Secret car of the 9th KGB Directorate - Gaz 31013 "Volga"

GAZ Volga cars are known not only in the CIS countries, but also far beyond their borders. It was once a prestigious sedan, in the 1990s an affordable one, but this model is no longer produced.


But have you heard the legends about KGB vehicles? Non-standard "Volga", converted in secret garages, which easily overtook high-speed Mercedes and BMWs? They really existed, and the latest "catch-up" is the GAZ-31013.

The black "Volga" of the KGB is a legend

Before starting our story, I would like to clarify the situation at the expense of tinted black KGB cars. There were legends in the USSR that a Volga of this color was surveillance and wiretapping, it was better to stay away from it.

In fact, all Soviet "catch-ups" tried to disguise themselves as ordinary "Volga", and painted them in inconspicuous colors. Rumors about black cars blossomed, most likely on purpose. No one will stick out the KGB cars intentionally - it unmasks.



There were black "Volgas" with powerful engines, but these were not "catchers" stuffed with special equipment, but motorcade escort vehicles. Speed ​​and presentable appearance were important there.

A Brief History of KGB Special Vehicles

The history of high-speed cars of domestic production for the KGB should begin in 1956. Then the first Pobeda appeared with a non-standard engine, which received the factory index M-20G or M-26. This car received a V6 engine from the representative Soviet ZiM sedan.

The next stage is the appearance of the first Volga GAZ-21 and a special car based on it under the GAZ-23 index. This is a powerful "catch-up" - with a V8 engine from the "Seagull" and an automatic transmission from the same engine. There was an attempt to combine the motor with a conventional manual transmission, but he broke the box. The engine developed fantastic power for those times - 195 hp. With.



On the basis of the GAZ-24, "catch-ups" were also produced. All of them received the same motors from the "Seagull" for 195 liters. With. The engines were modernized, but the power remained at the same level.

"Catchers" based on the GAZ-24 had an index of 24-24. Newer versions based on the GAZ-24-10 were called 24-34.

GAZ-31013 in person

GAZ-3102 has become a landmark in the history of the Gorky Automobile Plant. It was produced from 1981 to 2008 and was considered the best Volga. This is an elite sedan for high military officials and party leaders.

Naturally, on the chassis of this "Volga" they decided to develop a "catch-up", which became the last production car created specifically for the KGB. By the way, two more special vehicles were made on the basis of the GAZ-3102 for the needs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the traffic police, but one of them remained experimental, and the second was released in a small series. These machines will be mentioned towards the end of the article.

The last Gorky "catch-up" received the GAZ-31013 index. The car, like its predecessors, was developed under the heading "top secret". Therefore, reliable information about him was only learned closer to the mid-1990s.



GAZ-31013 was produced in the secret regime workshop of the Gorky Automobile Plant. All workers signed a non-disclosure agreement. The model was made on the GAZ-3102 chassis, the suspension and body were strengthened, the engine was installed all the same 505 from the Seagull.

Many argue that when creating the "catch-up" they took the Mercedes W123 as a basis. In fact, the GAZ-31013 has nothing in common with the model from the German manufacturer. It is likely that the design of the Mercedes W3102 served as a starting point when developing the base 123. But these are rumors that have never been confirmed by the documents of the Gorky Automobile Plant.

The engine has nothing to do with the Mercedes. This is a ZMZ-505.10 model with a power of 195-220 hp. With. depending on the year of issue.
Outwardly, it was quite difficult to distinguish the GAZ-31013 from a simple Volga, but these cars were disguised in different ways. The standard "catch-up" was distinguished by the presence of two exhaust pipes, lower ground clearance, and special communication antennas.

Landing is due to the use of a heavy V8 engine in the front. Behind it was balanced with a cast-iron plate in the trunk. This was done not only to maintain the weight distribution, but also to ensure that the car slipped less when starting off.



But some "catch-ups", designed to spy on important objects, were masked very carefully.

Features:

• ? The suspension was strengthened just enough to maintain the standard ground clearance of the base GAZ-3102
  
• ? The automatic transmission was disguised as a mechanics lever
  
• ? Made a false clutch pedal
  
• ? Two exhaust tracts were connected under the bottom into one
  

The GAZ-31013 was assembled manually. The body was tinned so that it would not rust, glued with thick sound insulation, painted cars like the "Seagull" - several layers of enamel and varnish.

Even the owners of foreign cars could envy the equipment of the “catchers”:

• ? Power steering
  
• ? Electroglass
  
• ? Air conditioners
  

And that's not counting the special equipment on board!



The end of the era of "catching up" and the last model of the series - GAZ-31013, is sad. At first, cars stopped producing. After serving their time, they were decommissioned and sold to those who wished. That's just not in the form of "catch-ups", but hastily converted into ordinary "Volga".



Not only special equipment was filmed, even engines and gearboxes were changed to standard ones. Say, the car is secret, you can’t “publicly” it! It is impossible to say exactly when the last GAZ-31013s were scrapped; most likely, this happened at the very beginning of the 2000s.

Unknown catch-ups for the traffic police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs

In addition to the last "catch-up", on the GAZ-3102 chassis, back in the 1980s, they wanted to create a simpler car for traffic police departments. In order to reduce the cost of production as much as possible, it was decided to install an engine and a manual gearbox from GAZ-53 on a standard Volga. This is a V8 with a displacement of 4,25 liters.

Especially for installation on a new car, which received the factory index GAZ-31011, the engine from the Lawn was boosted to 160 hp. With.
But the model never went into production - the plant management considered that manual alteration of cars would not pay for itself.

Another version on the GAZ-3102 chassis is the rotary piston GAZ-31028, created in collaboration with AvtoVAZ. The car received the most powerful engine of the VAZ series - 413 modification with 140 hp. With.

How many rotary catch-ups were produced is not known for certain, most likely this is one experimental batch. In the future, it was considered that it was unprofitable to make such cars, but the traffic police received rotary-piston VAZs of various models.

When developing the GAZ-31028, there was an attempt to make friends with the native checkpoint with the RPD. It was not possible to do this due to the characteristics of the motor, which spun up to too high speeds. I had to modify the Zhiguli checkpoint to the Volga.



Now it is impossible to find a GAZ-31013 in the factory version. The rare cars that exist are homemade, made close to the original.