RAF-251 - the very first original bus of the Riga factory

It is believed that the first minibuses in the USSR began to be produced in Riga. Moreover, for this reason the enterprise was organized by merging two small factories. It’s true, the Latvian SSR, as a window to Europe, has always been considered the most advanced and fashionable republic. Local engineers observed the development of mechanical engineering in capitalist countries and tried to copy them. And yes, the first minibus in the USSR was made at the RAF plant. It was Spriditis, created on the basis of Moskvich-407. The prototype was called RAF-8, but it did not go into production. This role went to the next model. RAF-10 "Festival" was assembled on the "Victory" chassis. It went into production in 1957.


But the Riga factory also had full-fledged buses. At first, a copy of GZA-651 was assembled at enterprise facilities. This model is on the chassis of a GAZ-51 truck. There was nothing unique about it, so the engineers working for the RAF were angry. They were humiliated by this attitude - they wanted something of their own, original. But realizing that full-cycle production is a utopia, proud designers created the RAF-251. This bus is also on the GAZ-51 chassis, but with its own unique design. The frame was lengthened on both sides to maintain proportions. The car could carry 29 passengers, of which 22 were seats. And the author of the channel “Ivan Zenkevich PRO cars” will tell you about the RAF-251.