The GAZ Chaika (russian: Ча́йка), which means

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century ...

, is a luxury

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

from 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 nationa ...

made by GAZ (''Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod'', translated as Gorky Automobile Plant (Russian: ''ГАЗ'' or ''Го́рьковский автомоби́льный заво́д'')). The vehicle is one step down from the

ZIL-111 The ZIL-111 was a limousine produced by the Soviet car manufacturer ZIL in 1958–1967. It was the first post-war limousine designed in the Soviet Union. After tests with the shortlived prototype ZIL-Moscow in 1956, which gained a place in the ...

limousine, and was produced in much larger numbers. Chaika production consisted of two generations, the

GAZ-13 The GAZ-13 Chaika (Seagull) is an automobile manufactured by the Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod ( GAZ, Gorky Automobile Plant) from 1959 to 1981 as a generation of its Chaika marque. It is famously noted for its styling which resembled 1950s Packard ...

from 1959 to 1981 and the

GAZ-14 The GAZ-14 Chaika''ГАЗ-14 «Чайка». Руководство по ремонту.'' Avtoexport. Moscow around 1988. is an automobile manufactured by the Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (GAZ, Gorky Automobile Plant) from 1977 to 1988 as a gener ...

from 1977 to 1988.

GAZ-13 Chaika

The GAZ-13 Chaika debuted in 1958 and was exhibited internationally at the Brussels motor show. It was produced from 1959 to 1981, with a total of 3,179 built.Thompson, p.70. The GAZ-13 was powered by a 195-hp SAE gross 5.5 L V8 and driven through a push-button

automatic transmission An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving ...

of a similar design to the Chrysler TorqueFlite unit. It was offered as a saloon (GAZ-13),

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a pr ...

(GAZ-13A), and four-door

cabriolet A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...

(GAZ-13B) with an electrohydraulic top. The cabriolet was made in 1961 and 1962 for official parades. A station wagon version was also offered as a hearse or ambulance.

GAZ-14 Chaika

The GAZ-13's styling had become antequated by the 1970s, and it was succeeded by the more modern ''GAZ-14 Chaika'' introduced in 1977 (although production of both versions overlapped by several years). Although visually modern and fitted with the latest electronic luxury features, the GAZ-14 was in fact built around the drivetrain and undercarriage of the older model.Thompson, p.211. Chaikas were mainly used by local governors, as the more luxurious ZiL were usually reserved exclusively for members of the Politburo, but in some cases it found its way up to the top, such as in Cuba where it was used by Fidel Castro.

References

External links

PhotographInternational Chaika Club
{{GAZ timeline 1960-present Cars of Russia GAZ Group vehicles 1950s cars 1960s cars 1970s cars Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers Soviet automobiles Luxury vehicles Flagship vehicles Rear-wheel-drive vehicles