GAZ Gorky Automobile Plant GAZ - 64 (1:43, Hongwell / Nash Avtoprom)

This is GAZ - 64. The model is made by Hongwell for Nash Avtoprom in scale 1:43. Nothing opens.

GAZ-64 serial car (1941-1942) - a Soviet military all-wheel drive passenger car with a simplified open body that had cutouts instead of doors. It is considered the first Soviet serial SUV. The GAZ-64 was intended for use as a battlefield command vehicle and a light artillery tractor, but in the army it was actually used as an infantry vehicle capable of transporting fighters to the squad for a short-term overload. The car received the Red Army nicknames "goat" and "Ivan-willis", which then switched to subsequent models GAZ-67 and GAZ-67B.

On February 3, 1941, work began on a car that received the GAZ-64-416 index (according to the product designation system then in force at GAZ: the first digit is the chassis number, the second is the body number). The concept of the car was completely conceived by the leading designer V.A. Grachev. Together with V.A. Grachev, only engineer G.M. Wasserman and technician A.G. Kuzin constantly worked on the machine. The rest of the specialists performed “one-time tasks” - V.T. Komarevsky designed the body, and A.D. Prosvirnin the steering trapezoid.

As the legend says, the initial motivation for the creation of the GAZ-64 was an article from the American magazine Automoutive Industries about the start of serial production of the first American army multi-purpose all-terrain vehicle Bantam BRC40, read by the head of the GBTU of the Red Army, Major General I.P. Tyagunov. His initiative to make a "Soviet Bantam" was supported by the People's Commissar for Heavy Engineering V. A. Malyshev, who, in turn, ordered not to deviate from the prototype in any way (despite the objections of the developers), which predetermined the gauge narrowed to 1250 mm and the narrow body of the GAZ-64 .
The development assignment was issued in January 1941 to two plants at the same time - GAZ and NATI. The task strictly stipulated the length and track of the car, load capacity (400 kg) and service life (5000 km). More successful in layout and smoothness on rough terrain (smoothness affected machine gun firing on the move), the experimental NATI-AR jeep turned out to be technologically more complex and therefore did not go into production in wartime conditions.

The development of the GAZ-64 (later the BA-64) took place under the guidance of the lead designer V. A. Grachev in record time. For the creation of the BA-64 armored car and the light commander's army all-terrain vehicle GAZ-61 on April 10, 1942, V. A. Grachev was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 3rd degree. The urgency of the work was determined by the alarming international situation, and the events at Khalkhin Gol showed the need for a more complete motorization of the Red Army. Hence the wide unification of the jeep with the GAZ-61, GAZ-MM and GAZ-M-1 mass-produced at that time at GAZ. From April 15 to April 27, 1941, the GAZ-64 successfully passed military tests at the GBTU Red Army training ground, NATI-AR also participated in the tests.

GAZ-64 was mass-produced from the end of August 1941 to April 1943. In total, 672 cars were produced, of which 67 cars (and armored cars on its chassis 2486) in 1942. In 1943, only 3 copies were produced. the upgraded GAZ-64V model with the front axle track extended to 1293 mm. From April 1942 to June 1943, the BA-64 armored car was produced on the GAZ-64 chassis. Its production, of course, was a priority, which was reflected in the number of armored vehicles produced, which amounted to 3903 units. Moreover, in fact, since 1942, all all-wheel drive chassis "64" were only equipped with armored hulls. In August 1943, the Gorky Automobile Plant, which was still recovering from the devastating air raids of the Luftwaffe, was still able to master the production of a modernized BA-64B armored car with a track extended to 1446 mm. This was necessary because of the main drawback of the BA-64, the tendency to roll over due to the combination of a narrow gauge and a high center of gravity. Accordingly, from the end of 1943, instead of the GAZ-64, they began to produce a redesigned GAZ-67 with an extended track