If we remember the Soviet trucks, the lorry and a half will rightfully take the first place in our rating. The car got its name due to its carrying capacity - 1500 kg. The image of the Gorky truck became part of the national cultural code, and the appearance of the car is recognizable even many decades after the end of production. Together with the USSR, the lorry pulled out all the large-scale construction projects of the 1930s, the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period of restoration of the national economy.
The lorry has American roots
Like the entire Soviet automotive industry, the GAZ-AA truck has American roots. By the time the Soviet Union began to acquire its own auto industry, half of all cars in the world were assembled by Ford factories. Despite the fact that there were no diplomatic relations between the USSR and the USA at that time, the parties were able to easily agree on a commercial basis. The USSR entered into a cooperation agreement with Henry Ford, the agreement provided for the transfer of the necessary technologies and equipment for the serial production of passenger and truck models, the training of Soviet personnel at Ford factories and other nuances. By the way, the Soviet Union also negotiated with Chrysler and General Motors, but they ended in vain.
The platform for the legendary Soviet truck was a 1930 Ford AA truck. The first trucks assembled in 1932 were an exact copy of it. Initially, "screwdriver assembly" was carried out in the USSR, cars were assembled from vehicle sets supplied from the USA. Actually, in the same year, the drawings of the car were transferred to the country. Having studied them, the designers began to adapt the car to the domestic realities of operation, at the same time mastering the production of units, parts and assemblies directly in the USSR. Already in 1933, lorries began to be assembled exclusively from Soviet-made components.
At the same time, the machine was adapted to local operating conditions. The designers replaced the forged clutch housing, which quickly failed, with a cast one. They also strengthened the grip itself and the steering gear. On the lorry, they began to use their own steering gear. In addition, a full-fledged air filter appeared on the car. The truck's side body was also designed in the Soviet Union.
The first trucks were called NAZ-AA, not GAZ-AA
Today, few people know, but the first one and a half trucks that came off the assembly line were called NAZ-AA. Serial production of the new truck began on January 29, 1932 in Nizhny Novgorod, at the Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Plant named after V. M. Molotov built here. In the same year, on October 7, Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky in honor of the "first proletarian writer." In 1932, the USSR celebrated the 40th anniversary of the beginning of his creative activity on a large scale. Following the city, the plant was renamed, which is still known as GAZ. Therefore, the name GAZ-AA was assigned to lorries only at the end of 1932.
The upgraded version was named GAZ-MM
In the mid-1930s, a new "heart" was chosen for the truck. As a result of the modernization, a new GAZ-M engine began to be installed on the lorry. The same engine was previously installed on the legendary "Emka" - a passenger car GAZ M1. The upgraded version of the truck received a new 50-horsepower power plant (8 "horses" were added under the hood of the car), new steering, propeller shaft and reinforced suspension. In this form, the truck was mass-produced from 1938 until the end of mass production. The upgraded version of the truck received the designation GAZ-MM. At the same time, there were no external differences between GAZ-AA and GAZ-MM, it was impossible to distinguish them visually. On the highway, such a truck could accelerate to a speed of 70 km / h.
The military version of the car was produced with serious simplifications
Already during the Great Patriotic War, there was an urgent need for maximum simplification of the truck. Military versions of the lorry went down in history under the designation GAZ-MM-V (at the front they were designated as GAZ-MM-13). The wartime lorry was produced until 1947. They began planning a serious modernization at the very beginning of the war. First of all, it was aimed at the maximum cost reduction and acceleration of production. No one else thought about the comfort of the driver.
At the beginning of World War II, the Red Army had 151,100 GAZ-AA and GAZ-MM trucks. At the same time, in the summer and autumn of 1941, the troops lost a huge amount of freight transport. To replace the lost cars, trucks from the national economy were massively mobilized, still beautiful and even elegant cars. At the same time, military versions of the lorry gradually appeared at the front. Almost immediately, the second headlight disappeared from such serial cars (it remained only on the driver's side), the rear-view mirror, horn, bumper, the wiper was left alone - on the driver's side. Also on the GAZ-MM-V version there were no front brakes.
Since metal was a scarce material and was necessary for the production of weapons and ammunition, soon the cab of the truck was replaced with a wooden frame covered with canvas fabric. At the height of the simplification of the design, the cab did not even have doors that replaced the tarpaulin rolls. This version was produced in Gorky in 1943, in 1944 the doors were returned to the cockpit, but it was made entirely of wood. The military version also lost its beautifully shaped curved front wings. Their design and shape have been simplified as much as possible. Instead of metal, they began to be made of low-grade roofing iron by bending, such wings had an angular rectangular shape. Also on trucks from the war period, the driver's seat was solid wood and had no upholstery.
Cranking a truck with a crooked starter was the norm
All lorries were guilty of the fact that the scarce starters with batteries installed on them had a very low service life. Experienced drivers noted that they could serve for more than 6 months on a rare truck. Therefore, in real life, the situation when the driver had to start the truck manually was commonplace. The lorry was started with the help of a "curved starter", that is, by rotating the handle - a device for starting the engine using a crank handle. This method of starting the engine is familiar to many today only from films, for example, from the famous comedy "Prisoner of the Caucasus".
The lorry drove on almost everything that burns
Engines of a lorry with a capacity of 42 hp and 50 hp. they could not boast of great power, but stood out for their high-torque, unpretentiousness and, more importantly, in wartime operating conditions - maintainability. Due to the low compression ratio, which was 4, 25: 1, the engines of the GAZ-AA and GAZ-MM trucks could be used even when refueling with the lowest grades of fuel with a low octane number. Cars could run on naphtha and even kerosene. And it's not a joke. It was really possible to fill a lorry with kerosene, this method worked in the warm season and with a warm engine. In addition, the car was good at digesting low-quality engine oils.
In this aspect, the lorries were much more unpretentious than the more advanced trucks that entered the USSR under the Lend-Lease program. The same Studebaker was powered exclusively by high-quality fuel with an octane rating of 70 or 72. It also required the use of high-quality oils. In times of war, situations arose when it became difficult to maintain and operate such equipment. In the USSR, this exactingness of the "Studebakers" was really considered a disadvantage.
The number of released one and a half was only a little short of a million
The number of one and a half released in the USSR only slightly fell short of one million copies. It is believed that a total of 985 thousand GAZ-AA and GAZ-MM trucks, as well as various modifications of these vehicles, have been produced since 1932. At the same time, the legendary truck was produced not only in Gorky. Mass production of a lorry was established at four large factories: directly at NAZ, then GAZ - in 1932-1949; the KIM plant in Moscow - in 1933-1939, the Rostov car assembly plant - in 1939-1941. and at the UlZIS plant in Ulyanovsk - in 1942-1950.
