The GAZ-64 was a

4x4 Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

vehicle made by

GAZ GAZ or Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (russian: ГАЗ or Го́рьковский автомоби́льный заво́д, , Gorky Automobile Plant) is a Russian automotive manufacturer located in Nizhny Novgorod, formerly known as Gorky (Го� ...

(Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod, translated as Gorky Automobile Plant, which originally was a cooperation between

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

), succeeding the earlier

GAZ-61 The GAZ-61 is a four wheel drive car from USSR manufacturer GAZ first introduced in 1938 by designer V. A. Gratchev, to replace his too-complex model GAZ-M2. History It was made by putting a GAZ-M1 body on a four-wheel-drive chassis (one of th ...

. Its design was led by Vitaliy Grachev. The design process was exceptionally quick, taking only a few weeks.

Design

The curb weigh of the car was . It was powered by a 3285 cc,

inline-4 A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...

engine giving and a top speed of .Thompson, p. 31.Pročko (2005) It was produced using existing commercially available parts.Jeeps 1941–45 By Steven J. Zaloga. P.38-39

Development

The GAZ-64 was developed from a requirement developed during the 1939-1940 war between the Soviet Union and Finland. Although it appears outwardly similar to the American Bantam /

Willys jeep The Willys MB and the Ford GPW, both formally called the U.S. Army Truck, -ton, 4×4, Command Reconnaissance, commonly known as the Willys Jeep, Jeep, or jeep, and sometimes referred to by its supply catalogue designation G503,According to i ...

, it was developed using parts already commercially available in the Soviet Union, and built in a plant that was originally set up with Ford. It was designed to replace the earlier

, which was totally reconstructed in a very short period (3 February – 25 March 1941) under the leadership of

Vitaly Grachev Vitaliy Vladasovich Grachev (russian: Виталий Владасович Грачёв; uk, Віталій Владасович Грачов, Vitaliy Vladasovych Hrachov; born 19 February 1979), known professionally as Vitas ( rus, Вит� ...

to create a 4×4 jeep, which was named the GAZ-64. During WWII, it was succeeded by the more successful

GAZ-67 The GAZ-67 and the GAZ-67B (from January 1944) were general-purpose four-wheel drive Soviet military vehicles built by GAZ starting in 1943. By the end of the war, it was the Soviet equivalent of the World War II jeep. The GAZ-67 was a further d ...

and GAZ-67B. The GAZ-64 and GAZ-67 formed the basis for the

BA-64 The BA-64 (''БА-64'', from ''Bronirovaniy Avtomobil'', literally "armoured car") was a Soviet four-wheeled armoured scout car. Built on the chassis of a GAZ-64 or GAZ-67 jeep, it incorporated a hull loosely modeled after that of the Sd.Kfz. ...

armoured cars Armored (or armoured) car or vehicle may refer to: Wheeled armored vehicles * Armoured fighting vehicle, any armed combat vehicle protected by armor ** Armored car (military), a military wheeled armored vehicle * Armored car (valuables), an arm ...

Production

646 GAZ-64s were made between March 1941 and summer 1942 by the

or Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod company. The name translates as the Gorky automobile plant, and the factory was originally a cooperation between the company

and the

. Due to the availability of American made jeeps provided by the American

Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

program, the majority of wartime production of the GAZ-64 was dedicated to the BA-64 armored cars. Due to GAZ-64 (and GAZ-67(B) from 1943/1944) production being tied to BA-64 production, only around 2,500 regular units were produced during the war. Post-war production increased greatly, and more than 90,000 GAZ-67Bs were produced by the time production ended in 1953.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Pročko, Evgenij (2005). ''GAZ-64/67, GAZ-61/AR-NATI (4x4)''. Militaria. * Thompson, Andy (2008) ''Cars of the Soviet Union: The Definitive History''. Haynes Publishing.

External links

Ad for a 1/72 model of the GAZ-64 armored car
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528224218/http://zebrano-model.com/1_72_Scale_Military_Auto/GAZ-64/ , date=28 May 2015
Military Factory article
GAZ Group vehicles World War II vehicles of the Soviet Union Military light utility vehicles