GAZ-23 for sale.

Very rare Special USSR KGB car (chaser) for SALE

In 1960, the Soviet KGB  (Committee for State Security), ordered from Gorky Automobile Plant to design a car to provide efficient pursuit, escorting and other special missions. The Customer (that is KGB) stipulated that the car must look exactly as usual "Volga" GAZ-21but more power.

The most powerful and modern at the time GAZ-13 eight-cylinder engine with automatic transmission and with little adaptation to the Volga engine compartment was chosen as the power unit. The vehicle was intended to ensure effective pursuit, to escort the motorcades, and to perform other special tasks of the state security service and was able to reach "a hundred" in just 16 seconds, its maximum speed was 170 km / h.

The installation of the 8-cylinder engine from the GAZ 13 Chaika on the Volga was a lot of work. In the end, the engine was installed by turning it by 2º along the crankshaft and slightly changing the right side member, but with literally millimeter gaps from the body elements.

The car is decorated with a full chrome package with "arrows" and "keels" on the fenders, as well as lighting fixtures with orange diffusers - such were put on the export versions. And the color of the body was painted not the standard Yaroslavl factory paint but Italian Fiat, which was bought for a valuable currency. 

Special locking mechanism allows the trunk to open only when the back right door is open: it prevents the penetration of unauthorized persons.

A huge radiator "Chaika" required to change the front shield (this detail can be unmistakably distinguished between real and fake cars), strengthened the front spars. The suspension was also upgraded: there were more powerful springs in the front, coiled from a steel bar with an increased diameter, behind - the original springs with 6.5 mm thick sheets (6 mm on the usual "Volga") and shock absorbers, combined with parts for "Volga" and "ZIM".

This is a 1962 car, still in the transitional body from the second series to the third - that's why there are short "second-series" gutters.

GAZ-23B was used to escort motorcades, as well as official cars of high officials of the Interior Ministry, the KGB and other related government agencies.

The camouflage of secret car required from the designers a brainstorming session. Let's start with the fact that the "Chaika" engine had two exhaust manifolds and two exhaust pipes.

To make the car secret and make it look like an ordinary car GAZ-23 installed two exhaust pipes under one peak , but they were near the rear bumper. 

A total of 603 GAZ-23’s were produced from 1962 to 1970, in contrast to the 1 million of the conventional GAZ-21’s. The difference in these numbers is impressive. It is clear that for an ordinary citizen, it was absolutely impossible to buy such a car. The prohibitions and restrictions that were in place in the USSR unequivocally excluded the possibility of such a secret car being used among the general public. After the end of their service life at the KGB, these cars were simply cut and totally destroyed. It could be argued that GAZ-23, with its small production size and predetermined fate, has now become extinct and that it no longer exists as a species. But there was a miracle! Single units were found,  and now we know of 19 such cars that still exist today. Most of them are carefully hidden in private museums and in the Kremlin garage.

But let’s go back to our car. 

Here we see a real GAZ-23. This is a car with an unusual fate - and even its color, dark blue with a purple tint (according to archival documents), is unusual: it was present in the factory palette, but used very rarely, only for cars with special status!  This car did not work specifically for the KGB - its first twenty years of life it lived in one of the secret towns near Moscow, where it served as a "express courier" between the Kremlin and one of the space institutes. Such a car did not stop at traffic lights and did not have to be stopped by the traffic police. 

This is also confirmed by license plates 5487 ЮБЯ which we found in one of the archival documents.

This car was almost accidentally purchased in a thrift store in Moscow by a resident of Khmelnik from the Vinnitsa region - that's how the rare "Volga" turned out in Ukraine.

After that, she was sold to the city of Vinnitsa (Ukraine), where she was found and described by Dmitry Gvozdev, the author of the famous website about the history of GAZ-23. Then the car moved to the city of Kharkov, where she was quietly dying in the parking lot. And then she got lucky again. In 2011, she fell into the hands of a collector from Dnepropetrovsk.

Automobiles are like people. They are born, they live and work, they get old, and they die. But unlike people, they can be reborn and can get a second life. 

Then, after their complete restoration, they go to museums and private collections, where they remain young forever. Our car is lucky, she was reborn, restored, and has received a second youth. 

The complete restoration cycle has been completed by mid-2017. The car is completely recreated exactly in the form in which she once left the Gorky Automobile Factory. 

The car body is assembled almost anew using only original spare parts. At the assembly, only original fasteners with the corresponding electroplated coating were used. Interior materials are authentic and correspond to the year of manufacture. Velour ceiling, front seat of model 21L, the material and color of the seats are exactly how they would have been in 1962.

According to experts , this is the best reconstruction of the GAZ-23. 

This undoubtedly unique and rare car offered for sale only rises in price over time. 

It is not afraid of crises, fluctuations of the national currency, the crashes of the security markets or stock quotes. Over the years, such car only becomes more valuable.