Historie GAZ-fabriek (original) (raw)

Victory and legends, the fifties and sixties

	GAZ logo 1946-1950
	GAZ M-20 "Pobjeda" 1946-1958

Already during the war a small group of technician lead by Andrei A. Liphart designed the M20 Pobjeda (=Victory). This complete new car was showed for the first time to public in September 1944 and went in to production in 1946. The Pobjeda was designed to the example of the Opel Captain, but had an all metal body without a frame. The Pobjeba recieved a four cilinder version of the "Dodge" six cilinder engine. This engine had a volume of 2112 cc and issued 50 hp. The car was destined to have a long and successful life cycle and it proved to embody a new bright stage of auto industry development not only at home, but also abroad.
GAZ M-20 is outstanding for its original shape of body with extremely low drag coefficient of 0.34. Its advanced design opened up a new tendency in the auto fashion of those times which was further developed by many world car manufacturers. "Pobeda" was the first Soviet car with a unitized body and the first "wingless" serial production car in the world. The car also featured an independent front suspension, hydraulically driven brakes, front hinges of the doors, and a V-shaped windshield. Its comfortable heated compartment accommodated 5 passengers, including the driver. It is worth noting, that the vehicle was equipped with a radio-set. In addition to the basic sedan model, a convertible version was launched into production in 1949. More than 37,000 taxi versions were manufactured, to increase the country's taxi park. All in all, over 235,000 GAZ M-20 cars rolled off the assembly line during 12.5 years of production. It was used as the basis for the all-wheel drive GAZ-72 modification. The "Pobeda" passenger car received excellent references worldwide. It was exported not only to the countries of East Europe but to some West-European markets as well. The Warsaw FSO plant in Poland produced the Varshava car under the Soviet license for GAZ M-20 for 23 years.

In 1948, by the ruling of the government, the designers team headed by A. A. Lipgart and N. A. Yushmanov started developing a new passenger car of upper-medium class designated later as GAZ-12 "ZIM". Serial production started in 1950.
The car had a number of advanced technological features and improved level of comfort, e.g. rear seats heating, three-band radio-set, automatically released turn indicator switch. The car was powered by a supercharged 95 h. p. GAZ-51 engine that made it reach the speed of up to 125 km/h which were the best parameters in that model range.Besides GAZ-12 with the closed sedan type of body there was a convertible version and GAZ-12? ambulance car that was a serial production model.
In 1952, GAZ-69 off-roader replaced its forerunner GAZ-67. It had maximum commonality with the then current GAZ models. It was a simple, robust and very endurable vehicle that had a successful history of operation at home and abroad.

In 1956 came the successor of the M20 Pobeda, the M21 Volga. On this website you can learn everything about this unique car.

1959 the new flagship 7-seat GAZ-13 "Chaika" (Seagull) was launched. The designers of this premium car were inspired by the American models that represented excellent examples of the then popular auto fashion. From the point of view of its structure, "Chaika" was certainly interesting thanks to a number of technical innovations. It was equipped with a V-shaped 8-cylinder 195 h. p. engine with a four-chamber carburetor, hydraulic power steering, and a hydromechanical gearbox. The gears were switched with the help of the push buttons and the radio antenna was pulled out automatically. The body also featured electrical window lifters, windshield washer, all-band radio-set with automatic tuning, fog lamps, etc. Besides sedan, there were small-series production models, like GAZ-13A limousine and GAZ-13? convertible.