GAZ 31013 in magazine "Za rulem"

WITHOUT LOVE AND PRIVILEGES. GAZ-31013-The last of the Gorky "chasers" 

"GAZ-31013" of a late release was restored in the Kyiv workshop "Autoclassica" and went to the Baltic Museum of the KGB history.

"GAZ-31013", like "3102", was painted mainly in black and white. In the "3102" palette, beige and light gray were also common. Such a police livery was rare enough for both models.

As soon as it was embodied in the serial production, "GAZ-24", with difficulty and losses making its way onto the production line, the authors of its appearance - artists Leniy Tsikolenko and Nikolai Kireev thought about modernizing some of the features of the car. Most of all they wanted to reward the "Volga" with interesting optics - not an ordinary round, but wide rectangular. They started their work in 1968 with the launch of pilot industrial batches of "twenty-four", the artists developed an updated look of the front of the car, with a radically changed false radiator grille and optics, the work on the modernized "Volga" was held simultaneously with the new "Chaika" GAZ-14.

The most expensive in the production of body - the roof and struts, as well as the base of the power structure, had to be left the same for "3101", without any slightest changes. They changed only attachments. The headlights had to be taken that were already in the Soviet assortment - the same production of the Democratic Republic of Germany, which were installed on the updated "Moskvich" in 1969 of the AZLK assemblies. Along the boom line, the molding was made of polished stainless steel with a black rubber insert, the wheel arches were decorated with moldings. In addition, the car received a completely new interior - and it was, without exaggeration, truly luxurious, even by Western standards.

 As much as they were able, they were adapted, modernized, adjusted to the clumsy requirements of inveterate technologists, and in 1981, despite the obstacles, they launched a “new” vehicle. Naturally, for the next congress of the party.

 Of course, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev received one of the first "Volgas", it became the penultimate car present for him (the last one was Rolls-Royce from Yasser Arafat). The Brezhnev's "GAZ-3102" had luxurious chrome caps with imitation of spokes and was painted in an unusual color - a deep dark blue metallic with interesting tints. The paint was specially ordered in Finland!

In essence, this "Volga" was obliged to replace the long-obsolete 24th model on the assembly line. However, for some reason at the top they were indignant - there should not be such a luxurious mass car! Although, basically, what was so luxurious about it, except a slightly more pompous appearance? Until the very 90s, GAZ-3102 remained an exclusively bureaucratic privilege - it did not go on free sale. The "twenty-four" was formally modernized according to the deteriorated image of the "thirty-first", as a result of which an unsightly and low-quality "24-10" was born ...

The legacy of "Chaika"

In 1982, the "thirty-first" cars with a V8 under the hood were shown at exhibitions. Interestingly, they got the indices with one, not with two, that was, still along the intended line in the early 70s. There were three models, all equipped with hydromechanical gear boxes, but differing in engines. The 31011 line started with "ZMZ-53" - an ordinary "chaser" for the needs of the State Security Committee in situ.

The next stage is 31012 with a "GAZ-13" engine. The first "Chaika" was planned to be produced simultaneously with the new "GAZ-14" - all sorts of deep-aged officials, especially generals and retrogrades from the Politburo, really liked it with its pompous swift appearance. However, the death of Masherov revealed significant flaws in the safety of this model, and they decided to say goodbye to it. But the engines for the "GAZ-13" were produced for future use with a good margin, so a considerable number of them remained at the plant even in the early 80s. Do not waste the good!

The family was crowned by the top model "GAZ-31013". It was maximally unified with the new "Chaika" GAZ-14 - the same engine, similar interior elements - front seats and parts of the rear seat, upholstery materials, as well as the climate system.

The early, still Soviet "thirty-first" salon was magnificent! Good quality soft plastic, comfortable seats, excellent upholstery. It was only later when they made everything cheaper and worsened ...

Substitution in the team.

The GAZ-31013 went into more or less widespread production immediately after the “Chaika” was discontinued.

The “Thirteenth” basically successfully replaced the “Chaika”, in terms of comfort for a person in the back seat and dynamic characteristics, it did not lag behind much, while it was much less pretentious in appearance (which then began to be of great importance). In the factory line, "GAZ-31013" lasted until 1991 while there were enough engines for its production.

A total of 68 such cars were assembled, 5 of which were distributed in government garages in Kiev - four black and one white.

In general, there were very few "GAZ-31013" in the KGB service, after all, the car is too luxurious and well equipped for most departmental tasks.

Traditional camouflage of "chasers" - two exhaust manifolds were reduced to one exhaust pipe, as in the usual 3102.

The pedals on the last "chaser" were no longer disguised as ordinary ones, although the machine selector did not outwardly differ from the manual transmission lever.

Mainly 31011 and 31012 worked in the committee. The number of cars in the police orange livery was also small:

The escort car was equipped with special signals and a Czech-made Tesla loudspeaker device.

A green flashing megatron is an incredible rarity today, and even back then. It was used on a car that was last in the line and allowed everyone around to continue moving.

The orange "Volga" escort vehicles were equipped with multichannel radio communications, like the "GAZ-24-25" They were assigned to the 9th department of the KGB, but inside there were officers in ordinary police uniforms, but they had communications on all fronts, through the channels of both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB.

The special signal control unit was run by the front passenger, it was hung under the glove compartment.

Already in the nineties, after the stock of engines for "Chaika" had been out, the plant tried to adapt engines from Ford Scorpio and Toyota Camry to "GAZ-3102" - respectively, versions with internal indeces 3102F and 3102T were born. "Toyota" units took root under the hood of Gorky cars more successfully, such options were collected literally in piece quantities for special exotics almost until the very end of the conveyor life of the model. Alas, in general, the finale of the family of the most powerful "Volgas" was inglorious ...