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The GAZ-13 Chaika (Seagull) was an
automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
manufactured by the Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (
GAZ Gaz may refer to: Geography *Gaz, Kyrgyzstan Iran * Gaz, Darmian, village in South Khorasan province * Gaz, Golestan, a village in Bandar-e Gaz County * Gaz, Hormozgan, a village in Minab County * Gaz, Kerman, a village * Gaz, North Khorasan, a ...
, 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 Packard (formerly the Packard Motor Car Company) was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana, in 1958. One ...
automobiles.


History

The GAZ-13 Chaika debuted in 1958. It was produced from 1959 to 1981, with 3,179 built in all. The GAZ-13 was powered by a 195-hp SAE gross 5.5 L V8 with a 4 barrel carburetor called the ZMZ-13 engine, and driven through a push-button
automatic transmission An automatic transmission (AT) or automatic gearbox is a multi-speed transmission (mechanics), transmission used in motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving conditions. The 1904 ...
of a similar design to the
Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...
PowerFlite unit. The engine was a relatively modern and reliable design for its time, and a modified version of it with a reduced compression ratio and smaller 2 barrel carburetor would be used on the GAZ-53 truck, alongside the
BRDM-2 The BRDM-2 (''Boyevaya Razvedyvatelnaya Dozornaya Mashina'', Боевая Разведывательная Дозорная Машина, literally "Combat Reconnaissance/Patrol Vehicle") is an amphibious armoured scout car designed and developed ...
military vehicle. 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 which can be operated mechanically by hand or by a button electronically. A luxu ...
(GAZ-13A), and four-door cabriolet (GAZ-13B) with an
electrohydraulic An actuator is a component of a machine that produces force, torque, or displacement, when an electrical, pneumatic or hydraulic input is supplied to it in a system (called an actuating system). The effect is usually produced in a controlled way. ...
top. The cabriolet was made in 1961 and 1962 for official parades. RAF in Riga produced the GAZ-13A Universal, an estate, in the 1960s in Riga; this was also built as the GAZ-13S
ambulance An ambulance is a medically-equipped vehicle used to transport patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to ...
, as well as a
hearse A hearse () is a large vehicle, originally a horse carriage but later with the introduction of motor vehicles, a car, used to carry the body of a deceased person in a coffin to a funeral, wake, or graveside service. They range from deliberately ...
. Produced for a few years in the 1960s, it is the lowest-volume Chaika variant. Small numbers were also built for
Mosfilm Mosfilm (, ''Mosfil’m'' , initialism and portmanteau of Moscow Films) is a film studio in Moscow which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's fi ...
. As a limousine-class car, Chaikas were available only to the Soviet government, and could not be purchased by average citizens. However, citizens were allowed to rent Chaikas for weddings. Chaikas were used by Soviet ambassadors and Communist Party First Secretaries in East Germany, North Korea, Bulgaria, Hungary, Mongolia, China, and Finland, among others;
Jiang Qing Jiang Qing (March 191414 May 1991), also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and political figure. She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman of the Communis ...
and
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
were given one each by General Secretary
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
, who himself preferred the Chaika to his ZIL, and kept one at his summer
dacha A dacha (Belarusian, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of former Soviet Union, post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ...
. He also presented one limousine version each to both King Sisavang Vatthana of
Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...
and Prime Minister, Prince
Norodom Sihanouk Norodom Sihanouk (; 31 October 192215 October 2012) was a member of the House of Norodom, Cambodian royal house who led the country as Monarchy of Cambodia, King, List of heads of state of Cambodia, Chief of State and Prime Minister of Cambodi ...
of
Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...
on their visits to the Soviet Union. For their larger size and more powerful V8, Chaikas were also ordered in some quantity by the
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
. Top speed was . Most Chaikas were saloons. The convertible GAZ-13B was built in limited numbers for only two years, 1961 and 1962. The GAZ-13 was discontinued in 1981, subsequent to the 1977 debut of the succeeding GAZ-14 which continued to be built until the demise of the Chaika in 1988.Thompson, p.70.
Pyotr Masherov Pyotr Mironovich Masherov (né Mashero; – 4 October 1980) was a Soviet partisan, statesman, and one of the leaders of the Belarusian resistance during World War II who governed the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic as First Secretary ...
, First Secretary of the
Communist Party of Byelorussia Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, ...
, was killed in 1980 when the Chaika he was travelling in collided with a GAZ-53 truck carrying potatoes. File:Tschaika (7906329546).jpg, Front view File:GAZ-13 Chaika during the Oldtimer Show 2008.jpg, Rear view. Notice the tailpipe integrated in the rear bumper as well as the late-1950s American-style tailfins. File:GAZ-13 Chaika during the Oldtimer Expo 2008.jpg, Sedan version File:GAZ 13B Chaika (1968) 1X7A8082.jpg, Cabriolet File:Flickr - Hugo90 - GAZ Chaika.jpg, GAZ logo File:Chaika car interior.JPG, GAZ-13 interior


References

{{GAZ timeline 1960-present Cars of Russia GAZ Group vehicles Soviet automobiles Cars introduced in 1959 Cars discontinued in 1981 Rear-wheel-drive vehicles