In 1946, on the 21st of June, the first serial automobile GAZ M-20 «Pobeda» (Eng.: «victory» – editor’s note) got off the conveyor. The design was created by a Soviet graphics artist Veniamin Samoylov. He took a German 1939 Opel Kapitan for the basis and rethought it by taking away protrusive wings, steps and headlights and making the car more streamlined. «Pobeda» was the first mass-produced automobile which had supporting body, independent front suspension, thermostat in the cooling system, hydraulic drive of the brakes, compartment heater with the option of the windshield blowing, electrical turning lights, stop lights and windscreen wipers.
And yet the first models revealed some distinctive drawbacks in build and technology. The cabin was not hard enough which made the windshields crack and it let dust, moist and wind into the compartment. The engine was quite weak (it took 50 seconds to accelerate the vehicle to 100 km/h) but consumed a lot of fuel. The rear axle produced a loud noise, also the construction of the clutch, the damper and the handbrake left much to be desired. The compartment itself was rather low. Due to all those factors the production of «Pobeda» was put on pause before the deficiencies were corrected. The relaunch (the so-called Series 2) took place on November 1, 1949.
Cover: AutoUSSR
