UAZ, Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant UAZ 469 Follow Me, Conversion (diecast 1:43, Saratov)

This is UAZ 469 Aeroflot Conversion. The model is made by Saratov in The Soviet Union in scale 1:43. Everything opens.

Over the years of production, it had to change several names: UAZ-469, UAZ-3151, UAZ-Hunter ... And how many modifications and special versions have been created over all these years! At the same time, the essence of this car has never changed - exactly as we know it, our fathers and even grandfathers knew it ... And it will be all the more interesting to look at some of the little-known facts of the biography of the legendary UAZ.

How it all began
The beginning of the countdown of the history of this machine in different sources is called different - after all, it can be counted from the start of production, and from state acceptance, and from the end of testing or design ... We would venture to assert that history is precisely the history of creation - this machine begins back in 1956, although the car, which they began to design then at UAZ, did not even have a remote resemblance to the final product.

The legendary UAZ was started by ... an amphibious vehicle. In 1956, the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, which then produced GAZ-69 and GAZ-69A, received an order from the Ministry of Defense to develop a floating jeep. In those years, such army vehicles were a "trend" in the world, and the Soviet military looked back primarily at the main strategic enemy - the United States.
The new Soviet jeep, in addition to the buoyancy property, was supposed to have a ground clearance of 400 mm in order to pass along a tank track, as well as a fully independent suspension and a carrying capacity designed for 7 passengers or 800 kg.

At that time, the department of the chief designer (OGK) at UAZ was loaded with the development of the UAZ-450 family and its successor UAZ-452, which we have already talked about. Nevertheless, work on a new army jeep began to boil, but soon the requirements of the military were supplemented: it was necessary to install a recoilless gun on an SUV - the Americans began to put such weapons on their light vehicles. And it doesn’t matter that in the United States they armed land jeeps in this way (you have to "catch up and overtake"), and the already partly designed Soviet amphibian has a rear-engine layout, and when the gun was installed, the powder gases would be shot directly into the engine compartment.

Legendary "military" bridges
They started, however, from what had already been developed. In 1960, two prototypes were assembled - one of them was designated UAZ-460 and had a chassis from the "Loaf" UAZ-450 with dependent suspension. The second, called UAZ-470, already had an independent torsion bar suspension inherited from the previously developed amphibian.

The first option did not suit the military - the required clearance value was not achieved in this way, and in terms of performance characteristics such a car was for the most part a repetition of the GAZ-69. The customer insisted on the second version, with an independent torsion bar suspension (wishbones plus longitudinal torsion bars) and wheel reduction gears - this car showed truly unprecedented results on the off-road.

However, there were also some sensitive disadvantages. Firstly, the car provided the declared clearance only in an unloaded state, and when the load was taken on board, the body sagged heavily. Secondly, for an independent suspension, and therefore a new transmission, a separate production was required, in which the customer was not going to invest. And thirdly, the study of foreign analogues revealed other design imperfections: the developers of the American Ford M151 could not achieve the desired balance, and on the East German Sachsenring P3, obtained from the famous Horch, during comparative tests, the front suspension on the left side was completely destroyed after contact with a piece of pipe just lying on the ground.

So how to achieve the "indestructibility" and cheapness inherent in an army jeep, while maintaining a high ground clearance? It was decided to take a step back, using a dependent bridge suspension scheme, leaving the keles gearboxes in the structure. That is, sacrifice the smoothness of the ride, but give a high figure for the clearance. But here, too, pitfalls were discovered: calculations showed that such a car simply would not be able to drive.

External gear reducers, generally accepted at that time, made it possible to reduce the size of the main gear housing (GP) by 100 mm, because the function of increasing the torque is now partly transferred to the wheel reducers, and to give an increase in clearance by another 100 mm due to the center-to-center distance of the gears in the gearboxes themselves ...

It turns out exactly the same 400 mm from the road to the GP crankcase, even with a small margin, but ... the bending moment in this case will simply pull out massive U-shaped bridges from the attachment points. And this is only half the trouble: the car itself will have a too high center of gravity and, accordingly, a tendency to roll over. It turned out that a car with the given dimensions cannot have more than 320 mm.
To fit the suspension into these values (and there was no other option left), an ingenious solution was found: in wheel reduction gears, go from external gearing to a more compact internal one, when one gear is located inside the other and the center-to-center distance is thus only 60 mm instead of 100 mm ... Yes, the ground clearance is only 320 mm, but such a car will be stable and reliable. As a result, the Ministry of Defense approved just such an option, and the future showed that the compromise was absolutely correct.

The final suspension scheme was approved on November 1, 1960, and in 1961 the first sample of an SUV was assembled, which was named UAZ-469. The car inherited the element base from the second iteration of the UAZ-452 "Loaf": a frame, an overhead valve 75-horsepower engine, which was also installed on the new Volga GAZ-21, and a 4-speed gearbox. The front drive was designed to be switchable, the transfer case-demultiplier was in the same case with the gearbox, which favorably distinguished the new jeep from the GAZ-69, where the cardan transmission between the nodes created most of the noise and vibration. The ideology of the chassis was complemented by new axles with internal gears. The very ones!

Interestingly, in parallel with this, another, albeit outwardly very similar, prototype was assembled, the UAZ-471, which had a monocoque body (!), An independent suspension without wheel gears and a promising 4-cylinder V-shaped engine. The engine was approved, but did not go into production, and in general, the final choice by the military was made in favor of the time-tested frame architecture.
Design, competitors and a long way to the conveyor

And only after that, in fact, the birth of that design of the UAZ-469, which is now known to everyone, began. It was not called design at that time, there were engineers and their kind - body designers. In the canonical form, the appearance of the UAZ took shape by 1961. It was then that cars were assembled with a hood rounded from the sides, as if covering the headlights, slightly inflated front fenders and characteristic door openings, beveled at the rear.

In 1961, such a car (albeit still with the "old" UAZ-460 index) in a stylish two-tone orange-and-white livery was even shown at VDNKh - and where, one wonders, has all the military secrecy gone ?! Indeed, a few years ago, only a couple of employees were engaged in this project at the UAZ, who were sitting in the office behind a locked lattice door with a sign "No entry, call for employees!"
In the same 1961, the UAZ passed comparative tests with the off-road vehicles of the NATO countries. Central Asia, Pamir, Caspian Sea and back along the Volga - this was the route of the run. Tests at the NIIII-21 tank range were spelled out in a separate line. Eyewitnesses claim that all tests ended in complete immobilization of competitors. The legendary Land Rover Defender was invariably among the defeated, both then and after. "Def" drowned in Indonesia, got stuck at the NIIII-21 range, and rolled off the slope of Elbrus not on wheels, but head over heels! However, as is often the case, Land Rover fans probably have other comparative test data. :)

In the next few years, the proportions of the body were slightly refined, an optimal solution was found for the configuration of the slots of the radiator grille ... By the way, in the course of these works, an unexpected "by-product" was obtained: the UAZ emblem was born - the same one that we see on Ulyanovsk jeeps to this day day. Among other things, a modification of the machine without wheel gears was developed, called UAZ-469B (the letter meant "gearless"). Due to this circumstance, UAZs among the people will subsequently be divided into cars with "collective farm" and "military" bridges. But the introduction of the car into the series was restrained by the work that was not listed at all.
According to one of the versions, in those years, the Ministry of the Automotive Industry allocated funds mainly for the launch and "buildup" of new plants - first VAZ, then KAMAZ, and financed the rest on a leftover basis. According to another version, the path of the UAZ-469 to the conveyor complicated the shortage of new engines. Be that as it may, and pre-production copies were assembled only in 1971, production vehicles with gearless axles appeared in December 1972, and a machine with wheel gears, which was the base one and was developed first, appeared in the series, oddly enough. only six months later - in the summer of 1973.

Why is the UAZ better than GAZ?
The distribution on the conveyor was as follows: 20% of all produced cars fell on "military" bridges, 80% - on "collective farm" bridges. Initially, the division according to the body version was also laid - after assembling the lower part on the conveyor, some bodies were supposed to be equipped with a tented top, and others - with a rigid "fold-over" as a roof. But the UAZ-469 in all cases was "sharpened" for the carriage of both goods and passengers - 175 mm longer than the GAZ-69A, which has a larger base by 80 mm, and, being 35 mm wider and 57 mm higher than its predecessor , UAZ made it possible to get by with one "universal" option. In the cabin there could be 5 passengers, and in the rear compartment - two more people on folding "chairs" and / or luggage.
Yes, the body of the well-deserved GAZ in the three-door version made it possible to accommodate one more person, but the total carrying capacity of the new UAZ was at a different height - during the tests, the car calmly took on board two people and 600 kg of cargo (or 7 people and 100 kg) and pulled for a GAZ-407 trailer with a ballast of 850 kg. The power supply system was the same as in the "Gazon" - from two fuel tanks, but the consumption per hundred kilometers of track was reduced by about 2 liters.

A more powerful engine, a spacious interior, improved ergonomics, an increased convenience of getting in and out, a tailgate that served as a continuation of the body when transporting long lengths and a higher manufacturability ... was not too high, and the front glass did not fold back, which made it difficult to shoot - as we remember, the main purpose of this machine was army. But the combination of all the qualities made it possible to call the UAZ-469 a new generation car. And so it was in for great success.
Team of their youth
The most controversial issue in the history of the UAZ-469 is "who created it." The fact is that it is impossible to name one person here, and this is partly due to the specifics of the OGK UAZ of those years. At the end of the 50s, the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant was experiencing its rebirth, and the engineering staff had to be re-created, for which several experienced specialists were sent from GAZ, in whose subordination were several dozen yesterday's students of KHADI, MAMI, Gorky and Volgograd Polytechnics, as well as others technical universities of the country.
In total, the team consisted of about 80 people, each was engaged in his own narrow segment of work and was often transferred from project to project by his superiors (it is precisely because of this, by the way, that it is so difficult to collect information about the creation of a specific UAZ model of those years). However, the team was talented and worked efficiently, completely dispensing with bureaucratic red tape and strict hierarchy (which was neither before nor after!) UAZ-469 business here, believe me, is not limited. Nevertheless, several key figures in the fate of the UAZ-469 can and should be distinguished.

At the time of the development of the prototype, the chief designer of the UAZ was Pyotr Ivanovich Muzyukin, it all started with him. The first prototypes were assembled and designed by Lev Adrianovich Startsev, who later became the chief designer of the plant. The same axles with wheel gears, which served as the main stumbling block at the design stage, were developed by Georgy Konstantinovich Mirzovev, in the future the chief designer of the Volga Automobile Plant. And the design of the car was developed by Mirzoev's close friend - designer Albert Mikhailovich Rakhmanov, who later headed the design center of UAZ, and then worked under the "creative direction" of Yuliy Georgievich Borzov, the leading designer for bodies.
The designers of the UAZ-452 van E.V. Varchenko, L.A. Startsev, M.P. Tsyganov and S.M. Tyurin, it was the "Loaf" that became the "donor" of the units for the UAZ-469. In addition, Ivan Alekseevich Davydov, who stood at the origins of the very first "Loaf" UAZ-450, is called the ideological inspirer of the UAZ jeep in many sources. In 1972, the model was brought into serial production by Pyotr Ivanovich Zhukov, who at that time took over the post of chief designer. The production was financed by the Minavtoprom, which was headed by Alexander Mikhailovich Tarasov, and the final "go-ahead" for this production, as the legend says, was given by Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, to whom the UAZ team fitted a prototype as a car for hunting ...
Instead of lever shock absorbers, hydraulic telescopic ones appeared, the bridges were replaced by reliable continuous ones, the suspension in the part of the elastic element first evolved from a simple spring to a leaf spring, and then completely became spring. The lighting equipment was modernized, the windshield was made one-piece, the wipers were moved to its lower part. A vacuum booster and a hydraulic clutch were introduced into the design, more modern suspended pedals, comfortable seats and an efficient heater appeared in the cabin ...

In 1985, the model was renamed according to the new standard - the military jeep became known as UAZ-3151 (formerly UAZ-469), the civil modification UAZ-31512 (UAZ-469B), the version with an all-metal roof received the UAZ-31514 index, the long wheelbase - UAZ-3153 ... The active phase of modernization continued until the early 1990s, after which the car plant focused on other developments - the not very successful UAZ-3160 Simbir and the quite viable UAZ Patriot that followed. By the way, the same "four hundred and sixty-ninth" served as the basis for these developments.
New time
In 2003, the UAZ-3151, a direct descendant of the UAZ-469, acquired a deluxe version, which was named UAZ Hunter, leaving the unreadable index 315195 for in-plant needs. Despite all the multi-stage modernization and stylistic tweaks, the "Hunter" remained the same "goat" (a nickname inherited from the GAZ-69 for the effect of galloping or longitudinal swing) with all the following pros and cons. Moreover, from April 2010 to June 2011, 5000 copies of the "real" UAZ-469 were produced - the jubilee series was dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the Victory. By that time, the total number of UAZ-469 / UAZ-3151 / UAZ "Hunter" produced exceeded 2 million ...

What's next? The days of the legendary UAZ are apparently numbered. Firstly, the market chooses the more comfortable UAZ Patriot, and secondly, the Hunter does not fit into modern security requirements. And thirdly, the equipment of the conveyor, where these machines are produced, is completely worn out, unable to ensure the proper assembly quality, and its replacement would cost more than 1 billion rubles. The plant's management will more willingly invest this money in the development of an independent front suspension, the purchase of foreign components and the production of a short-base version of the Patriot, which is supposed to occupy the niche of the Hunter, aka UAZ-469.

The UAZ-469 presented two great advantages: it was able to drive in virtually any terrain and it was very easy to repair. The vehicle was originally not available for purchase by the public, but many were sold as surplus to private owners. UAZ 469 was exported to 80 countries. The UAZ-469 and its modifications have gained a dedicated following because of its off-road ability, reliability and simplicity. Off-road enthusiasts welcome it as a lower-cost and better alternative to the American Jeep, British Land Rover and Japanese Land Cruiser. In 1978, in San Remo, at Martoletti the UAZ-469 received the "Silver Jack" award for winning the Italian autocross championship. The serial UAZ-469 set a world record for passenger car capacity . Inside the car accommodated 32 people.

One of the first tests of the UAZ-469 was carried out from July 1962 to February 1963 in several stages in the amount of 27.4-30.6 thousand kilometers. The first stage of run tests in the volume of 9,200 kilometers was carried out from July 7 to August 1962 along the route Ulyanovsk-Aralsk-Tashkent-Osh-Khorog-Dushanbe-Ashgabat-Baku-Volgograd-Ulyanovsk. In addition, in addition, in order to check the effectiveness of the revision of units and assemblies carried out by the plant based on the results of the first stage of testing, two UAZ-469 vehicles with trailers with a total weight of 850 kilograms each took part in the State tests of the ZAZ-967 vehicle in October-November 1962 and passed 9500 kilometers along the route Tashkent-Osh-Khorog-Dushanbe-Kerki-Mary-Ashgabat-Krasnovodsk-Baku-Tikhoretsk-Krasnodar-Kerch-Zaporozhye-Ulyanovsk. The main part of the tests on mountain roads took place in the Pamirs (Osh-Khorog-Dushanbe) at high altitudes. The roads were mostly gravel, in some areas - unpaved. They abounded in steep, long ascents and descents with a lot of sharp turns and passes of considerable height.

Philippe Martorelli in the 469th UAZ became the absolute champion of Italy in auto racing.

The car was exported to 80 countries of the world (and in the USSR it was sold to private hands before perestroika only for special merits) and was very popular not only in third world countries, but also in Europe. In Italy in the 60s there was a fashion for the "Russian jeep". The owners of the famous Italian company "Marbroz" brothers Martorelli - one of those who infected Italians with a passion for all-terrain vehicles. All Martorelli were avid athletes, participated in races and autocrossing. Since 1971, Martorelli's team has not left the list of the strongest in Italy. The tracks of the competition have always been extremely difficult, with deep fords and difficult sections along the bed of a stream dotted with rocky rifts. In 1982, the UAZ-469b took the absolute first place in the national championship in the class of all-wheel drive vehicles with a diesel engine. In 1983 - the second place in the overall standings and the first place in its class. The result of the 1984 Italian championship: 1st place - UAZ-469-B. In 1992, Philippe Martorelli in the 469th UAZ became the absolute champion of Italy in auto racing

UAZ-469 became the first car to conquer Elbrus

In August 1974, three absolutely standard (without winches and traction control chains) UAZ-469B vehicles climbed the serpentine slope of Elbrus to an altitude of 4200 meters above sea level. The net climb time was only 38 minutes.

UAZ-469 set a world record

UAZ-469 set a world record for passenger car capacity. 32 people can fit inside the SUV at the same time, approximately the same number of passenger seats are accommodated in a regular bus. The total weight of passengers together with the driver was 1900 kg, which corresponds to the weight of an African elephant. UAZ 469 with a full load also drove 10 m, as required by the conditions for establishing a world record.