GAZ licensed Fords. In May 1929, the Soviet Union signed an agreement with the American Ford Motor Company. Americans and the Soviets agreed to purchase $ 13 million worth of cars and parts, while Ford agreed to provide 1938 technical assistance with the construction of a car factory in Nizhny Novgorod. Production began on January 1, and the factory and the first brand had the title Nizhegorodsky Avtomobilny Zavod or NAZ, but also carried the "Ford" oval.
The first vehicle was the attractively priced Ford Model A, which was sold as the NAZ-A, and a light truck, the Ford Model AA (NAZ-AA). The production of NAZ-A started in 1932 and lasted until 1936, during which time more than 100.000 units were built.
Zavod simply means factory
In 1933 the name of the factory changed to Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod, or GAZ, when the city was renamed to Maxim Gorky; models were renamed GAZ-A and GAZ-AA in the same way. The 'Z' that appears in all those Russian abbreviation names simply means 'factory' in our language. Add to that the indication of the location and whether it is about cars or motorcycles and you are already a long way. In the meanwhile increasingly popular Ural and Dneprs, the IMZ and KMZ tricycles are the first letter for Irbit and Kiev respectively.
The post-war GAZ 'jeeps'
The GAZ-69 was created by the team of chief designer Grigoriy Vasserman, as a replacement for the GAZ-67B, which had the same indestructible, but thirsty, 55 horsepower 2.1 L engine with three high and low gears as the GAZ-M20 Pobeda. The development process started in 1946 and the first prototypes were built in 1947. After extensive road testing, the new off-road vehicle was taken into production on August 25 on 1953. That included the two petrol tanks, one of which was under the passenger seat. By the end of the production in 1972 in the USSR, more than 600.000 GAZ-69s were built.
Such a GAZ-69 Jeep, or actually it is a truck, weighs about 1500 kilos and has a top of about 90 + km / h. In the terrain where top speeds don't matter, the GAZ is unstoppable. A similar vehicle based on the design of the GAZ-69 was produced up to 1975 by ARO in Romania, first as the IMS-57 and then as the IMS M59, and later modernized as the ARO M461. GAZ-69s were standard military jeeps from the Eastern bloc and satellite states.
Many have been made
And many of them have had hard lives. But just about as many never got much further than the depot due to the miraculous principles behind the planned economy. The exhausted ones roam and cripple whether or not equipped with diesel engines in the countryside in their homelands. The better to fine specimens come sporadically this way. They are taking advantage of the careful cult-building of 'old CCCP stuff', an area prepped by the M72, Ural. Our photo model is for sale at E&R Classics. The team from Waalwijk reports that they have never had such a car for sale since they started in 2008.
From a technical point of view, Russian classics are generally considerably lower than Western Jeeps / LandRovers. The technique is super simple. For the parts supply you need to know the way. But then a world opens up for you. And now say for yourself: such a nose is irresistible?
The stylish survivor in Waalwijk
His nephew who still has to work every day in Russia