Chaika
Encyclopedia
A Chaika which means gull
Gull
Gulls are birds in the family Laridae. They are most closely related to the terns and only distantly related to auks, skimmers, and more distantly to the waders...

, is a luxury automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 made by GAZ
GAZ
GAZ or Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod , translated as Gorky Automobile Plant , started in 1932 as NAZ, a cooperation between Ford and the Soviet Union. It is one of the largest companies in the Russian automotive industry....

. The vehicle is one step down from the ZIL limousine
ZIL-41047
ZIL-41047 is a limousine built by ZIL of Russia. Production of ZIL models ceased in 2002 due to their previous customer base turning to more modern Western vehicles.-Description:...

.

Specifications and history

Chaika production consisted of two generations. The mark 1 Chaika, the GAZ M13, was produced from 1959 to 1981, and is the more famous and more numerous with more than 3,100 examples built during the 22 year production run. The Chaika GAZ M13 was visually a near-clone of the 1955 Packard Patrician
Packard Patrician
The Packard Patrician was an automobile built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, from model years 1951 through the 1954, and by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, during model years 1955 and 1956...

 and Mercury, with typical chrome-bedecked 1950s styling. The M13 was powered by a 195 horsepower (145 kW) 5.5L V8
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....

 and driven through a push-button automatic transmission
Automatic transmission
An automatic transmission is one type of motor vehicle transmission that can automatically change gear ratios as the vehicle moves, freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually...

 of a similar design to the Chrysler
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....

 TorqueFlite
TorqueFlite
TorqueFlite is the trademarked name of Chrysler Corporation's automatic transmissions, starting with the three-speed unit introduced late in the 1956 model year as a successor to Chrysler's two-speed PowerFlite...

 unit. As a limousine
Limousine
A limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....

-class car, Chaikas were available only to the Soviet government, and could not be purchased by the average citizens. Chaikas were one step down from the more prestigious ZIL limousines, and were issued to top professionals, party officials, scientists, academics, and other VIPs. For their larger size and more powerful V8, Chaikas were also ordered in some quantity by the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...

. Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...

, although entitled to a ZIL, was known to prefer Chaikas, and kept an M13 at his summer dacha
Dacha
Dacha is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the exurbs of Soviet and post-Soviet cities. Cottages or shacks serving as family's main or only home are not considered dachas, although many purpose-built dachas are recently being converted for year-round residence...

. Top speed was 99 mph (158 km/h)

The vintage 1950s-style M13 was succeeded by the more modern Chaika M14 introduced in 1977 (although production of both versions overlapped by several years). The M14 drew styling cues from blocky, upright American luxury sedans of the period, but, unlike the M13 did not directly copy any one design. Although visually modern and fitted with the latest electronic luxury features, the M14 was in fact built around the drivetrain and undercarriage of the older model. The M14 engine was modernized and achieved 220 hp. The Chaika M14 remained in production from 1977 to 1988, after which point the Chaika limousine brand was ended.
Engine HP Transmission wheelbase length suspension
8-cylinder 207 3-speed 135.8" 240" Front: independent with coil springs


Although most Chaikas were sedans, both generations were also produced in 4-door convertible
Convertible
A convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away having windows which wind-down inside the doors, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle...

 form, primarily for parade use. The M13 convertible, or M13b, was built for only two years 1961 and 1962. The M14b lasted longer, introduced in 1982, it ran to the end of Chaika production in 1988.

A station wagon
Station wagon
A station wagon is a body style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door , instead of a trunk lid...

 version, the M13A Universal, was produced for a few years in the 1960s and is the lowest-volume Chaika variant. Many of the wagons were converted to ambulance
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...

 or funeral car
Hearse
A hearse is a funerary vehicle used to carry a coffin from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, hearses are often called funeral coaches.-History:...

 duty.

Today, GAZ specializes in mid-price and premium cars all sold under the Volga
Volga (automobile)
Volga is an automobile brand that originated in the Soviet Union to replace the venerated GAZ-M20 Pobeda in 1956. Modern in design, it became a symbol of higher status in the Soviet nomenklatura...

 brand.

Trivia

  • The Hungarian Railway Museum
    Hungarian Railway Museum
    The Hungarian Railway Museum is a railway museum located in Budapest, Hungary at a depot of the Hungarian State Railways...

    features a Chaika that has been converted to travel on rails.
  • The 1959 styling was based on the 1955 Packard built in Detroit. Packards were built from 1899 to 1958.

External links

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