Cars Mercedes-Benz, perhaps, can not help but like it. Especially the models of the representative line. One of these "handsome" Mercedes-Benz 280S in the back of the W108 1973 release. It was in that year that the production of this model ended. But nevertheless, this copy, which has long exceeded 40 years, has successfully reached our days.

The owner of this car is Andy Willems. According to him, as a boy, he looked at the neighbor's red Mercedes and dreamed that someday he would definitely have one. Years passed, more than one custom car passed through his hands, but the passion for it did not pass. When Willems decided to get married and the conversation turned to wedding car, he realized that his happiness would be incomplete was Mercedes-Benz. He started looking suitable car, and opted for a 1973 280S. This is how the project was started.

Andy decided to make his something special. So the car got a custom air suspension and 18-inch wheels. The heart of the car is the “engine” with a volume of 2.8 liters and a capacity of 140 horsepower with a 4-speed automatic transmission. The body of the car has been completely restored.

The customizer decided to give this car to his son, and now he is looking for a suitable car for his daughter. Needless to say, great keepsakes.

The legendary tuning studio Mercedes-AMG GmbH grew out of a small car tuning company. She now employs 750 people and has a portfolio of 18 various models the most powerful and beautiful cars, and the AMG index has become synonymous with exclusivity and the highest comfort. Aufrecht und Melcher, Grosbaspach, founded on June 1, 1967, is named after the founders Erhard Melcher (M) and Hans Werner Aufrecht (A) from Grossaspach (G). Initially, the company was engaged in fine-tuning Mercedes-Benz vehicles 300 SE for sports racing, defining its status as "a bureau for the development, design and testing of racing engines." In 1971, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL AMG with a 6.8-liter 428-horsepower engine came second in the 24 Hours of Spa races in Belgium, becoming best car in your class. The cars that were in the AMG studio were so compatible with Mercedes factory products that the company became the only tuner officially recognized by the automaker itself. Therefore, in 1993, the Mercedes-Benz C36 AMG was introduced - the first car developed in collaboration with DaimlerChrysler AG. Since 1999, AMG has been part of DaimlerChrysler AG as a division called Mercedes AMG. A vehicle tuned by AMG retains the factory warranty. On January 1, 2005, DaimlerChrysler acquires 100 percent of the tuner's shares, and during this year the production volume grows from 500 to 20,000 units per year. In 2006, the AMG PERFORMANCE STUDIO appears, which produces special limited editions powerful cars AMG - Signature Series, Black Series and Editions. AMG engines follow the philosophy of "One man, one engine" - in other words, each engineer is personally responsible for the engine he assembles and for its further operation, which is confirmed by a signature upon completion of work. The studio's most famous engine is a 5.4-liter V8 with 367 hp, 469 hp. and 509 hp, which is indicated by the index 55. It is installed in the C55 AMG, CLK55 AMG, SLK55 AMG, ML55 AMG models, and its turbocharged modification is in the E55 AMG, S55 AMG, CLS55 AMG, CL55 AMG, SL55 AMG, G55 AMG. AMG also produces a 612-horsepower 6.0-liter V12, which is indicated by the index 65. It is installed in the CL65 AMG, S65 AMG, SL65 AMG6 models. New 6.2-liter V-shaped "eight" with a capacity of 474 to 506 hp under the symbol 63 is intended to replace the unit of the 55 model range. The new 63 model range includes existing and developed models: S63 AMG, ML63 AMG, R63 AMG, CLK63 AMG, CLS63 AMG, 2007 C63 AMG, E63 AMG, 2008 CL63 AMG, 2008 SLK63AMG. In honor of the 40th anniversary, the AMG studio has developed a special

In the 30s, there was no C-class as such. But there were cars that were in great demand, mainly at the top of the Third Reich.

Mercedes-Benz 540K

Mercedes-Benz 540 K (W 29) The Mercedes-Benz 540 K was released in 1934. It was created on the basis of the compressor eight-cylinder Mercedes-Benz 380, released a year earlier (total production, including models with custom bodies - 157 copies). Mercedes-Benz 540 K was produced in 1936-1939. Like many other Mercedes sports cars, it was equipped with a volumetric supercharger, which, if necessary, was turned on by the driver himself. It was the presence of a supercharger that explained the specific whistling noise of the engine. In general, it was a comfortable, reliable, balanced car, both for sports driving and for long trips, which brought a lot of pleasure to its owner. Mercedes-Benz price 540 K (W 29) exceeded 20 thousand Reichsmarks.

Mercedes-Benz 770

"Führervagen" - this is how the people called the Mercedes-Benz 770. In total, 31 copies of the "Führervagens" were produced, destined for the elite of the Third Reich.
On these supercars, the doors, the front shield, the back of the rear seat, and the floor of the body were protected by armor plates up to 18 mm thick. Thickness of bulletproof glass - 40 mm. The casings of the side spares and the disks of all wheels were made of armored steel.
The doors were equipped with centrally controlled electromagnetic locks, and small arms, including a light machine gun, were in special holsters. Headlights and searchlights had excess power to blind a possible pursuer.
Retractable steps were also provided, on which the bodyguards stood. The Reichsmarschall of Aviation Goering, the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, and, of course, the main customer, Adolf Hitler, rode the Fuhrerwagens.

"Horch" 853: car of the Third Reich

By the 1930s, the German company Horch had firmly established itself in the luxury car market. One of the main advantages of the models, in addition to reliability and solidity, was the low price compared to competitors. However, the brand needed a car that would finally consolidate the status of "Horch" in the high-end car market. The 850th series was chosen as the basis for the then novelty. And already in 1935, Horch introduced the 853 sports convertible.

Another Horch

Perhaps Stirlitz rode this, only his color was most likely black.
The controllability of the 853rd model can be judged by the lines from Y. Semyonov's novel "17 Moments of Spring": "Stirlitz knew that sharp turns wear out the tires, but he still liked to drive fast, so that she squealed and sang." Unfortunately, in the film, all book details regarding the vehicles of the characters were omitted - for filming they used what they managed to find twenty years after the events described. Therefore, the Soviet intelligence officer drove an ordinary Mercedes 230, and not a magnificent Horch.

Mercedes-Benz 230

Mercedes-Benz 230 1939 Stirlitz drove such a car in the film "17 Moments of Spring".

"Mercedes-Benz G4"

When in 1934 an all-terrain vehicle (now they would say SUV) "Mercedes-Benz G4", created for the Wehrmacht, appeared in 1934, Adolf Hitler became interested in this huge three-axle monster. Personally for the Fuhrer, they created an exclusive copy with a footrest and a front passenger seat raised by 13 cm, because the leader of the Nazis was small in stature. upholstered rear doors there were special holsters for small arms guards. In Hitler's column, several G4 cars always followed, which did not differ at all from the Fuhrer's car. But only on his car there was an elevation and a special personal "presence standard".
On his own car, Hitler attended maneuvers, went to the places of hostilities. However, this car got into history when it brought the Fuhrer to Vienna, annexed to the Reich as a result of the Anschluss of Austria.

Another G 4

Opel "Olympia" OL38

The thirties became the "golden age" for Opel. The Olympia of 1935 with an all-metal monocoque body, the lively folk Kadett, which accelerated to 100 km / h, Super 7, Kapitan, Admiral entered the market. The names reflected the “triumph of the will”: the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, the general craze for shoulder straps and titles, the triumph of supermen. Later, after a series of modifications, cars of the Olympia and Cadet series received the OL38 and K38 indices. After the war, captured cars of these brands served as prototypes for the Muscovites known to us. In December 1946, the production of the Opel Kadett K38 under the name MZMA, and later " Moskvich "was established in Moscow. The kid was happily produced in the USSR until 1955.

Opel "Captain" 1939

The first model bearing the Kapitän name was the firm's last pre-war model. On the domestic market its premiere took place at the end of 1938, and in the spring of 1939 "Captain" was an exhibit at the Geneva Motor Show. The lineup included two- and four-door sedans and a convertible. Before the cessation of production of civilian cars, by the autumn of 1940, 25,371 cars had been produced. The cost of the car was: in the version of the two-door sedan - 3.575 Reichsmarks; four-door - 3975 RM; convertible - 4325 RM.

The car had a modern, for those years, design - an independent front suspension and a load-bearing body made it one of the most advanced production cars in Europe.

Captured cars of this model were very widespread in the USSR in the post-war years.

The power structure of the bottom of the body and the front suspension of the Kapiten of this generation, due to their advanced design and availability for study, were used in the USSR by GAZ engineers when developing the GAZ-M-20 Pobeda car, however, they were not directly copied.

Opel "Admiral" 1938

In 1937 in production program"Opel" appeared "Admiral". It is considered one of the most upscale pre-war models. The car had two body types - a sedan and a convertible. An in-line six-cylinder engine with a volume of 3.5 liters and a power of 75 hp was installed on it. The maximum speed on the highway was 135 km / h. The Wehrmacht received modified production cars "Kadet" (Kadett), "Olympia" (Olympia), "Super-6" (Super), "Captain" (Kapitan) and "Admiral" (Admiral) with different bodies for the transportation of officers of all levels up to the highest generals. They also mounted open multi-purpose bodies of reconnaissance and headquarters "Kübelvagens", ambulance vans, mobile radio stations, loudspeakers and air raid sirens, lighting searchlights and workshops. In 1940-43. about 6 thousand standardized Opel multi-purpose vehicles were assembled.
In the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" Stirlitz drove the pastor to Switzerland in exactly such a car.

Opel "Super 6" 1939

In 1937, the Admiral appeared in the Opel production program. It is considered one of the most upscale pre-war models. The car had two body types - a sedan and a convertible. An in-line six-cylinder engine with a volume of 3.5 liters and a power of 75 hp was installed on it. The maximum speed on the highway was 135 km / h.
The same engine was installed on Opel and Blitz trucks. This four-door car was the flagship of the Opel company until 1940. Really beautiful car!!!

BMW 303 1933 - 34

The beginning of the BMW six-cylinder tradition: the BMW 303.

In 1933, the production of the 303 model, the first BMW car 6-cylinder engine, which debuted at the Berlin Motor Show. His appearance was a real sensation. This inline "six" with a displacement of 1.2 liters allowed the car to move at a speed of 90 km / h and became the basis for many subsequent BMW sports projects. Moreover, it was applied on the new model "303", which became the first in the history of the company, which was equipped with a radiator grille with a corporate design, expressed in the presence of two elongated ovals. The "303" model was designed at the Eisenach factory and featured primarily a tubular frame, independent front suspension and good, sporty handling characteristics.

"BMW-303" was perfect for the "autobahns" then actively built in Germany. Immediately after the presentation, a run was made on it across the entire country, and in this action the car proved itself only on the good side. People were willing to pay for this car set by the manufacturer price. Moreover, wealthy BMW fans chose the "303rd" model with a sports two-seater roadster body.

For two years of production of the BMW-303, the company managed to sell 2300 of these cars, which, by the way, were later followed by their "brothers", which differed more powerful motors and other digital designations: "309" and "315". Actually, they became the first samples for the logical development of the BMW model designation system.

BMW 309 1934-36

Further development of the 300th bmw series,
"309" and "315". Actually, they became the first samples for the logical development of the company's model designation system. On the example of these machines, we note that the number "3" denoted the series, and 0.9 and 1.5 - the working volume of the engines. The system of notation that appeared then successfully exists to this day.

BMW 315 1934-37

"BMW-315" was far from the last in a series of outwardly similar cars, since the most striking and remarkable among them were the "BMW-319" and "BMW-329", which belonged rather to sports cars. The maximum speed of the first, for example, was 130 km / h.

BMW 319 1935 - 37

BMW 328 1936.

Logically, after such a resounding success of the "326th" model, the next logical step should have been the appearance of a sports model made on its basis. In 1936, BMW produced the famous "328" - one of the most successful sports cars. This model is similar in appearance to the 319, but differs in slightly larger dimensions and, of course, a much more powerful engine. With its appearance, the BMW ideology was finally formed, which to this day determines the concept of new models: “The car is for the driver.” The main competitor, Mercedes-Benz, follows the principle: "The car is for passengers." Since then, each company has gone its own way, proving that its choice is the right one.
The winner of a great many competitions - circuit racing, rallying, hill climbing competitions - the BMW 328 was addressed to connoisseurs sports car and left all mass-produced sports cars far behind. The two-door, two-seater, truly sporty "BMW-328" was equipped with a six-cylinder engine and accelerated to 150 km / h. This model allowed the company to take part in many pre-war races and win recognition in a new quality. With the "328th" model, BMW became so famous in the second half of the 30s that all subsequent cars with a two-color brand name were perceived by the public as a symbol High Quality, reliability and beauty. The outbreak of war leads to the suspension of the production of cars. Priority is given to aircraft engines.

BMW 320 1937 - 38

Responding to the demand of part of the population in a cheap closed coupe, in 1937 the company prepared the 320 model - with a shortened 326 chassis and suspension from 319, but in the style of new BMWs. In 1938 the model changed to 321.

BMW 326 1936-41

Along with all the previous cars, the "326" model, which appeared at the Berlin Automobile Exhibition in 1936, looked simply gorgeous. This four-door car was far from the world of sports, and its rounded design already belonged to the direction that came into force in the 50s. open top, good quality, a chic interior and a large number of new changes and additions put the 326th model on a par with Mercedes-Benz cars, whose buyers were very wealthy people.

With a mass of 1125 kg, the BMW-326 model accelerated to a maximum of 115 km / h and at the same time consumed 12.5 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers. With similar characteristics and with its appearance, the car got into the list best models company and was produced until 1941, when BMW production amounted to almost 16,000 units. With so many produced and sold cars, the BMW-326 became the best pre-war model.

BMW 327 1937 - 41

BMW 335 1936 - 43

Just before the war, the most prestigious BMW-335 sedan appeared with a 3.5-liter engine with 90 hp. The 335th was also produced with a convertible body.

Volkswagen VW30 (beetle)

History automobile concern"Volkswagen" originates in 1934, when the German engineer Ferdinand Porsche (Ferdinand Porsche) received a government order from the leadership of Germany to develop the first "people's car" ("volk" - people, "wagen" - car, German.), and already in 1935, the designer presented the first prototype of Volkswagen for a test drive.In 1936, the National Socialist government decided to build an automobile plant in Wolfsburg, which later became famous all over the world.Three future Volkswagens made a run of 50 thousand kilometers under the supervision of the Union of Automobile Manufacturers Reich".
Over the following years, the car underwent a number of changes and improvements, and in 1937 the first batch of thirty cars of the VW30 series was produced. More than two million kilometers each instance ran in test tests, revealing all possible design flaws. The established company Gezuvor took over the preparation of the mass production of passenger cars according to the Volkswagen project, in 1938 it was renamed Volkswagenwerk GmbH and officially entered into the registers of Berlin. In the same year, construction began on two more Volkswagen factories in Fallersleben and Brunswick, the latter was intended exclusively for testing cars and began independent production only after the Second World War. Second World War prevented the mass production of cars Volkswagen cars. The plant built in Wolfsburg managed to produce only twelve copies of the Beetle and was repurposed to assemble military jeeps and amphibious vehicles. During the war years, about 70 thousand cars left the assembly line, and in 1944 almost all of its production facilities were destroyed by American bombers. 1 user

In 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. from. /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. from. 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. Creator of the first Soviet small cars NAMI-1 with engine air cooling 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 thesis project so much that Sharapova was accepted as a leading engineer at NAMI without any competition, and thesis project it was decided to embody in metal. With the help of NAMI engineers Lipgart and Charnko, the graduation 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. Behind it was attached an independent rear suspension, and a two-cylinder air-cooled 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 wick-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 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 spare wheel attached directly to the back 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.
No differential, independent suspension rear wheels and big ground clearance, equal to 265 mm, provided NAMI-1 with excellent cross-country ability on the roads of that time, and limited quantity details and lack 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 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 presented in the exposition of the Polytechnic Museum, another NAMI-1 car is stored in the museum of the Nizhny Novgorod plant "Gidromash", and the second chassis is in technical center 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. from. 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 are 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. but new engine was a slightly enlarged motor 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 a crank was crushed by his own car. Therefore, the instructions for the Ford T indicated: “before starting the car, turn on 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 for 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 "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 back engine compartment: fuel was fed 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 from the point of view fire safety posed a serious threat. 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 machine to the last boat, we would see only 21 rolling bearings (in modern car there are about two hundred), of which seven are roller, and the rollers are wound from a thick steel strip. Here are the bearings crankshaft 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 - the first domestic serial passenger car with a closed body GAZ-A designs seems surprising these days: tape hand brake rear wheels, the absence of a device for adjusting the valves (if necessary, the valve stem was cut a little), a very low (4.2) compression ratio, so that in hot weather, when conditions for liquid evaporation 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-seat 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 armored cars D-8 were mounted on it, which went into service with the Red Army. The GAZ-A car was produced from 1932 to 1936 at Gorky car factory, and from 1933 to 1935, in addition, at the KIM plant in Tekstilshchiki, then still near Moscow, 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 - only one translation from inch sizes in 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 produces a European version of Ford B. This car was called the Ford Rheinland and was already 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-1: two cars were to go on a 30,000-kilometer rally on impassable roads and slovenliness, 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 was installed on the car carbureted engine. 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 dashboard, semi-centrifugal clutch mechanism and improved shock absorbers. The suspension was equipped with a stabilizer roll stability. 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 knots that were difficult to fine-tune: remote control shock absorbers and automatic box gear that existed on the 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 process 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 are sent to the American bodybuilding company Badd, where they create a working sample of the product, die tooling and other necessary technological equipment according to their sketches. 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 popular ones at the time. american cars, 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 far from all Soviet party 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 the 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 reversing, 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 upward, but in a falling flow, which improved their filling and power. Changed design played a role intake manifold and revised valve timing: the ZiS-101A, which was produced only with aluminum pistons, developed a power of 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 suspension front wheels. 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 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. from. 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. from. 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 basis 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, 40-strong Gaz-M engine- the same one that was on both the "emka" and the one and a half, for such a machine turned out to be very low-power. 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 climbed such slopes on the ground that not everyone can tracked vehicle- 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, the GAZ-61-40 took a rise from a standstill to 15 degrees, from a run - up to 30 degrees, ford with the 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-centimeter boardwalk 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 passenger car turns into a ditch and easily jumps 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. New car it 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 Grigorievich 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, Commissar of State Security 1st rank Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov received such a car. 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 patched up in the roof. The car retained both its engine No. 620 and its body No. 1418. piston rings, liners, 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 put into production a mass soviet car. 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 german car or purchase 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 car. 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 one, 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, on full power the Gorky Automobile Plant was launched, the KIM plant becomes a branch of GAZ and switches to assembly GAZ-A cars and GAZ-AA 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. Nevertheless, 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, the cars began to shake so that they steer was no longer possible.

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. 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 a 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.