In 1957, on the conveyor of the Automobile Plant. Gorky was assembled the first car Gull-GAZ-13, the successor of the legendary ZIM GAZ-12. The new car also belonged to the representative class of Soviet cars and was intended for the party tops of the Soviet Union. The prototype of GAZ-13 was the American car "Packard Caribbean" in 1955 release. In a year and a half, after fine-tuning and comprehensive tests, GAZ-13 Chaika (the car of the future) was put into production. This happened in early 1959.
The machine was produced in small series for 22years. In 1977, in parallel with the GAZ-13 began to release the modification of the GAZ-14, and in 1981 the Chaika car was removed from production. For all the years of production, GAZ-13 has not been subjected to refinement, re-styling or modernization. The Soviet automobile industry was distinguished by extreme slowness, conservatism and complete rejection of any innovative solutions. Therefore, new cars, hitting once in the conveyor production, for years did not change, for this reason their technical characteristics could not stand competition with models of Western production, the backlog was simply catastrophic.
The design of the GAZ-13 wasoriginal frame without sidewalls. Bearing elements were two beams, entering the crosshairs in the center. On the frame by means of 16 special extra-strong pillows from tank rubber the body was fixed. The Seagull, whose photo can be seen on the page, was produced in three versions: a four-door sedan with a spacious interior and a capacious luggage compartment, a five-door station wagon for ambulance stations and a four-door phaeton with an automatically retractable soft canvas top powered by electrohydraulics. The wheelbase GAZ-13 was 3250 mm. The length of the machine was 5620 mm, width 2002 mm, height 1620 mm. Car drove the Seagull 2100 kg in full gear.
The Seagull was considered comfortablemachine, although the level of comfort consisted of various trifles, such as electric radio aerial, electric cigarette lighter, radio receiver and additional speakers, mounted in a horizontal panel behind the rear seats. The GAZ-13 engine had impressive characteristics. The block of cylinders with an arrangement V8, fuel injection carbureted dosed, engine power 195 hp, speed 165 km / h. The gasoline consumption was 22 liters per 100 km in city mode. The engine was super-reliable, later it was installed on military armored personnel carriers.
In recent years, the car Chaikawas equipped with a vacuum brake booster and power steering. The car was rear-wheel drive, the undercarriage consisted of a front independent two-link suspension with coil springs and a rear axle on the longitudinal springs. Following the Seagull 13, the GAZ-14 was assembled manually in a special workshop. On the basis of this machine, all novelties of electric drive technology were tested, the 5.5-liter engine installed on the GAZ-14 allowed the speed to reach 170 km / h. The transmission was only mechanical, three-speed. The brakes were two-circuit, the discs on the front wheels and the drum ones on the rear wheels.</ p>
