Russian Trucks and Cars

[Kuno]

Colleagues;

Not that I would think that it fits into this forum by 100% but I thought that it may be interesting for some of you to see some older Russian vehicles here as well. I have just spend some days in Armenia and was really surprised about how much "old iron" is still around there.

Since I am not sure if it would be too off topic, I wanted to ask first - if there is an interest at all and if the Admin would allow such "deviation".

Let me know...

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Kuno,

Please go ahead - most historical military vehicles are interesting to see for most of us. If it starts to get boring, we will say so

Hanno

[Kuno]

Thanks, Hanno. In the meantime I realized that some of the vehicles I thought to be real "oldtimers" are in fact not really old but still produced since they were built for the first time in the 1950ies or 1960ies.

To start with, here the famous UAZ 452. Its production begun in 1965 and you can still get them "fresh from the factory" today - after 48 years of production. Quite remarkable, if you compare with today's cars where the new model is out already after 2 to 4 years...

We have here these models of the UAZ 452: UAZ 2206 Minibus and UAZ 3303:

[Kuno]

The GAZ 69 was produced from 1953 to 1972. To me it is one of the best looking Russian vehicles ever built. The one I found on the route from Yerevan to Garni had got a "homemade" hard top:

[Kuno]

The GAZ 69 production had been transferred to another manufacturer, UAZ, already in 1954 but the old designation was kept since it was already widely known. In 1972, the successor was introduced: The UAZ 469. The UAZ 469 was produced until the 1990ies and is now replaced by the UAZ Hunter.

Here the UAZ 469 and and a ZIL 133 truck with crane in the background:

[Kuno]

3'380'000 ZIL 130 trucks were produced from 1962 until 1994. It is therefore still a very common sight in all Countries of the former Soviet Union. But production did not stop - since 1995 the same truck is produced by the manufacturer UamZ under the designation UamZ-43140. I have to admit that I cannot differentiate the two...

[Kuno]

Looking pretty similar as the ZIL-130: The GAZ 53 truck. The truck was introduced in 1961 and manufactured until 1993. The only obvious difference to its counterpart is the front grille... even the painting, blue cabin and white front is similar:

[Kuno]

There is also a bus-version of the GAZ 53:

[Kuno]

Now a personal car - the GAZ M21 Volga. Here the version which was built between 1961 and 1972:

[Kuno]

Another Volga-version was the GAZ 24 which was built between 1968 and 1972:

[Kuno]

A PAZ bus, fueled by gas instead of diesel or benzine:

[Kuno]

I have not seen many KrAZ 214 heavz trucks:

[Kuno]

Two more. A ZIL 130 belonging to a civil defense organization next to one of the famous LADA. And a SAURER from Switzerland...

[Kuno]

Now my favorite: The GAZ 51. Its development started already in 1937 but the serial production was only taken up after WW2 in 1946. Until the end of the production in 1975, nearly 3,5 millions of these trucks were produced:

[Kuno]

Ok.... that's it. I hope that one or the other liked the photos.

[Eduard Sorokin]

Originally Posted by Kuno

A PAZ bus, fueled by gas instead of diesel or benzine:

This is PAZ-672; these buses have the benzine engines only, not diesel.

[Kuno]

Thanks Eduard - I have chosen my words in an unfortunate way: I wanted to say that the Fuel the they use is gas not diesel or benzine.

[Eduard Sorokin]

Originally Posted by Kuno

I have not seen many KrAZ 214 heavy trucks:

This is, most probably, KrAZ-256 with early type forward wheels.

Originally Posted by Kuno

Looking pretty similar as the ZIL-130: The GAZ 53 truck. The truck was introduced in 1961 and manufactured until 1993. The only obvious difference to its counterpart is the front grille... even the painting, blue cabin and white front is similar:

This is could to be also GAZ-52 truck, which was the same as GAZ-53, but had another engine and smaller weight-carrying ability - 2,5 ton instead 3 ton.
ZiL-130 and GAZ-52/-53 differs by engines, dimensions and weight-carrying ability: ZiL-130 could to carry weight up to 6 ton. GAZ-52 had 75 HP engine, GAZ-53 - 115 HP engine, ZiL-130 - 150 HP engine.

Note: behind this GAZ-52/-53 truck on the photo the blue vehicle is seen. This is old, also rare today, ErAZ-762 delivery van. These vehicles were produced in Armenia from 1966:



If anybody have the questions about Russian vehicles - please feel free to ask those.

[Kuno]

ErAZ-762... that means.... I have missed the real rarity :-(

And - I have a question: Would you know, why the Russians did not produce trucks which were more different to each other in the look?

[Eduard Sorokin]

This is very large and difficult question.
The main version of answer - Soviet designers were aimed to provide mainly the National Defence with their vehicles. It is known, that all vehicles (or their most part) in any country are the "military reserve", and this reserve could to be impressed in military use in any moment.
It is not very important, how looks the military truck - this truck must to be hard, cheap, powerful and reliable only. It's appearance is not main subject.

Due these reasons, Soviet designers did not care about civilian customers, and designed those almost similar vehicles.

There were many experimental designs with different appearance in the USSR, of course. However, these designs were abandoned, or not adopted, or cancelled in favour of more simple, cheaper, or "easier-in-production" types.

[Kuno]

Many thanks for that explanation, Eduard.