, Tatra was not the first of its kind. Many companies and lone engineers have tried to make rear-engined cars with streamlined bodies, more or less bizarre before. The German company in the early 1920s even launched mass production of a rear-engine car with an aerodynamic (in the then understanding) body. But she had much more shortcomings than advantages, sales were miserable. And the Czechoslovak company Tatra brought the idea to a fully functional, reliable car, having established its serial, albeit not mass, production.
It was this machine that made an indelible impression on young Soviet designers, including a twenty-five-year-old engineer by education, artist and popularizer by vocation, who later became widely known for his articles and books. One can imagine how they looked at the Tatra in the USSR, where so far only Fords of the late 1920s were produced from cars! Dolmatovsky came to work at the ZIS in 1939 and found a like-minded person in the person of the young artist Valentin Rostkov, who painted, by the way, in 1938.
The main work did not imply much creativity, but in their free time, young dreamer artists began to create sketches of futuristic rear-engined executive sedans with streamlined bodies. The plant, meanwhile, was preparing only a small update, structurally dating back to the American Buick of the early 1930s, and stylistically - to the "Americans" of the middle of the decade. And the pompous, bulky Packard and Lincoln limousines were considered the height of perfection in the USSR.
Of course, the rear-engine layout attracted not only the fact that it was used in the Tatra. And not only because it made it possible to make the front of the car more streamlined. Cars with a rear engine attracted engineers with a good loading of the drive wheels, the absence of a long transmission and, accordingly, a powerful cardan tunnel in the middle of the cabin.
Some of the sketches of young Soviet dreamers of the late 1930s - mid-1940s are breathtaking! Especially if you imagine that time and those who drove ZIS cars. Let's say that a cavalcade of cars with bodies in the Tatra style, only more generously, in the American style, decorated with chrome, leaves the Spassky or Borovitsky Gates of the Kremlin. Why not a fantastic movie?
In the spring of 1941, young zisovites were allowed to make two models on a scale of 1:10. But the director of the plant, Ivan Likhachev, sharply criticized this work, calling its authors dreamers. And he was right. Likhachev knew the world in which he lived, its written and unwritten laws. The task of the director was to fulfill the plan and debug the production of mass-produced cars that were understandable to the public consciousness, and especially to those who were trendsetters in the USSR.
And during the war, while work was underway on a model in the style of a Packard limousine, and in the post-war years, when the ZIS-110 became serial, Valentin Rostkov continued to make sketches of futuristic cars. And Yuri Dolmatovsky, who worked in NATI since 1943 (from 1946 - NAMI), remained a stubborn supporter of the rear-engine layout and aerodynamic bodies. Soon Dolmatovsky had a colleague, who, like him, was also carried away by futuristic projects - an engineer and an excellent draftsman Vladimir Aryamov, who was finishing his studies at the university. Sketches are sketches, but some of the visionaries invented did work!
Descended from monkey
Time itself helped the Soviet automobile dreamers. In 1948, in the wake of the post-war upsurge, when it seemed that everything was up to the winners, the NAMI leadership gave permission to design and build a prototype of an unusual, completely different car. Dolmatovsky decided to combine the rear engine with a carriage layout. The idea was not new, including for Soviet designers. Indeed, by placing the engine at the rear, it was logical to move the driver's seat forward, significantly increasing the usable space behind it.
Fantasy, so big! In the car, which was given the name, they planned to place a completely new four-cylinder boxer engine with a fuel injection system into the intake manifold and an automatic transmission at the back! The entire suspension is independent, the front one is from Pobeda GAZ-M20, the rear one is original.
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In those years, designers of all countries tried to reduce the diameter of the wheels so as not to take up space in the cabin with massive arches. Thirteen-inch wheels for NAMI‑013 were made on purpose, since the Soviet industry had not yet produced such wheels. Of several layouts, we chose the one with the most concise (and therefore harmonious) design - without pretentious decor. At the institute, the car was nicknamed Chi'ta, because “from the face” it reminded its creators of a monkey from the then popular films about Tarzan. And it really does look a little like it!
Since a completely new engine and transmission had yet to be completed, an engine from Pobeda was installed on the car - converted into an overhead valve and boosted to 63.5 hp.
The prototype was assembled in 1950. A car with three, like in, rows of seats was noticeably shorter and lighter, and more economical in terms of design indicators. In 1951-1952, NAMI-013 made several test runs around the country. But the car was just a running model, no one thought about serial production. And it was not only and not so much in the inertness of the automobile bosses, but in the absolute unpreparedness of the industry for something like that. Yes, no one seriously calculated the economics of this project. But that wasn't the end of the story! Chita has done her important work. In just a few years, the avant-garde ideas of young engineers and artists were half a step away from the series. At least, that's how it seemed then.
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In 1955, the deputy chief designer of the Irbit Motorcycle Plant, Fyodor Reppikh, approached NAMI with the idea of creating an ultra-compact people's car that would cost less than the cheapest car in the USSR at that time - the Moskvich. The need for such a car was great. About this, Soviet workers, who in the mid-1950s believed in the bright prospects of the country and their own, massively wrote to various authorities, including motorcycle factories. Many dreamed of replacing motorcycles with something not very expensive, but more spacious, comfortable and adapted to our unkind climate. The leadership of NAMI accepted the idea, and Dolmatovsky, Aryamov and other young Soviet dreamers had a real chance to make their dreams come true in a real car!
The creators (Irbit, where they planned to make a car, was once the capital of the Russian fur market), focused on the number 5: capacity - five people, engine - 0.5 liter, fuel consumption - about 5 l / 100 km, dry weight - 500 kg . The “trailer” with a slightly protruding rear engine compartment was equipped, however, with a serial motorcycle engine with a working volume of 0.75 liters and a power of 23 hp. with a forced cooling fan (taking into account the experience of NAMI-013, which constantly overheated during tests). The upgraded Moskvich‑401 gearbox was docked with the engine. Hydraulic brakes were created on the basis of motorcycle ones. Used 10‑inch wheels.
It is clear that the desire to adapt serial components and assemblies to the machine as much as possible, otherwise it would be pointless to rely on production. But the unification did not turn out very well - the car came out painfully unusual. Two prototypes of NAMI-050 were assembled in Irbit and in the autumn of 1955 were delivered to Moscow by rail, in a baggage car. Already at the station, the cars were met not only by NAMI employees, but also by enthusiastic Soviet journalists.
The main car of the project was to be a variant with a closed body, a folding front wall for landing on the front seats and a single side door for second-row passengers. Of course, this whole reclining structure was constantly leaking during testing. We also planned a simplified version: without doors, with an awning or the ability to install a light plastic cap on top.
In those years, Soviet prototypes were not hidden from the press. Newspapers and magazines wrote enthusiastically about Belka. The tone was this: the car is about to become serial. The fate of the project was decided on January 30, 1957 at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, where it was finally decided: there should be a new rear-engined small car, but ... it should be done on the basis of the Fiat 600 body and with a full-fledged four-cylinder automobile engine. Of course, a car with a more durable engine than a motorcycle engine, 13-inch wheels and normal doors was much more practical than Belka, no matter how insulting it was for its creators.
By the way, prototypes of rear-engined cars similar to NAMI‑050 were made in those years by several foreign companies. For example, the avant-garde Renault 900 was shown at exhibitions. But only the Fiat Multipla, which was maximally unified with the 600 model and, by the way, having ordinary doors, reached mass production.
Aesthetics of maximalism
In the early 1960s, Zaporozhets was already serial, NAMI was engaged in completely different projects, but in Moscow, on the wave of general interest in what would later be called design, and then called "artistic design", they founded the All-Union Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics (VNIITE ). Yuri Dolmatovsky went to work there. And there, together with a group of artists and engineers, he created ... Of course, a van with a rear engine!
This time it was VNIITE-PT (promising taxi) with a 50-horsepower Moskvich‑408 engine mounted transversely at the rear and a front cooling radiator. The “trailer” with a body made of fiberglass panels on a spatial frame and a wide side sliding door with an electric drive (!) looked very modern. It was even praised by the British magazine Motor: "Probably the most modern taxi in the world." The Soviet press wrote about the car even more enthusiastically, especially since the prototype even left for Moscow streets. When compared with an experienced taxi, it won in many respects. The capacity is higher, the wide door made it possible to roll even a baby carriage. Weight - 300 kg less, the turning radius is noticeably smaller, fuel consumption - lower. And the maximum speed of 90 km / h was enough for a city taxi.
The press, as usual, began to predict VNIITE-PT an early serial production. They even talked about a specific plant - the Yerevan Automobile Plant. But any practitioner of the automotive industry understood that all this was a naive dream. The body with fiberglass panels was very low-tech in mass production, the sliding door with an electric drive was doubtful in operation. And in general, in fact, only in the UK they made special cars for taxis. And in the USSR, certainly no one would do this - there were enough other worries.
The last chord of this story, which lasted four decades, was another VNIITE prototype named Maxi. This is a rear-engined compact single-capacity vehicle on knots and with a Zaporozhets engine. The doors were still sliding, but already simpler - on rollers, and the front seats rotated for ease of entry and exit. The little car looked next to serial peers as an alien from the future, but the romantic period of the Soviet automobile industry, which flourished during the years of the Khrushchev thaw, was already ending.
Of course, today many projects of those years look naive and not very mature. Practitioners even in those years understood that there was no place for the futuristic ideas of Soviet dreamers on conveyors loaded to the limit with planned products. And yet, this story leaves a certain light feeling. After all, the desire to do something new, one's own, unusual, even if almost fantastic, is worthy of respect.
The whole truth about fantasies: avant-garde projects of the USSR automobile industryIn continuation of the post about the first Russian cars, today we will talk about cars of the pre-war period.
Prombron S 24/45 1923
Made from Russo-Balta components preserved in Fili. Number of seats - 6; engine - four-stroke, carburetor, number of cylinders - 4, working volume - 4501 cm3, compression ratio - 4, power - 45 hp. With. /33 kW at 1800 rpm; number of gears - 4; main gear - bevel gears; tire size - 880 120 mm; length - 5040 mm; width - 1650 mm; height - 1980 mm; base - 3200 mm; track - 1365 mm; curb weight - 1850 kg; the highest speed is 75 km / h. Circulation - 10 pcs.
AMO-F15SH
Passenger car on the chassis of the AMO F15 truck. Number of seats - 6; four-stroke engine, carburetor, number of cylinders - 4, working volume - 4396 cm3, power - 35 liters. With. at 1400 rpm; number of gears - 4; main gear - bevel gears; Length - 4550 mm; width - 1760 mm; height - 2250 mm; base - 3070 mm; track - 1400 mm; curb weight - about 2100 kg; the highest speed is 42 km / h.
NAMI-1 1927
Most auto historians traditionally consider the AMO F-15 truck, which was produced on the future ZiSe, and then ZiL from 1924 to 1931, to be the first Soviet car. Other researchers of the automotostarina consider the Prombron to be the first Soviet car. This car was manufactured for some time at the plant of the same name in the then Moscow region Fili on equipment for the production of Russo-Balta, taken out in 1915 from front-line Riga. However, the AMO F-15 truck was a copy of the Italian prototype, and the passenger representative Prombron was developed before the revolution. Therefore, to call them purely Soviet cars is not entirely correct. In this regard, only one sample of automotive technology can claim the title of the first purely Soviet car. This is the NAMI-1 car, created in 1927 by designer Konstantin Andreevich Sharapov.
SHARAPOV Konstantin AndreevichSHARAPOV Konstantin Andreevich, born in 1899, Russian, native of Moscow. Graduated from the Lomonosov Institute of Automotive. Candidate of Technical Sciences, Chief Engineer of the USSR MATI, Head of the Department. The creator of the first Soviet small cars NAMI-1 with an air-cooled engine and NAMI-2.
Chief designer of the NATI car bureau. two children. 04/23/1939 arrested in Moscow. OSO of the NKVD of the USSR was sentenced to 8 years in labor camp. Didn't admit guilt. Departed for Kolyma. Beginning shop for forging iron at a car factory in Kutaisi. 01/19/1949 arrested. 03/09/1949 OSO MGB USSR, Protocol No. 15, sentenced to a settlement in Turukhansk, where he arrived on 06/26/1949. Relocated on 10/11/1949 to the Yenisei district of KK. In February 1952 in exile in Yeniseisk. 12/02/1953 released from exile, left for Moscow. 11/04/1953 rehabilitated. Personal file No. 5944, arch. No. Р-7872 in ITs ATC KK. Died in 1979.
The history of this car is as follows: in 1926, student Kostya Sharapov began writing his graduation project. However, he could not choose his topic. In the end, he settled on the project of an ultra-cheap car designed for operation in the Soviet outback. The supervisors liked the diploma project so much that Sharapov was accepted as a leading engineer at NAMI without any competition, and it was decided to translate the diploma project into metal. With the help of NAMI engineers Lipgart and Charnko, the diploma project was revised in relation to the requirements of production, and in 1927 the Moscow Spartak plant, which still stands on Pimenovskaya (now Krasnoproletarskaya) street near the Novoslobodskaya metro station, made the first sample car named after the NAMI Institute. Assuming that the institute would continue to introduce more and more new cars into production, the sample was soon renamed NIMI-1.
Technically, the car is not just extremely simple. It should not even be called simple, but simplified. An ordinary pipe with a diameter of 235 mm was used as a spinal frame. An independent rear suspension was attached to it at the back, and an air-cooled two-cylinder engine with a V-shaped arrangement of cylinders was suspended in front. The working volume of this engine was 1160 cubic meters. cm, which made it super-small at that time - the then small cars Ford T or Russo-Balt K 12/20 had twice the working volume. This engine was a truncated version of the five-cylinder radial aircraft engine "Cirrus". Such an engine was used on the AIR-1 aircraft, which appeared in 1927. Therefore, a single V-shaped connecting rod for both pistons was dressed on a single crankshaft journal. The diameter of each of the cylinders was equal to 84 millimeters, and the piston stroke was 105 mm. At 2800 rpm, the engine produced 22 hp. The compression ratio was extremely small and amounted to 4.5 units.
This allowed the use of the lowest grade of gasoline that could possibly evaporate in a carburetor. There was no fuel pump in the car, and the fuel came from the tank by gravity. There was not only an electric starter, but even a battery - the engine was successfully started by the crank. There was no dashboard in the car. The speed was measured by eye, and the driver determined the number of engine revolutions by ear, since the loud hissing sound of the engine quite allowed this. By the way, it was for this hissing sound that the car was nicknamed the “primus stove”. What is a primus now, probably, many of you have a rather weak idea. Therefore, for those of our readers who did not manage to catch the fun times of the New Economic Policy, it should be explained that the stove is a wickless heating device that runs on gasoline, kerosene or gas, operating on the principle of burning fuel vapor mixed with air.
In its design, it resembles a blowtorch, but, unlike the latter, the flame of its burner is directed upwards. Above its burner is a ring-shaped wire stand, on which you can put a kettle, pot or pan. In addition, in those days, even rooms were heated with a stove, since there was no central heating yet, and a cubic arshin of firewood was more expensive than a bucket of gasoline. Now its device will seem primitive, but it was the cheaper primus stove that replaced the more advanced samovar, in which, by the way, not only tea was brewed, but also borscht.
Let us return, however, to NAMI-1. There was no trunk in the car, and the spare wheel was attached directly to the back of the rear seat. A tool box was installed on the footboard of the car. Since the car was intended for use in the USSR, the box was completed with a massive padlock. There were only two doors: the front one on the left, the rear one on the right. With the right steering wheel, the driver had to drive the front passenger from the seat in order to get out. Soon a couple more copies were made. These prototypes successfully made a run from Moscow to Sevastopol and back.
The absence of a differential, independent suspension of the rear wheels and a high ground clearance of 265 mm provided NAMI-1 with excellent cross-country ability on the roads of that time, and a limited number of parts and the absence of complex technical devices contributed to the fact that the car almost never broke down - it was almost impossible to break down in it nothing. After the successful completion of the run, the Spartak plant began mass production of these machines in January 1928, which lasted three years. In total, 412 cars were manufactured during these three years. In the cramped Moscow streets, which often did not have a hard surface, NAMI-1 easily overtook clumsy American cars with large engines. It delivered passengers and light cargo faster to any part of the city, with less difficulty overcoming traffic jams. Incidentally, the problem of Moscow traffic jams did not arise in the 21st century.
It started showing up in the mid 1930s. It was then that the Nepmen, who had grown rich on the pent-up demand that had accumulated over the years of war communism, began to order a wide variety of cars from abroad through Vneshposyltorg in droves. Soon the streets of Moscow and Petrograd were filled with Rolls-Royces, Mercedes, Hispano-Suises and less thoroughbred foreign auto-wonders. Among all this automobile variety, cars and carts scurried about. At the same time, mare drivers did not recognize any traffic rules.
In response to grunting from enema-like horns, they gracefully poured exquisite multi-storey mat on the drivers. NIMI-1, unlike all these Rolls-Royces, Mercedes and Hispano-Suise, was considered not a bourgeois car, but a proletarian one. The cabbies took him for one of their own, and, hearing the hiss of the Primus, politely shunned and made way. In 1930, when the construction of the future GAZ was already underway and the ZiS was being re-equipped, 160 copies produced per year were already considered insufficient. However, the expansion of production was hindered by the constraint of the territory located within the boundaries of a large city.
Then the plant's engineers proposed to transfer the assembly of cars to a specialized enterprise, which would receive the chassis from Spartak, and the bodies from another plant. This project promised to increase the production of cars to 4.5 thousand per year and reduce their cost. However, a licensed Ford, called GAZ-A, was on the way, and the government considered the further production of NAMI-1 to be inexpedient. To date, two intact NAMI-1 vehicles and two chassis without bodies have been preserved. One copy and one chassis are on display at the Polytechnic Museum, another NAMI-1 car is kept at the museum of the Nizhny Novgorod plant Gidromash, and the second chassis is at the Technical Center of the Moscow newspaper Autoreview.
NATI-2 1932
Number of seats - 4; four-stroke, carburetor, air-cooled engine. The number of cylinders is 4, the working volume is 1211 cm3, the compression ratio is 4.5, the power is 22 liters. With. at 2800 rpm; number of gears - 3; main gear - bevel gears; length - 3700 mm; width - 1490 mm; height - 1590 mm; base - 2730 mm; track - 1200 mm; curb weight - 750 kg; speed - 75 km / h Circulation - 5 pcs.
GAZ-A 1932
On December 6, 1932, eleven months after the launch of the Gorky Automobile Plant, the first GAZ-A cars rolled off its assembly line. These very simple and unpretentious cars quickly won the hearts of drivers.
The history of this car began in overseas Detroit, when Henry Ford finally realized that his Ford T was hopelessly outdated. Until recently, Ford believed that his T would stand on the assembly line for at least a hundred years, until mankind invented batteries that were more capacious. than the gas tank of his car. Then, in the year around 2008, according to Ford's forecasts, humanity should have switched to electric vehicles. However, reality forced Ford to remove the Model T from the assembly line and replace it with the Model A.
Moving on to the Model A, Ford decided, first of all, to replace the engine - the 23 horsepower of the last Ford T was clearly not enough for the new conditions. However, the new engine was a slightly enlarged engine of the previous model. The cylinder diameter was bored from 92.5 to 98.43 mm - the center distances of the very rationally designed model T engine did not allow further boring. new connecting rods. As a result, the working volume has grown to 200.7 cubic inches (in metric measures - 3285 cubic cm). Power was 40 horsepower. many progressive solutions were also used in the design. For example, instead of wooden spokes, metal spokes were installed in the wheels, and instead of an oil clutch, a dry single-disk clutch was installed. The latter ruled out cases of a car hitting a driver.
The fact is that the Ford T car had one dangerous character trait - sometimes, due to the cold oil, the clutch turned on by itself and the driver who started the car with the crank was crushed by his own car. Therefore, in the instructions for the Ford T it was indicated: "before starting the car, turn on the reverse gear." True, since 1920, when electric starters were installed on the Ford T, the need for this paragraph of the instruction disappeared, but switching to model A, Ford decided to leave the starter and battery only as an option in order to meet the specified $ 385.
Following the same production and marketing scheme as with the Model T, Ford made a Ford AA light truck out of the Ford A passenger car as well, just as the Ford TT once made out of the Ford T. There was even a three-axle Ford AAA model, which inherited the Ford TTT. It was this universal and well-unified series that the Soviet leadership liked, and it was this car, as quite simple, reliable and technologically advanced, that it was decided to make the main Soviet passenger car. The then Soviet Union, of course, needed more trucks. Therefore, having released the first batch of NAZ-A for the opening of the plant, the next one was prepared only by December 6, when Nizhny Novgorod had already become Gorky, and NAZ had already become GAZ.
Let's start, as always, with the look. GAZ-A looked like a typical car of the turn of the 20s - 30s of the twentieth century. The bumper of the car was made of two elastic steel strips. The nickel-plated radiator was decorated with the first emblem of the Gorky Plant - a black oval with the letters "GAS". Wire-spoked wheels without threaded nipples to adjust the tension - the design had such strength and reliability.
The slightly yellowish color of the windshield indicates that it is a triplex - two layers of glass with a third laid - an elastic film, once transparent, but yellowed from time to time. Upon impact, the triplex was covered with a thick layer of cracks, but did not crumble into separate crystals, like modern auto glass. The fuel tank cap sticks out in front of the windshield. It is located on the rear wall of the engine compartment: fuel flowed into the carburetor by gravity. Thus, there was no need for a gasoline pump, which in those years was still a very imperfect device. The gas tank on the GAZ-A almost hung over the knees of the driver and passenger. At the bottom of the tank was a faucet, which the driver, leaving, blocked.
The faucet often leaked, which posed a serious threat from the point of view of fire safety. There are two levers on the black ebony steering wheel next to the signal button. One is used to manually control the ignition timing (today this work is performed by an automatic machine), and the other to set a constant supply of "gas". The speedometer does not have the usual arrow - in the window of the device, the numbers printed on the drum move, indicating the speed. The numbers on the gas gauge are printed on a scale connected directly to the float in the gas tank.
Just below the tiny round accelerator pedal there was a support for the heel of the right foot - an oblong pedal appeared on cars much later.
If we were able to dismantle the entire car to the last boat, we would see only 21 rolling bearings (there are about two hundred in a modern car), of which seven are roller bearings, and the rollers are wound from a thick steel strip. But the crankshaft bearings were plain bearings, and not the same as now, with thin-walled quick-change bimetallic liners, which served * VO-100 thousand km. The material for them was an alloy called babbitt, which was poured into the “bed” of the bearing directly in the cylinder block or in the connecting rod. To fit the surface of such a bearing to the crankshaft journals, a layer of babbitt was scraped. But even the most careful adjustment did not save from the fact that after 30-40 thousand kilometers the bearings had to be filled again.
GAZ-3 is the first domestic serial passenger car with a closed body. Much in the design of GAZ-A seems surprising today: a band hand brake on the rear wheels, the absence of a device for adjusting valves (if necessary, the valve stem was slightly cut off), very small (4, 2) the degree of compression, due to which in hot weather, when conditions for the evaporation of liquid are favorable, the engine could even run on kerosene.
Two transverse springs served for the suspension of the wheels, and the rear one had an unusual shape of a strongly stretched “written” letter L. GAZ-A was produced mainly with an open five-seater four-door body of the “phaeton” type. In case of bad weather, it was possible to raise a canvas awning and fasten canvas sidewalls with celluloid windows over the doors. In 1934, an experimental batch of cars equipped with sedan-type closed bodies was husked. Assembly on the conveyor of such bodies, which required mutual adjustment of many complex in shape, and most importantly, easily deformable parts, was very slow, and they were abandoned. But the demand for closed passenger cars existed, in order to satisfy it, the Moscow plant "Arsmkuz" began to mount closed four-door bodies for Moscow taxis on the GAZ-A chassis.
From 1934 to 1937, the Gorky Automobile Plant produced GAZ-4 pickups (shown in the photo on the left). They used a double cab from a GAZ-AA truck, behind which was a metal body for 0.5 tons of cargo. A door was made in the rear wall of the body (for loading mail, products, small batches of industrial goods). Therefore, the spare wheel migrated to the pocket of the front left fender. By the way, GAZ-4 postal "pickup trucks" were found on the streets of Moscow even at the end of the forties. I must say that the GAZ-A chassis was used not only for "pickup trucks" or taxis. The bodies of the D-8 armored cars were mounted on it, which went into service with the Red Army units. The GAZ-A car was produced from 1932 to 1936 at the Gorky Automobile Plant, and from 1933 to 1935, in addition, at the KIM plant in the then suburban Textile workers, where after the war the 400th Moskvich will be produced on captured equipment. A total of 41,917 cars were produced, but already in 1934, they began to replace the famous GAZ-M1 on the GAZ-A conveyor.
L-1 1933
Number of seats - 7. Length - 5.3 m. Engine 8-cylinder, displacement 5750 cm3, power - 105 hp. at 2900 rpm. Speed 115 km/h. Circulation - 6 pcs.
GAZ-M1 1936
This car was the most massive Soviet car of the mid-twentieth century. 62888 copies, produced at the Gorky Automobile Plant named after Molotov, filled the whole country in the 30s-40s, and made this car one of the symbols of victorious socialism, because it was with the announcement that socialism was built in the USSR that the appearance in the country coincided this car. You have probably already understood that we are talking about the GAZ M1 car, popularly nicknamed "Emka".
Despite the fact that this car was built in the country of victorious socialism, its roots were the most bourgeois. Most auto historians and the vast majority of auto journalists believe that the prototype of this car was the American Ford B of the F40 modification.
Indeed, in accordance with the agreement then in force, the American side handed over the technical documentation for the F40 car, equipped with a 3285 cc V-shaped eight-cylinder engine. cm (200.7 cubic inches), but we allegedly could not master the production of the G8 and put a forced motor from its predecessor GAZ-A on the Emka. However, if you dig deeper autohistory, it turns out a small nuance that casts doubt on the official and generally accepted version. It turns out that, having received the technical documentation for the F40 model, the Gorky designers did not even think of mastering it in production. From the very beginning, the car was recognized as unsuitable for our roads, and its development required a thorough revision of technical documentation - just the conversion from inch to metric would take at least a year.
However, Andrey Alexandrovich Lipgart, who had just been appointed chief designer of GAZ, was a supporter of the fastest introduction of a new passenger car model into production. He drew attention to the fact that the European branch of Ford in Germany produced a European version of the Ford B. This car was called the Ford Rheinland and had already been fully adapted by German designers for European conditions. In particular, German engine designers, instead of putting in an expensive and gluttonous "eight", improved the old Ford engine from the Ford A model. They changed the valve timing, raised the compression ratio of the working mixture to 4.6 units (for Ford-A this parameter was 4.2), increased the valve lift by 0.8 mm, expanded the passage sections of the channels in the carburetor, and also modernized the lubrication and cooling systems, as a result of which the engine began to produce instead of 40 hp. 50 horsepower. The suspension was also strengthened and the rigidity of the body was increased. That is why Lipgart offered to turn to the Germans and buy the technical documentation from them.
However, there were political obstacles in the way of such a decision - since 1933, Hitler was in power in Germany, and all trade relations between the USSR and Germany were almost completely curtailed by that time. Nevertheless, Lipgart's proposal came at a very favorable moment - our Soviet trade representative in Sweden, David Vladimirovich Kandelaki, was leaving for Germany on a secret visit. On May 5, 1935, he met with Goering, and he, secretly from Hitler, decided to sell the Soviet Union something of what we were ready to pay him a very decent kickback.
All this was allegedly sold to Sweden and then allegedly re-exported by the Swedes to the Soviet Union. Among all this was the technical documentation for the Ford Rhineland car. Work on the development of the model began immediately, and already on March 17, 1936, the first two pre-production GAZ-M1 samples were sent to the Kremlin. There they were examined by Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov and Ordzhonikidze, after which they gave the go-ahead for in-line production.
True, on July 8, 1936, People's Commissar of Heavy Industry Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze, better known to us under the pseudonym Sergo, instructed NATI to conduct official tests of three serial GAZ-M-1s: two cars were to go on a 30,000-kilometer off-road and sloppiness rally, and also one fell to become the object of careful research and design improvements made when defects were discovered during the run of the first two cars. At the same time, changes in their design were made directly during mass production. Emka could be considered finally completed only by the end of 1937.
By modern standards, the GAZ-M1 would be considered a middle-class car. The length of the Emka with a 2845 mm wheelbase was 4665 mm. The width was 177 centimeters. So this car would most likely be classified today as segment D. The car body had a frame structure. The frame consisted of two box-section spars connected by two X-shaped crossbars in front and in the middle and two rear crossbars. An in-line four-cylinder lower-valve carburetor engine was installed on the car. Its displacement at 98.43 mm bore and 107.95 mm stroke was 3286 cc. see Torque was transmitted to the rear wheel through a three-speed gearbox equipped with an easy shift clutch. In 24 seconds, the car accelerated to 80 km speed. Its maximum speed was 105 km / h.
The car factory produced several modifications of the Emka. After the limousine, the pickup truck called GAZ M-415 was the most popular. Its front part, including the radiator lining, plumage and hoods (Emka had two of them - left and right), remained unchanged. However, the rear part was redesigned - it was a cargo platform with low folding sides, on which it was possible to carry either 400 kg of cargo or six passengers.
The bulk of these pickups entered the Red Army, and only after significant wear and tear were they transferred to the national economy. There was also a purely combat version of the Emka - the BA-20 armored car BA-20 - a light machine-gun armored car. It was used by the Red Army in the battles at Khalkhin Gol and the Soviet-Finnish war, as well as at the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War. In 1937, the GAZ-M-1 was exhibited at the World Industrial Exhibition in Paris, but did not receive any awards there. Much more attention was given to models of Moscow metro stations and Mukhina's sculptural group "Worker and Collective Farm Girl". In the late 1930s, a decision was made to modernize the car. First of all, it was necessary to replace the rapidly aging engine. The six-cylinder Dodge D5 engine was recognized as the most suitable for production and operation in the USSR.
The preparation of the GAZ-11 engine for serial production was completed mainly in March 1940. From the same time, the production of the modernized GAZ-11-73 Emka with a new 76 or 85 hp engine began. and a working volume of 3.485 liters. I note that the first power value had a motor with cast iron pistons, and the second with aluminum ones. The GAZ-11-73 car was somewhat different from its predecessor - it had a more modern radiator lining, other blinds on the hoods, an updated instrument panel, a semi-centrifugal clutch mechanism and improved shock absorbers. The suspension was equipped with an anti-roll bar. In this version, the Emka was produced until June 1943, when Gorky's bombing raids, which destroyed the body shop, forced it to stop production. However, from the remaining parts in 1945-48, it was possible to assemble another 233 cars, after which the release of the Emka was finally discontinued.
ZiS-101 1937
This car was created as Stalin's car, but Stalin never used this car. However, for the party and economic asset, this car turned out to be very useful. The fact is that in the summer of 1937, the head of the NKVD, Yezhov, banned the operation of foreign cars in Moscow and Leningrad. He explained this by fighting traffic congestion - Moscow got acquainted with traffic jams back in the days of the New Economic Policy, and even the expansion of Gorky Street and the elimination of gardens on the Garden Ring did not save the capital from this scourge.
The creation of the ZIS 101 was preceded by the development of a seven-seater representative limousine Leningrad-1 (more often called L-1) by the Krasny Putilovets plant. The prototype was taken from the American Buick-97 model 1932. It was a very perfect, but rather difficult car to manufacture. The drawings were commissioned to be made by the LenGiproVATO Institute, which was part of the All-Union Automotive and Tractor Association. According to these drawings, the Putilovites made six copies, which paraded in front of the stands at the May Day demonstration of 1933. However, on the way from Leningrad to Moscow, all six assembled copies broke down, after which the Council of People's Commissars decided that the Putilov plant should produce mainly military products, and the production of the limousine was transferred to ZiS. The work on its development was led by Evgeny Ivanovich Vazhinsky. He retained the overall design, but abandoned the difficult-to-finish units: remote control of shock absorbers and the automatic transmission that existed on Buick. While the chassis was mastered, the car body was obsolete and looked like an obvious anachronism. Therefore, the body decided to create anew.
A young aircraft engineer Rostkov, an extraordinary self-taught artist who was fond of seascapes, was involved in work on his body.
In the course of work, it turned out that the all-metal body, on the design of which they were guided during development, is fraught with much more problems than initially thought, and a group of Soviet designers was sent to the American coachbuilding company Badd, where they, according to their sketches, create a working sample of the product, stamped tooling and other necessary technological equipment. It is quite natural that the body style turned out to be purely American, in the spirit of the newfangled stream line direction. The silhouette, details and fragments of the surface made the 101st look like several American cars popular at that time, but despite this, the car looked peculiar, which was largely facilitated by the heavy and somewhat rough plasticity of the model.
ZiS-101 in the film "Foundling"
The length of a car with such a body was 5647 mm, the width was 1892. For comparison, the L-1, with the same width, was only 5.3 meters long. The wheelbase was 3605 mm long, the front wheel track was 1500 mm, and the turning radius reached 7.7 meters. An in-line eight-cylinder overhead valve engine was installed on ZIS-101 cars. Its cylinder diameter was 85 mm, and the piston stroke was 127. The working volume, therefore, was 5766 cubic centimeters.
L-1 plant "Red Putilovets"
The engine was distinguished by such features as a thermostat that maintains the required temperature in the cooling system, a crankshaft with counterweights, a crankshaft torsional vibration damper, and a two-chamber carburetor with exhaust gas heating. The transmission included a double-plate clutch and a 3-speed gearbox. Second and third gears were synchromesh. When using aluminum pistons, he developed 110 hp. at 3200 rpm. With cast iron pistons, its power dropped to 90 hp. at 2800 rpm. The maximum speed of the car at this power was 115 km / h, fuel consumption per 100 km of track - 26.5 liters. With a power of 110 - the engine allowed to accelerate to 125 km / h. Prototypes were demonstrated to Stalin in the spring of 1936, and serial production began in November. They produced 4-5 pieces a day, and from November 3, 1936 to July 7, 1941, 8752 cars were produced.
Despite the fact that not all party Soviet and economic workers had enough ZiSov, and many had to drive simple emkas, 55 cars were transferred to the 13th Moscow taxi fleet. Unlike government ones, they had unconventional colors - blue, burgundy blue and yellow. Such taxis were also operated in other cities. For example, in 1939 there were three ZIS-101 taxis in Minsk. Limousine taxis had their own special stops in the center - next to the Moskva Hotel, in front of the Bolshoi Theater, near the Sverdlov Square metro station. The fare on ZiS cost 1 ruble 40 kopecks per kilometer, while on a taxi-emka only a ruble. In addition, the ZiS-101 became the first minibus: the first of them was launched along the Garden Ring. The fare in 1940 was 3 r. 50 kopecks, while a bus ticket then cost a ruble, a tram ticket - 50 kopecks, and a metro ticket (there were no turnstiles then, and tickets were bought at the box office and shown to the controller) - 30 kopecks. The average salary in that year was 339 rubles.
The Moscow-Noginsk intercity route was also opened. However, taxi-chaises with open bodies were especially popular. Checkers did not yet exist then - they appeared only in 1948 at Pobedy, and taxis were distinguished from party-economic vehicles only on the basis that they were not painted in black party-economic color, but were blue, light blue and yellow. True, this yellow was so pale yellow that now it would be called beige. By the beginning of the war, there were 3,500 taxis in Moscow, of which about five hundred were ZiSs.
The first copy of the ZiS-101, from left to right: Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Andrei Andreevich Andreev (often confused with the director of ZiS Ivan Likhachev), People's Commissar for Heavy Industry G.K. Ordzhonikidze, I.V. Stalin, V.M. Molotov, A. I. Mikoyan.
In June 1940, a government commission worked at ZiS, headed by Academician E.A. Chudakov. She, in particular, noted that the ZiS-101 is 600–700 kg heavier than foreign counterparts. The subsequent modernization led to the creation of the ZiS-101A. The radiator lining has changed, the engine has become more powerful, the design of the synchronizer in the gearbox has been simplified and helical gears of the first gear and reverse gear have been used, a single-plate clutch has been developed.
Engine power increased due to the transition to a new MKZ-L2 carburetor (Stromberg type), where the mixture entered the cylinders not in an ascending, but in a falling flow, due to which their filling and power improved. The modified intake manifold design and revised valve timing played their role: the ZiS-101A, produced only with aluminum pistons, developed 116 hp. Prototypes of the ZiS-101B were built with a stepped trunk and a number of improvements in the chassis, as well as the ZiS-103 with independent front wheel suspension. However, these plans could not be realized due to the outbreak of war. By this time, the plant managed to produce about 600 ZiS-101A vehicles.
ZiSs were also freely sold to the public. They cost 40 thousand rubles, or, respectively, 118 average salaries. nevertheless, scientists, writers and artists were happy to buy it. Among the buyers were Lyubov Orlova, Alexei Tolstoy, Alexei Stakhanov and the father of the future chief witch of the Soviet Union, Ilya Vesper.
During the war, the parks were closed one by one. The tenth park on Krasnaya Presnya was destroyed by a direct bomb hit. By the spring of 1942, only the Third Park in Grafsky Lane remained. Then they closed it too. Taxis were first transferred to a bus depot on Druzhinnikovskaya Street, and in the winter of 1943 to a garage on Aviamotornaya Street. By the end of the war, 36 taxis remained unmobilized and unbombed. After the war, they were all converted into minibuses. And they began to use the brand new ZiS-110 as taxi limousines, but that's another story.
ZiS-101A-Sport 1938
Number of seats - 2; engine - four-stroke, carburetor, number of cylinders - 8, working volume - 6060 cm3, power - 141 hp. With. at 3300 rpm; number of gears - 3; length - 5750 mm; width - 1900 mm; height 1856 mm; wheelbase - 3570 mm; curb weight - 1987 kg; the highest speed is 162.4 km / h.
GAZ-11-73 1940
GAZ M1 modification with a six-cylinder GAZ-11 engine. It differed from Emka in the shape of the radiator lining and vents on the sides of the hood, bumpers with fangs (which lengthened the car by 30 mm), a new instrument panel, improved brakes, double-acting piston shock absorbers, reinforced springs. Number of seats - 5; engine: number of cylinders - 6, working volume - 3485 cm3, power - 76 liters. With. at 3400 rpm; number of gears - 3; tire size - 7.00-16; length - 4655 mm; width - 1770 mm; height - 1775 mm; base - 2845 mm; curb weight - 1455 kg; speed - 110 km / h. Circulation - 1250 pcs.
GAZ-61 1941
Car for generals and marshals
On September 17, 1939, 17 days after the German attack on Poland, the Red Army invaded the crumbling Polish state, whose government had fled the country the day before. Two days later, Soviet troops approached the city of Vilna - the future Vilnius. In those years, this city belonged to Poland, and Kaunas was the capital of independent Lithuania. The majority of the population of Vilna and the Vilna region were Belarusians. The Polish troops showed almost no resistance, and the columns marched in marching order. Ahead, at the head of the column, the head of the Political Directorate of the 3rd Army of the Belorussian Front, Brigadier Commissar Shulin, was driving an emk. The road was narrow, unpaved, and therefore it is not surprising that the commissar's emka got stuck in the middle of the road. And not only got stuck, but blocked the path of the entire 3rd Army following it.
As a result of this incident, Vilna was not occupied at 8 am, but only at 1 pm. Few people in the Red Army knew that on that very day a fundamentally new command and staff vehicle came out of the gates of the Gorky Automobile Plant for the first test run. Outwardly, it differed little from the "emka". Only too high clearance gave out an all-terrain vehicle in it. The base for the new army passenger car was the solid Gorky "emka" GAZ-M-1, which had fairly reliable and durable chassis units. By the beginning of 1938, prototypes of its next modification were built: GAZ-61-40. However, the 40-horsepower Gaz-M engine, the same one that was on both the emka and the lorry, turned out to be very low-power for such a car. Therefore, in the summer of 1939, it was decided to put the GAZ-11 engine on the car, which then had a power of 73 hp.
Most of the components and assemblies were inherited from the "emka", more precisely, from its modification M-11-73, which had the same engine. It was necessary to create anew, in fact, only the front drive axle and transfer case. For their power connection, a slightly modified cardan shaft of the ZiS-101 car with hinges on needle bearings was used. The rear closed, double driveshaft was equipped with an intermediate joint. Instead of a three-speed “passenger” gearbox, a “cargo” four-speed one from GAZ-AA was used with a power range doubled, which made it possible to do without a demultiplier. This range was increased due to the fact that the razdatka was two-speed. An equalizer was used in the mechanical drive of the brakes. And so, on September 19, the car went to factory tests. On the highway with a full load of 500 kg, he developed a speed of 107.5 km / h, having a fuel consumption of 14 liters per 100 km.
Thanks to all-wheel drive, large engine power reserves, an increased gear ratio in the transmission, tires with a special profile and a frame raised by 150 mm, the new car overcame such slopes on the ground that not every tracked vehicle is capable of - up to 43 degrees. This value was limited by the twisting of the rear axle shafts and the beginning of tipping back, and not by traction capabilities. On the sand, GAZ-61-40 took a rise from a standstill to 15 degrees, from a run - up to 30 degrees, a ford with a fan belt removed - up to 0.82 m, a ditch - up to 0.85-0.9 m wide, snow - deep more than 0.4 m. The car did not get stuck even on dirt roads and arable land washed out by autumn rains, could tow a trailer weighing up to 700 kg, confidently crossed over a log with a diameter of 0.37 m, and even ... climbed onto a 45-cm plank platform of the dance floor of the cultural base car factory.
In the autumn, when the continuous rain that had been falling for three days made all the surrounding roads impassable, the GAZ-61 car left the city of Gorky for another trip. Ahead lay a dirt road, replete with steep ascents and descents. The clay, mixed with sand, that made up the road surface, got wet and was cut into deep ruts filled with water. The ditches along the edges of the road were, as it were, peculiar traps, once in which a normal car could not get out on its own. Obviously, for this reason the road was completely deserted. Suddenly, an oncoming car appeared ahead. It was a cargo tricycle with tracks put on wheels, descending very carefully down the hill.
Her driver was going to stop the car, as it was impossible, in his opinion, to pass in such a dangerous place. But suddenly he saw that the passenger car was turning into a ditch and was easily jumping over this obstacle. Turning around in the field, the car with the same maneuver went to the middle of the road, bypassing the three-axle. The amazed driver of the oncoming car got out of it and looked for a long time after the GAZ-61 passenger car, which he first met under such circumstances. The ability of the GAZ-61 car to climb stairs is very indicative. A prototype test to overcome this type of obstacles was carried out at the cultural base of the Gorky Automobile Plant.
GAZ-61 overcomes a water barrier
From the sandy river beach, four flights of stairs led uphill at an angle of 30 degrees. The car, as you can see in the photo here, climbed it surprisingly calmly. The new car was supposed to be produced in three versions, more fully meeting the interests of the army and the national economy: with an open body "phaeton", with a closed standard body from the "emka" type "sedan" and a semi-truck "pickup". The first copy of the phaeton went to Marshal Voroshilov. The remaining marshals - Budyonny, Kulik, Timoshenko and Shaposhnikov - received sedans. Army generals Zhukov, Meretskov and Tyulenev, as well as the commander of the Western Special Military District, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General of the Tank Forces Dmitry Grigoryevich Pavlov, who soon also received the rank of army general, received cars.
Already after the start of the war, such a car was received by the commander of the Far Eastern Front, General of the Army Iosif Rodionovich Apanasenko, and on February 3, 1941, such a car was received by Commissar of State Security 1st rank Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov. In July, the former car of the executed Pavlov went to the future marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev. He rode it throughout the war. During the war, this car, which is now working at the Mosfilm film studio, was pierced by small fragments of both windshields. Several holes were also repaired in the roof. The car retained both its engine No. 620 and its body No. 1418. Only piston rings, liners were changed, the crankshaft was polished.
By the end of the 1930s, it was announced in the USSR that socialism had finally been built. Life has become better, life has become happier. If in 1929 - the year collectivization and industrialization began - the average salary in the USSR was 75 rubles, then in 1940 it was already 339 rubles. In addition, food prices were quite low, and the purchasing power of the ruble exceeded that of the US dollar. Therefore, in the pockets of the population, the remnants of the previous paycheck accumulated, which over the months and years turned into decent amounts. Ignorant citizens did not want to carry this money to the savings bank or buy additional bonds (in addition to voluntary-compulsory ones), and the State Planning Commission had to pull this money out of their pockets for the needs of the Motherland.
It was for this that at the beginning of 1940, one of the Gosplanov clever men proposed to launch a mass Soviet car into production. The idea was borrowed from the practice of German National Socialism. There, in Germany, the idea was successfully implemented to supply every family with a simple folk car, the cost of which did not exceed a thousand marks.
Those 990 marks that the Volkswagen cost were then equal to 2100 Soviet rubles, while the emka cost nine thousand in the USSR. Therefore, it is not surprising that at first in the Soviet Union they simply wanted to copy a German car or acquire a license for it. However, Stalin did not like the "vacuum cleaner" with an air motor, and besides, located behind him, and then he was presented with two English cars. The first of them - Austin 7 - was quite cheap to manufacture. However, its construction and design were already quite backward by that time. The other, the Ford Perfect, produced by the British branch of the Ford Corporation, was at that time the last word in the development of automotive technology, and although it did not fit into the two thousand-ruble price limit, Stalin chose it. The only thing he wanted to change was to provide the body, which was a two-door on the Prefect, with doors for rear passengers.
KIM-10 in the film "Hearts of Four"
The plant named after KIM, located in Tekstilshchiki, then still near Moscow, was entrusted with setting up production. This plant was named after the Communist Youth International, the youth section of the then Comintern. The plant began its activities in November 1930, starting to assemble Ford cars and trucks. Since 1933, the Gorky Automobile Plant has been operating at full capacity, the KIM plant becomes a branch of GAZ and switches to assembling GAZ-A and GAZ-AA cars from Gorky car kits. It was on this plant that the choice of the State Planning Commission fell. The Gorky designer Brodsky redesigned the Prefect, and in the USA body stamps for this car were ordered from BUDD.
A trial batch of 500 cars, named KIM-10-50, was released by April 25, 1941. Stamps for four-door bodies were still late, and cars in the two-door version participated in the May Day parade. The length of the car with a 2385 mm wheelbase was 3960 mm; width - 1480 mm; and the height is 1 meter 65 centimeters. The track of the front and rear wheels was the same and equaled 1145 millimeters. Thus, the Soviet version of the car was 16 centimeters longer than the British original, 3.6 centimeters wider and four centimeters taller. The length of the wheelbase was more than that of the prototype by 185 millimeters. The ground clearance was also increased to 210 millimeters, which was only 139.7 millimeters on the British model.
The car was equipped with a lower valve four-cylinder engine. With a 63.5 mm cylinder diameter and a 92.456 mm piston stroke, its working volume was 1171 cubic centimeters. Its compression ratio in the original was 6.16:1, and at 4000 rpm the engine produced 32 horsepower. However, in the Soviet Union, only aviation gasoline B-70 could withstand such a compression ratio, and the compression ratio in the engine was lowered to 5.75 units. Power immediately dropped to 30 horsepower. But at that time it was considered quite sufficient - the post-war Moskvich had eight fewer forces. However, the maximum speed, which was 95 kilometers per hour for the British model, fell only to 90 km / h, which was then quite enough - on most Soviet roads, cars then drove at a 40-kilometer speed, and after a 50-kilometer milestone, cars began to shake so that it was impossible to steer.
In addition, a motor with a lower compression ratio was easier to start by hand, because the capacity of a 6-volt battery was only enough for three or four engine starts. On the KIM-10, for the first time in the domestic automotive industry, an alligator-type hood was used instead of the then common hoods with lifting sidewalls. Salon the small car was equipped with a clock and a mechanism that regulates the installation of the front seats - both of which were found only on cars of the highest class. The body of the KIM-10 had many innovations. He did not have an external step, as on other cars. The windshield was not flat, but consisted of two parts, located at an angle, a design later adopted on post-war cars. Other novelties include thin-walled two-layer bearing shells for the crankshaft of the engine, a centrifugal ignition timing device, a windshield wiper operating under the influence of vacuum in the engine intake pipe. There was also a modification of the car with a “phaeton” roof. It was called KIM-10-51 and was released in 1941 in a small series. Her body had a fabric folding awning and sidewalls with celluloid windows. The car was intended mainly for operation in the southern regions of the Land of Soviets. However, with the beginning of the war, all issued phaetons were transferred to the Red Army, and therefore not a single copy has been preserved.
Hello dear readers, today we will present to your attention the best cars of the USSR. As you understand, our TOP will include those cars that were popular among the population of the Soviet Union back in the middle of the 20th century. Perhaps you will meet some of them on the modern roads of the country. The list will be quite large, so I propose to immediately proceed to its consideration.
ZAZ 968
The well-known "Zaporozhets" was quite popular during the Soviet Union. In particular, this applies to the ZAZ 968 model. It was the dream of many. It was produced right up to 1994, but with the advent of more advanced technology, it gradually disappeared into history. Special modifications of this Zaporozhye giant were created, which were specially intended for the disabled. Engine power of 30 liters. With. in those years it was quite enough for trips around the city. In those days, in the first place was not speed, but quality. ZAZ 968 fully met the needs of the inhabitants of the Soviet Union.
Moskvich 412
This is the ninth place in our ranking. Even today you can find this model on the roads of our country. The peak of popularity of the steel horse came in the mid-70s. An engine capacity of 1.5 liters was enough to compete even with foreign brands, which were quite rare then. Motor power - 72 liters. With. For the time it was pretty good. Our country in the 70s even exported the model to foreign countries. Moreover, the geography of distribution was quite wide.
VAZ 2107
The famous seven, which has not been published for just a couple of years, is in 8th place in our rating. In the early 80s, this particular brand was one of the most popular. Then she did it conscientiously. Engine power - 74 liters. With. It's just perfect for that time. At the same time, the car was very economical, and consumed only 7 liters of gasoline per 100 km. The design for that time is simply progressive. Today, a used model can be purchased at any car market for an affordable price, but since the 90s, the quality of the brand has deteriorated significantly.
GAZ 12 ZIM
Just a chic car that was produced in the Soviet Union from 1948 to 1960. That period was the peak of its popularity. Today it can only be found in the collection of rich oligarchs. The engine of the brand worked on the 72nd gasoline. The engine power was enough for the city of that time. This work of art was sometimes used as a taxi.
VAZ 2103
Sixth place goes to the VAZ 2103. A typical Zhiguli, which was developed jointly with the Italian company Fiat. It was produced at the Volga Automobile Plant from 1972 to 1984. The four-cylinder engine was capable of accelerating to hundreds in 16 seconds. Its power was 77 liters. With. Today, cars can be found on the streets of our country, but every year there are fewer and fewer representatives of this family.
VAZ 2108
The top five is opened by the VAZ 2108, which in the mid-80s made a revolutionary revolution in terms of design. After that, Soviet brands began to have a very respectable appearance. Years of release - 1984-2003. The standard engine had a power of 64 hp. With. At the same time, it allowed to accelerate to a speed of 100 km / h in 15 s. A very economical brand that consumed only 5.4 l / 100 km.
GAZ 2410
Our beloved Volga is on the 4th position of our list. It was produced for a relatively short time, only 7 years, starting in 1985 and ending in 1992. The 2.5 liter engine had a power of 100 hp. With. For that time, very good indicators. At the same time, a person bought at his disposal a fairly roomy steel horse. There is even a limousine.
Volga 21
The Volga 21 opens the top three. It was produced from 1955 to 1970. The iron horse was produced in several modifications at once. At the same time, it was accessible to the middle class of the population of the Soviet Union. Perhaps that is why it became popular. The 2.5-liter engine had a power of 75 hp. With. Today, a car can be found on the roads of the country, but this happens less and less. The model cannot be called economical. It consumes in mixed mode 15 l / 100 km.
The history of the automotive industry began in 1924. Then, for the first time, people saw the miracles of the domestic auto industry: a dozen brand new trucks of the AMO-F15 model drove through Red Square, demonstrating their power and strength. And they were born by the world famous company ZIL. Of course, then it was almost at the zero level of development, but, with the development of the USSR, the strength of the company was also growing stronger.
But, nevertheless, cars became the main achievement of the Soviet master mechanics. So, the first batch of truly domestic cars consisted of 370 copies of NAMI-1. This beauty accelerated the speed to 70 km / h. An ordinary Soviet person could only dream of such a car, so they were driven by representatives of the authorities. By the way, the design and mechanics of NAMI-1 were completely developed by the specialists of the Spartak plant.
In 1929, the car was modernized: now the model had a speedometer, a boosted engine and an electric starter was installed. But the prototype of the legendary Ford came out only in 1935. This car accelerated the speed to 90 km / h. Knowledgeable people also called her "constructor for adults", since the GAZ-A passenger car consisted of 5450 parts.
The same complexity was the prototype of the American "Buick -32-90" - Leningrad-1.
And now let's move on to a significant year for the automotive industry of the USSR - 1944. It was then, a year before the end of the war, that the world-famous, legendary "Victory" was developed.
There are legends that at first they wanted to call it "Motherland". When the documents were sent for approval, he asked: “Well, how much will we have a Motherland?” After that, the car was immediately renamed. But back to the car itself. Already in 1954, more than 236 thousand copies were produced. She was very popular among the people. Behind her stood in line to buy for years, and those who managed to buy her called her affectionately - a swallow. It was equipped with a fairly powerful six-cylinder engine.
The rarest modification - a convertible victory - now costs more than 100 thousand dollars, and is in demand among collectors.
Along with the “Victory”, the beloved “Moskvich” was born, to which the Soviet witty people also gave the name - “assemble it yourself”. It constantly broke down, but at the same time, having a Moskvich was as prestigious as having a Pobeda. It was this model that was equipped with brand new foreign engines. When the "iron curtain" fell, our automobile companies began to actively cooperate with foreign ones, which gave good results. The maximum speed of the native Moskvich is 105 km / h.
There are two cars to which my heart belongs and will belong - these are the Volga and the Chaika. I think the majority of Soviet people have the same emotions. Yes, of course, now there are a lot of modern cars with cool bells and whistles, great speed, etc. But when you sit down in a comfortable, eye-pleasing interior of the Volga, you feel like a person. No wonder the first people of the country drove these cars.
But the little "Zaporozhets" always evoked a smile. This ray of light from 1963 cost 1,200 rubles. Despite its small size, there was just a huge queue for it. It was the first car that was truly made for the common people. My grandfather also had a Zaporozhets. He affectionately called him a donkey. Why are you asking? And because there was almost no space in the trunk, so half a ton of potatoes, things to the country, suitcases, bicycles, a haystack, eleven kilograms of apples, etc. loaded onto a lattice stand on the roof of a small "Zaporozhets". That's why the donkey.
Of course, the Soviet auto industry has continued to this day. USSR engineers gave an excellent start to the future. If not for them, we would now have to buy only foreign-made cars, and they are unlikely to withstand trips to the country, seeing off relatives to the station, and a real, Russian, soulful wedding. And finally, a small bearded anecdote about the domestic automotive industry: “Do you know why Zaporozhets has a trunk in the front? And all so that things are not stolen at such a speed!
