The very concept of an army car, which eventually crystallized in the GAZ-66, originates from the Dodge WC 51/52 Lendleigh truck. This machine had no analogues either in the Red Army or in the world. The main advantage was the versatility of the machine, which was unique for those times - the size and thrust-to-weight ratio made it possible to use it without any problems as an artillery tractor, personal transport of high ranks, as well as an ambulance. However, the world war ended, the "cold" war began, and the reserves of foreign equipment in the Red Army began to fade away.
The first replacement for an American all-wheel drive truck was planned to be a bonneted GAZ-62 with a payload of 1.2 tons. It is noteworthy that with such an index at the Gorky Automobile Plant, back in 1940, an experimental four-wheel drive "gazik" was assembled, and our second stage GAZ-62 appeared 12 years later. Therefore, the main thing is not to get confused in them. The truck turned out to be okay and, perhaps, turned out to be much more harmonious than the younger brother of the GAZ-69, work on which was going on in parallel. In some versions, the car was equipped with an onboard body and a winch, and in the craziest version with the index B it generally had eight wheels.
In total, the car could accommodate 9 troops plus a passenger with a driver and in all respects was a fairly perfect machine for the early 50s. But unexpectedly, the Ministry of Defense changed the requirements for the 62nd car, the project was closed in its original form and moved on to the topic of creating an aerotransportable cabover truck. In fact, the niche of the "unreleased" GAZ-62 in the early sixties was later occupied by the cabover UAZ-451. In the meantime, having lost nearly ten years, the Gorky designers have embarked on a new project, already seriously reminiscent of Shishiga. The main limiting factor was the size of the vehicle - it had to fit into the cargo compartment of the An-8 military transport aircraft. That is why it was necessary to place the cab above the front axle, which in the future will become almost the main disadvantage of the GAZ-66.
True, in those days it was difficult to assume that the nature of future wars would be predominantly partisan with a widespread use of mines and IEDs. As a result, the dimensions of the second iteration of the GAZ-62 (or already the third, the main thing is not to get confused) had to be reduced, the entire top was made of a convertible type. The windshield, side windows and tarpaulin roof were folded, allowing the car to fit into the An-8. In the book "Cars of the Soviet Army 1946-1991", the automotive historian Yevgeny Kochnev writes that if the referenced Dodge WC51 / 52 can be considered a prototype for the GAZ-62 from 1952, then the German Unimog became the reference point for the 62nd truck of the 1958 model. Indeed, some layout solutions can be seen in both the GAZ-62 and its successor, the GAZ-66. In the Soviet Union, even comparative tests of the Shishigi and the German car were later carried out.
Still, it is impossible to call the Unimog and GAZ-66 classmates - the domestic truck was developed primarily as a purely military vehicle (by the way, the 66th was the first of its kind), and the "German" was primarily civilian equipment, similar in functionality with a tractor.
But back to the GAZ-62, which, in the end, the military department turned out to be dissatisfied, despite being accepted into production. The car has already managed not only to settle on the assembly line (69 trucks were produced), but also to get into the reference book "Domestic Cars" with the expectation of being used in the national economy. Index 62 for GAZ generally became unhappy - three cars at different times were out of work, and the last cabover version did not even bother to even save it in the factory museum. The new truck, which replaced the galaxy of unsuccessful ones, was assigned, as it turned out, a much happier index 66, which made the Gorky Automobile Plant famous all over the world.
A legend with a quality mark
From the end of 1957, Alexander Dmitrievich Prosvirnin became the chief designers of the 66th GAZ, who, in addition, led the development of almost all the vehicles that were significant for the automobile plant - from GAZ-53 to GAZ-14 "Chaika". What new has Prosvirnin implemented in the project of a light army tractor-tractor? First of all, the vehicle increased in size, obviously due to the appearance of new military transport An-12 with a larger cargo compartment capacity - after all, air transportability was put by the Ministry of Defense in the first place.
Further "Shishiga" received a very high specific power - about 33 liters. s./t, which was almost a record for production machines. This was largely ensured by the 8-cylinder ZMZ-66 engine with a capacity of 115 hp. with., developed specifically for the new Gorky truck. The highest cross-country ability among all serial trucks of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 60s, "Shishiga" received with the introduction of interwheel self-locking limited slip differentials on both axles, as well as a centralized tire inflation system. By the way, our engineers spied on the design of "samoblok" on German all-terrain vehicles during the war and then, with significant modifications, developed their own mechanism. For the benefit of the off-road capabilities of the GAZ-66, the almost reference weight distribution along the axles on a loaded car also played - 50% / 50%.
The first real serial GAZ-66 (an experimental batch of the car was assembled at the beginning of November 1963) was born on July 1, 1964, and five years later it was the first among Soviet cars to receive the prestigious quality mark. True, evil tongues argued that there was no particular benefit from this - for example, during control tests at the NIIII-21 test site of the Ministry of Defense, a symbolic defect was recorded - "rust leak from under the quality mark."
In 1971, the gasoline ZMZ-66 was awarded with a similar distinctive sign confirming the high quality of workmanship. Initially, in the GAZ-66 range, there was a version with the letter B for the Airborne Forces, which differed in the mentioned folding windshield and a fabric roof. When loading onto the P-7M or PP-128-5000 landing platform, it was necessary to fold the cabin flush with the wooden sides of the body and lower the wheels. In addition, the seat backs were lowered along with the telescopic steering column. It was a unique design that had no analogues in the world at that time. GAZ-66B was able to withstand overloads up to 9g when landing with four- and five-dome parachute systems, while a fuel tank, a sanitary module, a multiple launch rocket system and, attention, sections of the DPP-40 pontoon park were mounted on the chassis. However, with the appearance of the Il-76 and the more so An-22 aircraft in the Air Force, the need for a complex folding structure disappeared, and at the end of the 70s the car was discontinued, replacing it with the usual GAZ-66 with a steel cabin. By the way, version B was developed at Experimental Plant No. 38 of the Moscow Region in Bronnitsy, and produced at one of the repair plants.
The characteristic and recognizable appearance of the GAZ-66 truck was designed by the designer of the Gorky Automobile Plant Lev Mikhailovich Eremeev, who applied his talent to many masterpieces, among which ZIL-111, GAZ-21 and GAZ-14 can be distinguished. Initially, Eremeev was faced with the task of providing good visibility to the driver, for which the first prototypes had a windshield with curved side sections. But according to the requirements of the Ministry of Defense, they were replaced with characteristic vents, which became real highlights of the 66th machine. This eliminated the need to make complex curved glass and simplified the procedure for replacing the broken one.
The new GAZ-66 car immediately became a bestseller in the Soviet Army - the truck quickly replaced the GAZ-63 and became the main light truck of the armed forces. Ahead were countless modifications, experiments and hard service in combat conditions.
