The second half of the 20th century was the time when Gorky Automobile Plane «gave birth» to a car which became the symbol of wealth and stability for several generations of Soviet people. The guest to our weekly rubric «Legend Alive» – GAZ-21.
Some people think about it as a character from movies like «Beware of the Car» and «The Diamond Arm», for others it is a memory form a distant past or an automobile which was impossible to buy. So various but so familiar «Volga» (the folk name for GAZ cars – editor’s note) for millions of people in Russia and CIS countries.
The car that had been in production for 14 years only (1956-1970) initially was indexed «M-21» and got its known name, GAZ-21, only in 1965.
The design of the new car was based upon the same principles as it was with «Pobeda» (another automobile of that period in the USSR – editor’s note) Generation Two, such as slightly advanced cabin. In addition to decreasing the diameter of wheels to 15 inches, it made the cabin more spacious while keeping the same wheelbase. Another important change was removing the rear wheels archs from the passenger compartment. At the same time, the car had a contemporary design, a new engine and automatic transmission which rather soon went into oblivion, though.
The ones responsible for working on the design were two car specialists simultaneously – John Williams (UK) and Lev Eremeev (USSR). It was the Soviet engineer whose project was approved in the end for it was «more perspective». The senior constructor of «M-21» was appointed Alexander Nevzorov while Nikolay Borisov was the constructor-in-chief at the plant through most period of the work on the project.
A year after Nevzorov’s appointment the first running unit was built and on May 3, 1955 three experimental cars were sent to thorough state tests alongside with a few more automobiles manufactured both in the Soviet Union and overseas. A cherry-red, a blue and a white «M-21» were tested on different road types, such as asphalt and countryside roads.
As a result of the tests, on October 10, 1956 three units got off the conveyor and two more were added to them within the set. In autumn and winter 8 test automobiles covered as much as 29 kilometers on the roads of Russia, Baltics, Ukraine, Belarus and the Caucasus, and the final experiments were put on 62 more samples on the territory of the garage belonging to Regional Committee of the Soviet Union Communist Party, at the First Cab Park and at the automobile base of Central Committee of Soviet Lenin’s Communist Youth Union.
During the tests some malfunctions were detected most of which were fixed right away, but there were more that stayed as it was until the production stopped.
Nominally, there were three series of GAZ-21 – of 1957, 1959 and 1962. Mass production of Series 1 started in March and April of 1957. «Volga» then was equipped with a modified GAZ-21B engine of a larger capacity (2.42 litres) and increased power (65 hp) which gave 3800 rotations per minute at the torque of 15.8 kg?m.
The regular car had been in production until the end of 1957 and taxis had lived a bit longer – up to 1959. At the same time, one cannot say for sure when exactly new engines started being set. The total number of Series 1 units equaled to 30 thousand.
In 1958 it was the beginning of the era of Series 2, that had distinctive differences of those «Volgas» in enlarging wheel archs and changing the front of the cars, compared to their predecessors. And still the «stuff» and the compartment were left almost untouched right before February 1959. Massive changes in the design in 1960 were followed by technical upgrade. The car got up-to-date wiring while being lightened in mass, the centralized lubrication of the chassis units was excluded from the procedures list with some corrections made, too. All in all, the total of 140 thousand cars of Series 2 were manufactured.
The final Series 3 of «Volga» looked more dynamic but kept its remarkable style. People gave it another name – «The Whalebone». The exterior was upgraded by adding telescopic shock absorbers, fully stamped sides, side panel edged with coating and special synthetic enamel used for body paint. Besides, the latter GAZ-21 was more powerful (75 hp).
First cars of Series 3 had short drains but since 1963 they were made longer on «standard» cars, reaching the rear wings, whereas «advanced» version was still equipped with shorter ones to provide the owners with an opportunity to set a belt molding.
Here we also have to say that «Volga» was not meant for an average Soviet citizen getting paid about 150 rubles not only due to its high price (5100 to 6455 rubles within the period of 1961-1969) but also because it was impossible to buy the car without any restrictions. The purchase had to be made only on a special permission until the beginning of 1970s, but even later in was almost unreal to get it unless from previous owners. To make the long story short, for most people living in the Soviet times «Volga» still left «a car of the dream», which is a little strange considering the modern world realia.