Home Salon The first Soviet small car 4 letters. Soviet cars. Nami went into series

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The first Soviet small car 4 letters. Soviet cars. Nami went into series

Almost all cars made in the USSR were copies of foreign models. It still started with the first samples produced under license from Ford. As time went on, copying became a habit. The Scientific Research Automobile Institute of the USSR bought samples for study in the West and after a while produced a Soviet analogue. True, by the time of release, the original was no longer available.

GAZ A (1932)

GAZ A is the first mass passenger car in the USSR, it is a licensed copy of the American Ford-A. The USSR bought equipment and production documents from an American firm 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 instructed to hand over the car to the state and purchase a new GAZ-M1 with an additional charge.

GAZ-M-1 "Emka" (1936-1943)

GAZ-M1 was also a copy of one of the Ford models- Model B (Model 40A) 1934.

When adapting to domestic operating conditions, the car was thoroughly redesigned by Soviet specialists. The model surpassed later Ford products in some positions.

L1 "Krasny Putilovets" (1933) and ZIS-101 (1936-1941)

The L1 was an experimental passenger car, an almost exact replica of the Buick-32-90, which was upper-middle class by Western standards.

Initially, the Krasny Putilovets plant produced Fordson tractors. As an experiment, 6 copies of the L1 were produced in 1933. Most of the cars could not reach Moscow on their own and without breakdowns. The L1 revision was transferred to the Moscow ZiS.

Due to the fact that the body of the "Buick" no longer corresponded to the fashion of the mid-30s, the ZiS redesigned it. 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 development was based on the "Ford Prefect".

In the USA, stamps were made and body drawings were developed based on the models of the Soviet designer. The production of this model began in 1940. It was thought that the KIM-10 would become the first "people's" car in the USSR, but the plans of the USSR leadership were interrupted by the Great Patriotic War.

Moskvich 400.401 (1946-1956)

It is unlikely that the American company liked such a creative development of its ideas in design. Soviet car, however, no claims from her in those years followed, especially since the production of "large" "Packards" after the war was not resumed.

GAZ-12 (GAZ-M-12, ZIM, ZIM-12) 1950-1959

Six-seven-seater a car a large class with a body "six-window long-wheelbase sedan" was developed on the basis of the Buick Super, mass-produced at the Gorky Automobile Plant (Molotov Plant) from 1950 to 1959 (some modifications - to 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 specific foreign car, either in terms of design, or, in particular, in the technical aspect - in the latter, the designers of the plant even managed to some extent "say a new word" within the framework of the global automotive industry

Volga GAZ-21 (1956-1972)

The middle class passenger car was technically created by domestic engineers and designers "from scratch", but outwardly copied mainly American models of the early 1950s. During the development, the structures were studied foreign cars: 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 was originally GAZ-M-21, later (since 1965) - GAZ-21.

By the time the start serial production by world standards, the design of the "Volga" has already become at least ordinary, and against the background of serial foreign cars of those years it did not particularly stand out. 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 exterior and construction of the car were quite standard for this direction, specifications were also about average. Most of the Volgas were not intended for sale for personal use and were operated in taxi fleets and other state organizations).

"Seagull" GAZ-13 (1959-1981)

Executive passenger car of a large class, created under a clear influence latest models the American company Packard, which in those years were just studied at NAMI (the Packard Caribbean convertible and the 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 one hundred percent "stylistic copy" or modernization of Packard.

The car was produced in small series at the Gorky Automobile Plant from 1959 to 1981. A total of 3,189 vehicles of this model were manufactured.

"Seagulls" were used as a personal transport of the highest nomenklatura (mainly - ministers, first secretaries of regional committees), which was issued as component the set "package" of privileges.

Both sedans and Chaika convertibles were used at parades, served at meetings of foreign leaders, prominent figures and heroes, and 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)

The copying of American design at various Soviet factories led to the fact that the appearance of the ZIL-111 car was created according to the same models as the Chaika. As a result, externally similar cars were simultaneously produced in the country. ZIL-111 is often mistaken for the more common "Chaika".

A high-class passenger car was stylistically a compilation of various elements American cars the middle and upper class of the first half of the 1950s - mostly reminiscent of Cadillac, Packard and Buick. The exterior design of the ZIL-111, like the Chaika, was based on the design of the models of the American company Packard from 1955-56. But compared to the Packard models, the ZiL was larger in all dimensions, looked much stricter and more square, with straightened lines, and had a more complex and detailed decor.

From 1959 to 1967, only 112 copies of this car were collected.

ZIL-114 (1967-1978)

Small-scale executive passenger car of the highest class with a "limousine" body. Despite the desire to move away from the American automotive fashion ZIL-114, made from scratch, still partially copied the American Lincoln Lehmann-Peterson Limousine.

A total of 113 copies of the government limousine were collected.

ZIL-115 (ZIL 4104) (1978-1983)

In 1978, the ZIL-114 was replaced by 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 quality cars and 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 the 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 GOST standards, 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 carrying the country's top officials. ZIL - 115 could become a refuge in the event of a nuclear war. Of course, he would not have withstood 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.

At the very early design stage, the car differed from the Italian model with a completely different front suspension - as on the first sports cars Porsche and Volkswagen - "Beetle".

ZAZ-966 (1966-1974)

A passenger car of an especially small class demonstrates a considerable similarity in design with the German small car NSU Prinz IV (Germany, 1961), which in its own way repeats the often copied American Chevrolet Corvair, presented at the end of 1959.

VAZ-2101 (1970-1988)

VAZ-2101 "Zhiguli" - a rear-wheel drive passenger car with a sedan-type body is an analogue of the Fiat 124 model, which received the title "Car of the Year" in 1967.

By an agreement between the Soviet Vneshtorg and the Fiat company, the Italians created the Volzhsky car factory in Togliatti with a full production cycle. The concern was entrusted with the technological equipment of the plant, training of specialists.

VAZ-2101 has undergone major changes. In total, over 800 changes were made to the design of the Fiat 124, after which it received the name Fiat 124R. The "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 sedan-type body. It was developed jointly with the Italian firm Fiat based on the Fiat 124 and Fiat 125 models.

Later, on the basis of the VAZ-2103, a "project 21031" was developed, later renamed to the VAZ-2106.

Continuing the post about the first Russian cars, today we will talk about the cars of the pre-war period.

Prombron C 24/45 1923

Made from Russo-Balt 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

A 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.

US-1 1927

Most auto historians traditionally consider the AMO F-15 truck, which was produced at the future ZiS, and then ZiL from 1924 to 1931, as the first Soviet car. Other researchers consider auto-antiquities to be the first Soviet automobile "Prombron". For some time this car was manufactured at the plant of the same name in the then Moscow region Fili on equipment for the production of Russo-Balt, taken out in 1915 from the front-line Riga. However, the AMO F-15 truck was a copy of the Italian prototype, and the passenger car "Prombron" was developed before the revolution. Therefore, it is not entirely correct to call them purely Soviet cars. In this regard, only one sample can claim the title of the first purely Soviet car. automotive engineering... This is the NAMI-1 car, created in 1927 by the designer Konstantin Andreevich Sharapov.

SHARAPOV Konstantin Andreevich SHARAPOV Konstantin Andreevich, born in 1899, Russian, born in Moscow. Graduated from the Lomonosov Institute for auto business. Candidate of technical sciences, chief engineer of MATI USSR, head of the department. Creator of the first Soviet small cars NAMI-1 with an engine air cooling and US-2.

Chief designer of the NATI bureau of passenger cars. two children. 04/23/1939 arrested in Moscow. OSO NKVD USSR sentenced to 8 years in labor camp. He did not admit his guilt. He served in Kolyma. Beginning workshop for forging cast iron at a car plant 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. 02.12.1953 released from exile, left for Moscow. 11/04/1953 rehabilitated. Personal file No. 5944, arch. No. Р-7872 at the TC ATC KK. He 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 theme. In the end, he settled on a project of a super-cheap car intended for operation in the Soviet outback. The research supervisors liked the diploma project so much that Sharapov, out of any competition, was accepted as a leading engineer at NAMI, and graduation project it was decided to embody it in metal. With the help of NAMI engineers Lipgart and Charnko, the diploma project was revised in relation to the production requirements, and in 1927 the Moscow plant "Spartak", which still stands on Pimenovskaya (now Krasnoproletarskaya) street near the Novoslobodskaya metro station, produced the first sample a car named after the name of the institute NAMI. Assuming that the institute would continue to introduce new cars into production, the sample was soon renamed NIMI-1.
Technically, the car is not just extremely simple. It should be called not even simple, but simplified. An ordinary pipe with a diameter of 235 mm was used as a backbone frame. An independent rear suspension, and in front was a two-cylinder, air-cooled V-shaped engine. 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 Cirrus five-cylinder radial aircraft engine. Such an engine was used on the AIR-1 aircraft, which appeared in 1927. Therefore, the V-shaped connecting rod, common for both pistons, was worn on one single crankshaft journal. The diameter of each of the cylinders was 84 millimeters, and the piston stroke was 105 mm. At 2800 rpm, the engine produced 22 hp. The compression ratio was extremely low and amounted to 4.5 units.
This made it possible to use the lowest grade gasoline that could be vaporized in a carburetor. There was no gas pump in the car, and fuel came from the tank by gravity. There was not only an electric starter, but even a battery - the engine was successfully started with a crank. There was no dashboard in the car. The speed was measured by eye, and the driver determined the engine speed by ear, since the loud hissing sound of the engine allowed it. By the way, it was for this hissing sound that the car was nicknamed "Primus". Now, probably, many of you have a rather poor idea of what a primus is. Therefore, for those of our readers who did not manage to catch the fun times of the NEP, it should be explained that a primus is a fuel-free heating device that runs on gasoline, kerosene or gas, operating on the principle of burning fuel vapors mixed with air.
In its structure, it resembles a blowtorch, but, unlike the latter, the flame of its torch is directed upward. Above its burner itself is a ring-shaped wire stand on which you can put a kettle, pot or frying pan. In addition, in those days, rooms were even heated with a kerosene stove, since there was no central heating yet, and a cubic yard of firewood was more expensive than a bucket of gasoline. Now its device will seem primitive, but it was the cheaper primus that replaced the more perfect samovar from everyday life, in which, by the way, they brewed not only tea, but also borscht.

Let's return, however, to NAMI-1. There was no trunk in the car, and the spare wheel was attached directly to the back rear seat... And a toolbox was installed on the car's step. Since the car was intended for use in the USSR, the box was equipped with a massive padlock. There were only two doors: front on the left, back on the right. With the right steering wheel, the driver had to drive the front passenger off the seat to get out. Soon, a couple more copies were made. These prototypes successfully made the run from Moscow to Sevastopol and back.
Lack of differential, independent rear wheel suspension and large ground clearance, equal to 265 mm, provided NAMI-1 with excellent cross-country ability on the then roads, and a limited number of parts and the absence of complex technical devices contributed to the fact that the car almost never broke down - there was practically nothing to break in it. After the successful completion of the run, the Spartak plant in January 1928 began mass production of these machines, which lasted three years. In total, 412 vehicles 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. By the way, the problem of Moscow traffic jams did not arise in the 21st century.
It began to manifest itself by the mid-30s. It was then that the Nepmen, who had grown rich on the deferred demand that had accumulated over the years of war communism, began to subscribe in droves from abroad through Vneshposyltorg a wide variety of cars. Soon the streets of Moscow and Petrograd were filled with Rolls-Royces, Mercedes, Hispano-Suises and less thoroughbred foreign auto-miracles. Among all this variety of automobiles scurrying about cars and draft cabs. At the same time, the drivers of the mares did not recognize any traffic rules.
In response to the sound signals grunting from the enema-like horns, they gracefully watered the drivers with an exquisite multi-story mat. NIMI-1, unlike all these Rolls-Royces, Mercedes and Hispano-Suiz, was considered not a bourgeois car, but a proletarian one. The cabbies took him for their own, and, hearing the hiss of the "primus", politely avoided 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 in a year were considered insufficient. However, the expansion of production was hampered by the tightness of the territory located within the big city.
Then the engineers of the plant proposed to transfer the assembly of cars to a specialized enterprise, which would receive the chassis from "Spartak", and the body - from another plant. This project promised to bring the production of cars to 4.5 thousand per year and reduce their cost. However, on the way was a licensed Ford, which we named GAZ-A, and the government considered further production of NAMI-1 inappropriate. To date, two complete NAMI-1 vehicles and two chassis without bodies have survived. One copy and one chassis are on display at the Polytechnic Museum, another NAMI-1 car is kept in the museum of the Nizhny Novgorod plant "Hydromash", and the second chassis is in the Technical Center of the Moscow newspaper "Autoreview".

NATI-2 1932

Number of seats - 4; four-stroke engine, carburetor, air-cooled. 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 start-up 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 more capacious batteries. than his car's gas tank. Then, in about 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 Model A.

Moving on to 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. but new engine was a slightly enlarged motor of the previous model. The cylinder bore was bored from 92.5 to 98.43 mm - the center distances of the very rationally designed engine of model T were not allowed to bore further.It was necessary to increase the piston stroke - from 101.6 mm to 107.95 mm, which entailed the creation of a new crankshaft and new connecting rods. As a result, the working volume has grown to 200.7 cubic inches (in metric terms - 3285 cubic cm). The power was 40 horsepower. many progressive solutions were also used in the design. For example, instead of wooden spokes, they began to install metal spokes in the wheels, and instead of an oil clutch, a dry single-disc clutch. The latter excluded cases of collision of the car with the driver.
The fact is that the Ford T car had one dangerous character trait - sometimes, due to the coldness of the oil, the clutch turned on by itself and the driver who started the car with the crank was crushed by his own car. Therefore, the instructions for the Ford T stated: “before starting the car, turn on reverse gear". True, since 1920, when electric starters began to be installed on Ford T, the need for this point of the instructions disappeared, but moving to Model A, Ford decided to leave the starter and battery only as an option in order to keep within the set $ 385.

Following the same production and marketing scheme as with the Model T, Ford made a Ford-AA light truck out of a Ford-A passenger car, just as it once made a Ford TT out of a 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, 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 was prepared only by December 6, when Nizhny Novgorod has already become Gorky, and NAZ has already become GAZ.

Let's start, as always, with appearance... GAZ-A looked like typical car 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 "GAZ". Wire-spoke wheels without threaded nipples for adjusting the tension - the strength and reliability of the design.

The slightly yellowish color of the windshield indicates that it is a triplex - two layers of glass with a padded third - 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. There is a gas tank plug in front of the windshield. It is located on the back wall engine compartment: The fuel entered the carburetor by gravity. Thus, there was no need for a gas pump, which was still a very imperfect device in those years. The gas tank on the GAZ-A almost hung over the knees of the driver and passenger. In the lower part of the tank there was a faucet, which the driver shut off when leaving.
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 advance (today the machine does the work), and the other is to set a constant supply of "gas". The speedometer does not have the usual arrow - in the window of the device, the numbers on the drum are moving, indicating the speed. The numbers on the petrol gauge are engraved on a scale connected directly to the float in the petrol tank.

Just below the tiny circular accelerator pedal there was a heel support for the right foot - the elongated pedal appeared on cars much later.

If we could disassemble the entire machine down to the last boat, we would see only 21 rolling bearings (in modern car there are about two hundred of them), of which seven are roller, and the rollers are wound from a thick steel strip. But the crankshaft bearings were sleeve bearings, and not the same as they are now, with thin-walled quick-change bimetallic liners that served * VO-100 thousand km. The material for them was an alloy called babbit, which was used to fill the bearing bed directly in the cylinder block or in the connecting rod. To fit the surface of such a bearing to the crankshaft journals, the babbitt layer was scraped. But even the most careful fitting did not save from the fact that after 30-40 thousand km of run, the bearings had to be refilled.

GAZ-3 - the first domestic serial passenger car with a closed body Much in the design of GAZ-A seems surprising these days: hand brake rear wheels, the absence of a device for adjusting the valves (if necessary, the valve stem was slightly cut off), a very low (4.2) compression ratio, due to which in hot weather, when conditions for evaporation of liquid are favorable, the engine could even run on kerosene.

Two transverse springs were used 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 the tarpaulin awning and fasten the tarpaulin sidewalls with celluloid windows over the doors. In 1934 a pilot batch of cars equipped with closed sedan bodies was produced. The assembly of such bodies on the conveyor, in which the mutual adjustment of many complex in shape, and most importantly, easily deformable parts, was required, proceeded very slowly, 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 cabin from truck GAZ-AA, behind which there was a metal body for 0.5 tons of cargo. A door was made in the rear wall of the body (for loading mail, food, small batches of industrial goods). Therefore, the spare wheel migrated to the pocket of the front left fender. By the way, postal pickups GAZ-4 met on the streets of Moscow even in the late forties. It must be said that the GAZ-A chassis was used not only for pickups or taxis. It mounted the bodies of D-8 armored cars, which were used by 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 Moscow region 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. 8-cylinder engine, working volume 5750 cm3, power - 105 hp. at 2900 rpm. The speed is 115 km / h. Circulation - 6 pcs.

GAZ-M1 1936

This car was the most massive Soviet car of the middle of the twentieth century. 62,888 copies produced at the Molotov Gorky Automobile Plant 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 probably already understood that we are talking about the GAZ M1 car, popularly nicknamed "Emkoy".

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 absolute majority of auto journalists believe that the prototype of this car was the American Ford B modification of the F40.

Indeed, in accordance with the agreement in force at the time, the American side transferred the technical documentation for the F40 car, equipped with a V-shaped eight-cylinder engine of 3285 cc. cm (200.7 cubic inches), but we allegedly could not master the production of the "eight" and put on Emka a forced engine from its predecessor GAZ-A. However, if you dig deeper into auto history, a small nuance will emerge that casts doubt on the official and generally accepted version. It turns out, having received the technical documentation of the F40 model, the Gorky designers did not even think to master it in production. From the very beginning, the car was declared unsuitable for our roads, and its development required a thorough revision of technical documentation - just one conversion from inch to metric dimensions would take at least a year.

However, the newly appointed chief designer of GAZ, Andrei Aleksandrovich Lipgart, was a supporter of the fastest introduction into production of a new passenger model. He drew attention to the fact that a European version of Ford B is being produced at the European branch of Ford in Germany. This car was called Ford Rheinland and was already fully adapted by German designers for European conditions. In particular, German engineers-minders, instead of installing an expensive and gluttonous "eight", improved the old Ford engine from the Ford model A. 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 valve lift by 0.8 mm, widened the flow 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 body rigidity was increased. That is why Lipgart suggested contacting the Germans and buying 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 to the Soviet Union something of what we were ready to give 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 models of the GAZ-M1 were sent to the Kremlin. There they were examined by Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov and Ordzhonikidze, after which they were given the go-ahead for production.

True, the People's Commissar for Heavy Industry Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze, better known to us under the pseudonym Sergo, on July 8, 1936 instructed NATI to conduct official tests of three serial GAZ-M-1: two cars were to go on a 30,000-kilometer auto rally on impassability and sloppiness, and also it fell to one 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 finalized only by the end of 1937.

By modern standards, the GAZ-M1 would be considered a middle-class car. Emka's length with a 2845 mm wheelbase was 4665 mm. The width was 177 centimeters. So this car would most likely be attributed today to segment D. The body of the car had frame structure... The frame consisted of two box-section side members connected by two X-shaped cross-members in front and in the middle and two cross-members at the rear. carburetor engine... Its working volume with a 98.43 mm bore and 107.95 mm stroke was equal to 3286 cubic meters. see Torque transmitted to rear wheel by means of a three-speed gearbox equipped with an easy-shift clutch. In 24 seconds, the car accelerated to an 80-kilometer speed. Its maximum speed was 105 km / h.

The car plant produced several modifications of Emka. After the limousine, the most popular was a pickup truck called GAZ M-415. Its front part, including the radiator grille, empennage and hoods (Emka had two of them - left and right), remained unchanged. However, the rear was redesigned - it was 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 Emka - the BA-20 BA-20 armored car - 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, GAZ-M-1 was exhibited at the World Industrial Exhibition in Paris, but did not receive any awards there. Much more attention was paid to the models of the Moscow metro stations and Mukhina's sculptural group "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman". In the late 1930s, it was decided to modernize the car. First of all, it was necessary to replace the rapidly aging engine. The most suitable for production and operation in the USSR was the six-cylinder Dodge D5 engine.

Preparation of the GAZ-11 engine for serial production was completed mainly in March 1940. At the same time, the production of the modernized Emka GAZ-11-73 with a new 76 or 85 hp engine began. and a working volume of 3.485 liters. Note that the first power value was for a motor with cast-iron pistons, and the second for aluminum ones. The GAZ-11-73 car was somewhat different from its predecessor - it had a more modern radiator lining, different louvers on the hoods, an updated instrument panel, a semi-centrifugal clutch mechanism and improved shock absorbers. The suspension was equipped with a stabilizer lateral stability... In this version, Emka was produced until June 1943, when the bombing of Gorky, which destroyed the body shop, forced its production to cease. Nevertheless, from the remaining parts in 1945-48, another 233 cars were assembled, after which the production of Emka was finally discontinued.

ZiS-101 1937

This car was created like Stalin's car, but Stalin never used this car. However, this car turned out to be very useful for the party and economic activists. 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 the struggle with traffic congestion - Moscow got acquainted with traffic jams since the days of the NEP, and even the expansion of Gorky Street and the liquidation of the 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-seat executive limousine Leningrad-1 (more often called L-1) by the Krasny Putilovets plant. The American Buick-97 model of 1932 was taken for the prototype. It was a very sophisticated, but rather difficult car to manufacture. The drawings were ordered to be made by the LenGiproVATO Institute, which was part of the All-Union Automobile and Tractor Association. According to these drawings, the Putilovites made six copies, which they paraded in front of the stands at the May Day 1933 demonstration. 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 was transferred to the ZiS. Evgeny Ivanovich Vazhinsky supervised the work on its development. He retained the general design, but abandoned the components that were difficult to fine-tune: remote control shock absorbers and from an automatic transmission that existed in Buick. While the chassis was mastered, the car body was morally outdated and looked like a clear anachronism. Therefore, they decided to re-create the body.

A young aeronautical engineer Rostkov, an extraordinary self-taught artist who was fond of seascapes, was involved in the work on its body.

In the process of work, it turned out that the all-metal body, the design of which was guided during the development, is fraught with much more problems than originally anticipated, and a group of Soviet designers is sent to the American bodybuilding company Badd, where they, according to their sketches, create a working sample of the product, stamp 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 due to the heavy and somewhat rough plastic nature of the model.

ZIS-101 in the movie "Foundling"

The length of a car with such a body was 5647 mm, width - 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. The ZIS-101 cars were equipped with an in-line eight-cylinder overhead valve engine. Its cylinder diameter was 85 mm, and the piston stroke was 127. The working volume, thus, was equal to 5766 cubic centimeters.

L-1 of the Krasny Putilovets plant

The engine was distinguished by such features as a thermostat that maintains the required temperature regime in the cooling system, crankshaft with counterweights, crankshaft torsional vibration damper, double-chamber carburetor with exhaust gas heating. The transmission consisted of a two-plate clutch and a 3-speed gearbox. The second and third gears were synchronized. Using aluminum pistons, it 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 with this power was 115 km / h, the fuel consumption per 100 kilometers was 26.5 liters. With a power of 110– the engine allowed it to accelerate to 125 km / h. Prototypes were demonstrated to Stalin in the spring of 1936, and serial production began in November. They were produced at 4-5 units per day, and from November 3, 1936 to July 7, 1941, 8752 cars were produced.

Despite the fact that there were not enough ZiSs for all Soviet party and economic workers, and many had to drive simple "emk" cars, 55 cars were transferred to the 13th Moscow taxi company. Unlike the 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. Taxi limousines had their own special parking in the center - next to the Moscow hotel, in front of the Bolshoi Theater, near the Sverdlov Square metro station. Travel by ZiS cost 1 ruble 40 kopecks per kilometer, while by taxi-emka only a ruble. In addition, ZiS-101 became the first minibus: the first of them was launched along the Garden Ring. The fare in 1940 was 3 rubles. 50 kopecks, while bus ticket then it cost a ruble, a tram - 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 was 339 rubles that year.

The intercity route Moscow-Noginsk was also opened. However, taxi phaetons with open bodies were especially popular. Checkers did not exist at that time - they appeared only in 1948 at Pobeda, and taxis were distinguished from party economic vehicles only by the fact that they were not painted in the 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 ZiS-101 from left to right: Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) Andrei Andreevich Andreev (often confused with the director of ZiS Ivan Likhachev), People's Commissar of Heavy Industry G.K. Ordzhonikidze, I.V. Stalin, V.M. Molotov, A.I. Mikoyan.

In June 1940, a government commission headed by Academician E.A. Chudakov. She, in particular, noted that the ZiS-101 is 600-700 kg heavier than its foreign counterparts. The subsequent modernization led to the creation of the ZiS-101A. The radiator lining has changed, it has become more powerful engine, the design of the synchronizer in the gearbox is simplified and helical gears of the first gear are used and reverse, developed a single-plate clutch.

The 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 flow, but in a falling flow, thereby improving their filling and power. The modified design of the intake manifold and revised valve timing played a 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 the war. By this time, the plant managed to produce about 600 ZiS-101A vehicles.

ZiSy were freely sold to the population. They cost 40 thousand rubles, or 118 average salaries, respectively. nevertheless, scholars, writers and artists enjoyed buying it. Among the buyers were Lyubov Orlova, Aleksey Tolstoy, Aleksey 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 remained in Grafsky Lane. Then they closed it too. The taxi was first transferred to the bus depot on Druzhinnikovskaya Street, and in the winter of 1943 to the garage on Aviamotornaya. 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 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 liters. 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

Modification of the GAZ M1 with the six-cylinder GAZ-11 engine. It differed from Emka in the shape of the radiator lining and vents on the sidewalls of the hood, bumpers with fangs (lengthening the car by 30 mm), a new instrument panel, improved brakes, piston shock absorbers double acting, 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 Vilna region were Belarusians. The Polish troops showed almost no resistance, and the columns marched in marching formation. Ahead, at the head of the column, in an "emka" rode the head of the Political Directorate of the 3rd Army of the Belorussian Front, Brigadier Commissar Shulin. The road was narrow, unpaved, and therefore it was not surprising that the commissar's emka got stuck in the middle of the road. And not only got stuck, but blocked the road of the entire 3rd army following it.

As a result of this incident, Vilna was busy not 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, he did not differ much from the "emka". Only too high a clearance gave out an all-terrain vehicle in it. The base for the new army passenger car was a sturdy Gorky "emka" GAZ-M-1, which had sufficiently reliable and durable chassis assemblies. 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 one and a half, turned out to be very low-powered for such a machine. Therefore, in the summer of 1939, it was decided to install a 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. In fact, only the front drive axle had to be re-created and transfer case... For their power communication, a slightly modified cardan shaft vehicle ZiS-101 with hinges on needle bearings. The rear closed, double propeller shaft was fitted with an intermediate joint. Instead of a three-speed "light" gearbox, a "cargo" four-speed gearbox from GAZ-AA with a doubled power range was used, which made it possible to do without a demultiplier. This range was increased due to the fact that the transfer case 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, it developed a speed of 107.5 km / h, having a fuel consumption of 14 liters per 100 km.

Thanks to all-wheel drive, large reserves of engine power, 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 available - up to 43 degrees. This value was limited by the twisting of the rear axle shafts and the beginning of overturning back, and not by traction capabilities. On the sand, GAZ-61-40 took an ascent from a place 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 - a depth 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 passed over a log with a diameter of 0.37 m and even ... climbed a 45-centimeter boardwalk of the dance floor of the cultural base car factory.
In the fall, when the continuous rain, which had been going on for three days, made all the surrounding roads impassable, the GAZ-61 car set off from the city of Gorky on another trip. Ahead was a dirt road, teeming with steep ascents and descents. Clay mixed with sand, constituting road surface, soggy and was cut by deep ruts filled with water. The ditches along the edges of the road were like traps, falling into which normal car couldn't get out on my own. Obviously, for this reason, the road was completely deserted. Suddenly, an oncoming car appeared ahead. It was a three-axle cargo truck with caterpillars on wheels, descending very carefully from the hill.
Her chauffeur was going to stop the car, since, in his opinion, it was impossible to leave in such a dangerous place. But suddenly he saw that the car was turning into a ditch and easily jumping over this obstacle. Turning around in the field, the car in 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 after the passenger car GAZ-61 for a long time, which he first met under such circumstances. The ability of the GAZ-61 car to climb stairs is very indicative. Testing a prototype to overcome this type of obstacle was carried out at the cultural base of the Gorky Automobile Plant.

GAZ-61 overcomes a water barrier

From the sandy river beach, a staircase in four steps led uphill at an angle of 30 degrees. The car, as can be seen in the photograph shown 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 an "emka" type "sedan" and a semi-truck "pickup". The first copy of the phaeton went to Marshal Voroshilov. The rest of the marshals - Budyonny, Kulik, Timoshenko and Shaposhnikov - received sedans. Cars and 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 Tank Forces Dmitry Grigorievich Pavlov, who soon also received the rank of Army General, received cars.

After the start of the war, the commander of the Far Eastern Front, General of the Army Iosif Rodionovich Apanasenko, received such a car, and on February 3, 1941, such a car was received by the State Security Commissioner of the 1st rank Vsevolod Nikolaevich Merkulov. In July former car the executed Pavlov went to the future Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev. He drove on it throughout the war. This car, now working at the Mosfilm film studio, had both windshields broken by small fragments during the war. Several holes were also repaired in the roof. The car retained 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 American dollar. Therefore, in the pockets of the population, the remnants of the previous pay were accumulated, which over months and years turned into decent sums. The ignorant citizens did not want to either carry this money to the savings bank or buy additional bonds (in addition to voluntary-compulsory ones) with it, and the State Planning Commission had to pull this money out of their pockets for the needs of the Motherland.

For this, at the beginning of 1940, one of the state planners' clever people 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 of supplying every family with a simple folk car, the cost of which did not exceed a thousand marks, was successfully implemented.

The 990 marks that a Volkswagen cost were then 2,100 Soviet rubles, while an emka cost nine thousand in the USSR. Therefore, it is not surprising that at first in the Soviet Union they just wanted to copy german car or purchase a license for it. However, Stalin did not like the "vacuum cleaner" with an air-vent engine, and besides, the one located in the back, and then he was presented with two english car... The first of these, the Austin 7, was fairly 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 stopped the choice on 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 movie "Hearts of Four"

The plant named after KIM, located in the then Moscow Region Tekstilshchiki, was entrusted with setting up production. This plant was named in honor of the Communist International of Youth - the youth section of the then Comintern. The plant began its activity in November 1930, having started assembling passenger cars and trucks Ford. Since 1933, on full power the Gorky Automobile Plant was launched, the KIM plant becomes a branch of GAZ and switches to the assembly of GAZ-A and GAZ-AA cars from Gorky car sets. It was on this plant that the choice of the State Planning Commission fell. Gorky designer Brodsky revised the Prefect's design, and body stamps for this car were ordered from the USA to BUDD.

A trial batch of 500 cars named KIM-10-50 was produced by April 25, 1941. Stamps for four-door bodies were still late, and in the May Day parade there were cars in a two-door version. 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 equal to 1145 millimeters. Thus, Soviet version the car was 16 centimeters longer than the British original, 3.6 centimeters wider by and four centimeters taller. The length of the wheelbase was 185 millimeters longer than that of the prototype. 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 low-valve four-cylinder engine. With a 63.5 mm bore and 92.456 mm 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 B-70 aviation gasoline 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 less forces. Nevertheless, 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 line, cars began to shake so that it was already impossible to steer.

In addition, the engine with a lower compression ratio was easier to start with the handle, because the capacity of the 6-volt battery was enough for only 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. the small car was equipped with a clock and a mechanism for adjusting the installation of the front seats - both of which were found only on high-end cars. The body of the KIM-10 had a lot of innovations. It did not have an external step like other passenger cars. The windshield was not flat, but in two angled parts, a design later adopted on post-war cars. Among other novelties it is necessary to name the thin-walled double-layer bearing shells of the engine crankshaft, a centrifugal ignition timing machine, a windscreen wiper operating under the influence of a vacuum in the intake pipe of the engine. There was also a modification of a car with a "phaeton" roof. It was called KIM-10-51 and was released in 1941 in a small series. Its 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 the Soviets. However, with the beginning of the war, all the phaetons released were transferred to the Red Army, and therefore not a single copy survived.

In chapter Other Auto-themes to the question What was the first passenger car produced in the USSR? given by the author KostyaS the best answer is The Moscow plant "Spartak" produced NAMI-1. It fits by letter.

Answer from Yoneg White[guru]
Since 1927, the first serial is considered NAMI-1

Answer from Ls[guru]
"Moskvich - 423N" 1961 - the first mass-produced passenger car in the USSR with a station wagon body. MZMA began production of these cars in 1957. In the absence of small vans in the late 50s, it was well used by Moscow laundries and shops as virtually a van. But the most important thing! It was impossible to buy a station wagon. The Soviet government considered the "universal" a means of extracting unearned income and profit. From the assembly line of the plant, it was sent to the national economy in the city of Saratov. According to the order through the local executive committee, I had to go to one of the city's enterprises, but ...
As comrade Raikin used to say: “Through the warehouse manager, through the commodity specialist, through the store director, through the rear Cyrillic alphabet,” with the “blessing” of the local chairman of the executive committee, the car was sold to private hands for 2800 rubles. , and having said goodbye to hospitable Saratov, she went to her historical homeland, where she spent her 45 years spending the night in a warm garage and being served by the caring hands of happy owners. Only thanks to them, today you can see this rare variant of the "Moskvich" car.
The car is completely original, on native tubeless tires, not restored. Real mileage 120 thousand km, most of which fell on road trips around his native country and he never let his owners down.

The history of the first passenger car in the history of the USSR began with the fact that in 1925 Konstantin, a final year student at the Moscow Mechanics and Electrotechnical Institute, who for a long time could not decide on the topic of his thesis, finally decided what he wanted to write about and approved the work plan for his supervisor. Then the Soviet automakers were faced with the task of developing a subcompact car that can be used without problems in domestic realities. Some experts suggested simply copying the foreign Tatra passenger car, but it turned out that in many respects it still did not fit, so it was necessary to design something of our own. It was this problem that Sharapov tackled.

Did he understand then that his work, entitled "A subcompact car for Russian conditions operation and production "will become historical, it is not clear, but he approached it with all seriousness.

The student was attracted by the idea of combining a simplified design of a motorized carriage and a car passenger capacity in one unit. As a result, his supervisor liked Sharapov's work so much that he recommended him to the Automotive Research Institute (NAMI), where he was admitted without any competition and tests. The project of the car developed by him was decided to be implemented.

The first drawings of a small car, prepared by Sharapov in 1926, were modified for the needs of production by the famous engineers Andrei Lipgart, Nikolai Briling and Evgeny Charnko who later became famous.

The final decision on the production of the car was made by the State Trust of Automobile Plants "Avtotrest" at the beginning of 1927. And the first sample of NAMI-1 left the Avtomotor plant on May 1 of the same year. It is noteworthy that then the designers assembled only the chassis of the car for testing, there was no talk of creating a body yet - at first it was necessary to understand whether the innovative design would be able to show itself well in real road conditions.

The car was tested a week later, in the first test drives the car proved to be worthy, and by September 1927 two more cars were assembled in production. For them, the engineers prepared a more serious test - the cars had to overcome the Sevastopol - Moscow - Sevastopol route.

For safety reasons, Ford T cars and two motorcycles with sidecars were sent on a test run together with a pair of NAMI-1. The subjects showed themselves well this time too.

There were no serious breakdowns on the way, especially considering that there was almost nothing to break in the design of the new cars.

One of the main advantages that allowed NAMI to overcome the track without any problems was the high ground clearance. In addition, the car turned out to be very economical - a full tank lasted for about 300 km.

Wikimedia Commons

After the successful completion of the tests, the designers proceeded to create a body for NAMI-1. Initially, two options were developed: one is simpler and cheaper, and the second is more advanced, having a two-section windshield, three doors and a trunk, but quite expensive. However, not one of them got into production - the third prototype of the body began to be put on the cars, which was quite extraordinary and by no means elegant, which subsequently caused discontent among drivers and passengers.

NAMI went into series

The decision to start serial production of NAMI-1 was made in the same year 1927. The Avtorotor plant was engaged in the assembly of cars. Separate parts of the car were manufactured at other enterprises, in particular the 2nd car repair plant and the plant of car accessories No. 5.

The cars were assembled by hand, which made the production process quite lengthy and expensive. As a result, only the first 50 vehicles were ready by the fall of 1928. And they got to users in the spring of 1929.

It is noteworthy that in those days cars were not sold to ordinary people - they were distributed between the garages of enterprises, where professional drivers drove them. At first, many drivers accustomed to driving foreign vehicles were skeptical about the new product. During operation, NAMI-1 really showed a number of significant shortcomings: an uncomfortable interior, an improperly designed awning, strong vibration from the engine, for which the car is popularly nicknamed "Primus", and the lack of a dashboard.

The press even flared up a discussion about whether NAMI-1 has the right to further existence and development. For its small size, economy and special design, the car has received another name among the people - "motorcycle on four wheels". And this, according to the drivers, did not paint it.

"I believe that, by design, NAMI is not a car, but a motorcycle on four wheels, and therefore NAMI cannot play any role in the motorization of the country," wrote in 1929.

Many engineers stated that the car needed to be greatly reconstructed and that it would be possible to speak about the continuation of its production only after these changes were made to the design. At the same time, one of the developers of the small car, Andrei Lipgart, answered his opponents that this car has a great future, and the existing shortcomings can be eliminated, but this will take time.

“Analyzing NAMI-1 diseases, we come to the conclusion that all of them can be easily and quickly eliminated. No major changes in either general scheme machine, nor in the design of its main mechanisms, for this it is not necessary to carry out. We'll have to make small design changes, the need for which will be revealed by the operation, and most importantly, it is necessary to improve production methods. The production workers themselves are well aware that they do not make cars the way they should, but they do not always dare to admit this, "wrote in the 15th issue of the magazine" Za Rulem "in 1929.

At the same time, despite numerous complaints from drivers, NAMI-1 performed well on narrow Moscow streets, where it easily overtook even more powerful foreign competitors.

Wikimedia Commons

The village also spoke well of the new compact car - provincial drivers argued that the car had a high cross-country ability, which was so necessary in rural conditions.

The subcompact drove to a dead end

As a result, supporters of stopping the production of the car won the dispute over the further "life" of NAMI-1. The last runabout left the factory in 1930. In just less than three years, according to various sources, from 369 to 512 cars were produced. In the order of "Autotrest" about the termination of production, it was said about the actual impossibility of correcting design defects. The slow pace of car production also played a role - the industry then needed about 10 thousand NAMI-1 per year, but the Avtorotor plant could not cope with such volumes.

However, the creator of the small car did not stop there - by 1932, at the institute where he worked, an improved model NAMI-1 appeared, which received the name NATI-2. However, this model also faced a failure - it never went into mass production.

The fate of Sharapov himself did not develop in the best way in the future. During the Stalinist repressions, he was detained on suspicion of handing over car drawings to a foreign citizen.

The engineer was sent to serve his sentence at a motor depot in Magadan. There he continued to design various devices and even on his own initiative developed a diesel aircraft engine. Sharapov was released only in 1948, after which he was appointed deputy chief engineer of the Kutaisi car assembly plant.

However, life again played a cruel joke with the talented engineer - less than a year later, in January 1949, Sharapov was again arrested and exiled to Yeniseisk. He was finally released only after Stalin's death in 1953.

After rehabilitation, Sharapov worked at the USSR Engine Laboratory, then at the Central Research Institute of Motor Engineering. In this organization, the engineer took part in the development of an onboard power plant for an artificial earth satellite.

The copying of foreign cars began with the very first Soviet passenger cars produced under license from Ford. Over time, copying took place most often without the permission of Western car factories. The Scientific Research Automobile Institute of the USSR bought several advanced models "for study" from the capitalist oppressors of the working people at once, and a few years later the Soviet analogue rolled off the assembly lines. True, by that time, the prototype had already been discontinued, and the Soviet copy had been produced for more than a decade.

GAZ A (1932)

The first mass-produced passenger car of the USSR was borrowed from the American automobile industry. GAZ A is a licensed copy of the American Ford-A. The USSR bought equipment and production documents from an American firm in 1929, and two years later the production of Ford-A was discontinued. A year later, in 1932, the first GAZ-A cars were produced.

Despite the fact that the first cars of the plant were manufactured according to the drawings of the American firm Ford, they were already somewhat different from the American prototypes from the very beginning.

But after 1936, the operation of the outdated GAZ-A was prohibited in Moscow and Leningrad. Small number of car owners were ordered to hand over GAZ-A to the state and purchase a new GAZ-M1 with a surcharge.

GAZ-M-1 "Emka" (1936-1943)

The GAZ-M1, in turn, was designed on the basis of the 1934 Ford Model B (Model 40A), the documentation for which was transferred to GAZ by the American side under the terms of the contract.

During the adaptation of the model to domestic operating conditions, the car was largely redesigned by Soviet specialists. Emka surpassed Ford's later production in some positions.

L1 "Krasny Putilovets" (1933) and ZIS-101 (1936-1941)

The Soviet experimental passenger car was almost an exact copy of the Buick-32-90, which by American standards belonged to the upper-middle class.

The Krasny Putilovets plant, which previously produced the Fordson tractors, produced 6 copies of the L1 in 1933. A significant part of the cars could not reach Moscow on their own without serious breakdowns. As a result, "Krasny Putilovets" was reoriented to the production of tractors and tanks, and the revision of the L1 was transferred to the Moscow "ZiS".

Stalin examines the ZIS-101 together with the director of the ZIS plant Likhachev, the people's commissar of heavy industry Ordzhonikidze, the people's commissar of trade Mikoyan

Since the body of the "Buick" no longer corresponded to the fashion of the mid-thirties, the ZiS redesigned it. The American body shop Budd Company, based on Soviet sketches, designed an elegant and externally modern body for those years. It cost the government half a million dollars and took 16 months.

KIM-10 (1940-1941)

The first Soviet serial subcompact car, which was based on the "Ford Prefect".

In the United States, they made stamps and developed drawings of the body according to the models of the Soviet designer. In 1940, the plant began production of this model. The KIM-10 was supposed to become the first truly "people's" Soviet car, but the Great Patriotic War prevented the implementation of the country's ambitious plan to provide the majority of citizens with personal cars.

"Moskvich" 400, 401 (1946-1956)

The Soviet subcompact was a complete analogue Opel car Kadett K38, produced in 1937-1940 in Germany at the German Opel branch of the American concern General Motors, recreated after the war on the basis of surviving copies, documentation and equipment.

Part of the equipment for the production of the car was removed from the Opel plant in Rüsselheim (located in the American occupation zone) and installed in the USSR.

A significant part of the lost documentation and equipment for production was recreated anew, and the work was carried out in Germany by order of the Soviet military administration by the forces of mixed labor collectives, consisting of seconded Soviet and civilian German specialists who worked in design bureaus created after the war.

The next three generations of "Muscovites" will lag behind the production of Opel.

"Moskvich-402" (1956-1964)

The appearance of a small class passenger car repeated Opel model Olympia Rekord (1947-1953) - successor to the Opel Kadett K38. The participation of specialists from GAZ, where the development of the Volga GAZ-21 was in full swing, had a strong impact on the car being designed. "Moskvich" took over from her many elements of its design.

Moskvich-408 (1964-1975)

The founder of the third generation of Moskvich cars became an imitation of the Opel Kadett A (1962).

Compared to its predecessors, the length and width of the car have increased, while its height has been significantly reduced. The spaciousness and comfort of the passenger compartment have significantly increased.

Produced in Moscow at the MZMA (AZLK) plant. From 1964 to 1967, he was the main model of the plant, after which he was replaced in this role by "Moskvich-412", although after that they were produced in parallel for a long time. It was also produced in Izhevsk from 1966 to 1967, only about 4000 cars of this model were assembled there, after which the Izhevsk plant, unlike MZMA-AZLK, completely switched to the production of the modernized Moskvich-412 model.

Moskvich-412 (1967-1976)

It replaced the outdated M-408 model and was the result of a deep modernization of its predecessor, inspired by the Opel Kadett B (1965).

Moskvich-412 has become a more prestigious version of the M-408: the engine power and top speed have increased, passive safety has improved, which now meets the UNECE standards, which was confirmed by crash tests in France.

Moskvich 2141 (1986-1998)

The replacement Moskvich-412 was only designed in the 1980s, and it was already a completely different car - the Moskvich-2141, a front-wheel-drive hatchback based on the body of the French Simka and the UZAM engine, which was already outdated by that time. Export name - Aleko, from the Lenin Komsomol Automobile Plant.

As the best prototype for accelerating the design of a new car, Minavtoprom saw the recently appeared Franco-American model Simca 1308 produced by the European branch of Chrysler Corporation. The designers were ordered to copy the car right down to the hardware.

However, in the process of development, the body of the "Moskvich" was redesigned, as a result of which the exterior of the car was significantly different from the French model and, albeit with some stretch, but corresponded to the level of the mid-eighties.

ZIS-110 (1945-1958)

The body design of the first Soviet post-war passenger car of the executive class almost completely imitated the American "Packards" of the "senior" series of the pre-war production. Down to the smallest detail, the ZIS-110 was similar to the Packard 180 with the Touring Sedan body of the last pre-war model of 1942. An independent Soviet development, they deliberately betrayed the appearance of the American Packard in accordance with the taste preferences of the country's top leadership and, mainly, Stalin personally.

It is unlikely that the American company liked such a creative development of its ideas in the design of the Soviet car, however, no claims on its part followed 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 large-class passenger car with a "six-window long-wheelbase sedan" body was developed on the basis of the Buick Super.

Serially produced at the Gorky Automobile Plant (Plant Named after Molotov) from 1950 to 1959 (some modifications - to 1960).

Volga GAZ-21 (1956-1972)

The middle class passenger car 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 was originally GAZ-M-21, later (since 1965) - GAZ-21.

By the time of the start of serial production by world standards, the design of the Volga had already become at least ordinary, and did not stand out against the background of serial foreign cars of those years. 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 exterior and construction of the car were quite standard for this direction, the technical characteristics were also approximately average. Most of the Volgas were not intended for sale for personal use and were operated in taxi fleets and other state organizations).

"Seagull" GAZ-13 (1959-1981)

An executive passenger car of a large class, created under the clear influence of the latest models of the American company Packard, which were just studied at NAMI in those years (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 one hundred percent "stylistic copy" or modernization of Packard.

The car was produced in small series at the Gorky Automobile Plant from 1959 to 1981. A total of 3,189 vehicles of this model were manufactured.

"Seagulls" were used as personal transport of the highest nomenklatura (mainly - ministers, first secretaries of regional committees), which was issued as part of the "package" of privileges.

ZIL-111 (1959-1967)

The high-end passenger car was stylistically a compilation of various elements of American mid-to-high-end cars from the first half of the 1950s — predominantly reminiscent of Cadillac, Packard and Buick. The exterior design of the ZIL-111, like the Chaika, was based on the design of the models of the American company Packard from 1955-56. But compared to the Packard models, the ZiL was larger in all dimensions, looked much stricter and more square, with straightened lines, and had a more complex and detailed decor.

From 1959 to 1967, only 112 copies of this car were collected.

ZIL-114 (1967-1978)

Small-scale executive passenger car of the highest class with a "limousine" body.
Despite the desire to move away from the American automotive fashion, the ZIL-114, made from scratch, still partially copied the American Lincoln Lehmann-Peterson Limousine.

A total of 113 copies of the government limousine were collected.

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.

The interior was created taking into account the intended use of cars - for high-ranking statesmen.

ZAZ-965 (1960-1969)

The main prototype of the minicar was the Fiat 600.

The car was designed by MZMA ("Moskvich") together with the Automotive Institute NAMI. The first samples were designated "Moskvich-444", and were already significantly different from the Italian prototype. Later the designation was changed to "Moskvich-560".
At the very early design stage, the car differed from the Italian model with a completely different front suspension - as on the first sports cars Porsche and Volkswagen - "Beetle".

ZAZ-966 (1966-1974)

VAZ-2101 (1970-1988)

VAZ-2101 "Zhiguli" - a rear-wheel drive passenger car with a sedan-type body is an analogue of the Fiat 124 model, which received the title "Car of the Year" in 1967.

By agreement between the Soviet Vneshtorg 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.