However, the vehicle with the typical narrow “snout” also found application in the civilian sphere – either in the harsh nature of the highlands, or in various modifications, including, for example, sweepers.
The history of the “goat”, as the slightly bouncy car is also called, began to be written in the early 1940s, when the Soviet Union began the development of a light off-road vehicle. Russian designers found inspiration in America, where the legendary Jeep was born at the time, and already in 1941, the GAZ-64 was born in Gorky (before that, and again today Nizhny Novgorod). Its further development two years later resulted in the GAZ-67 called Chapayev after the legendary Red Army commander from the time of the Civil War.
The successor of the unsightly but reliable and durable war type began to be prepared in Gorky already in 1946, and this time the designers paid attention to the appearance, too. After two years of development, a dozen prototypes were ready, which were called Truženik (Czech for hard worker) and with which the car company’s test drivers drove hundreds of thousands of kilometers on the most difficult roads and off-roads throughout the Soviet Union. But another five years passed before the new off-road vehicle went into production.
The factory gave preference to civilian cars – either a small GAZ-51 truck or a Pobeda passenger car. After all, the GAZ-69 had a number of common parts with them – from the steering wheel or lights, which it borrowed from the truck, to the gearbox, clutch, brakes or engine, which it shared with the old Poběda. The drive unit of a somewhat archaic design with valves on the side, initially with a volume of 2.1 liters, had an output of 52 horsepower and consumed a respectable 14 liters of gasoline per hundred kilometers for its time.
Photo: Profimedia.cz
The popular gazik also often appears at various gatherings.
The engine that powered even the first series of the legendary Volga “Empress” was also famous for not caring too much about the quality of fuel. This did not change even in the later version, with the volume increased to 2.4 liters, which added 13 horsepower to the gasoline engine. The driver then had to do with a three-speed gearbox, but with a reduction, which, thanks to the engine’s decent torque, did not need too frequent shifting. With a lightly loaded car, it was possible to normally start in second gear.
Production of the GAZ-69 model began in Gorky already in 1952, but it was only in the summer of the following year that a new and more elegant car was finally replaced on the production lines of Chapaev (some sources state September 1953 as the start of serial production). However, gas cars were only produced at the parent plant for about a year and a half, then priority was given to road models, i.e. the already mentioned Poběda and the functional ZIM, and at the end of 1954, the relocation of the off-road vehicle production line to Ulyanovsk began.
Photo: Profimedia.cz
A sad sight for one retired specimen…
Cars were produced at the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant (UAZ) until 1973, and 600,000 of them were produced there. At first, cars were assembled in the new factory from parts delivered from Gorky, but gradually the complete production of the vehicle, which bore the UAZ designation, yet he continued to be called a gasser. In addition to the USSR, the agile all-terrain vehicle was also produced in Romania from 1957, first as the IMS-57 and later as an improved version under the designation ARO M461, which rolled off the tracks until 1975. It was also produced under license in the DPRK since the 1960s.
During two decades, two main versions of the gas gun were produced in the Soviet Union. The most common, marked simply as GAZ-69, had a pair of doors and carried a driver, a passenger, and behind them six soldiers or half a ton of cargo. Over 350,000 pieces were created. About 100,000 fewer cars were produced, marked GAZ-69A, they had two pairs of doors and a place for the driver and four passengers, which in our country were called “stábák”. There were also a number of specialized versions including amphibious or equipped with anti-tank missiles.
2023-08-25 05:54:04
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