The Soviet hot rod: the history of the GAZ GL-1 and its records

It all started with the fact that in May 1938 a serious accident almost occurred. In a kilometer race in Moscow, Mikhail Gromov started in the "Kord-812" car that was given to him in the USA, which was not very different from the factory one, he almost broke the USSR record, having developed a speed of 141 km /h. The heroic pilot was very lucky to miss the record, although only just. On the world stage, the Soviet automobile industry already seemed, to put it mildly, unpleasant, but it allowed foreign technology to participate within Russia. The Politburo (Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) could not stand it. The threat, as always, was easily eliminated. Without a car, there is no problem, and a special decree prohibited the use of foreign cars in competitions.

Again, another problem arose. As already mentioned, motor racing was considered almost the best way to train military pilots, and what experience could a racer gain driving a slow, homemade car? There was a shortage of sports and racing cars in the country, so they began to manufacture such a car.

Thus, Evgeny Agitov's GAZ-GL1 appeared at the Gorky Automobile Plant. Working in factory conditions, having much more material and technical base than even V.I. Tsipulin, whose GAZ-CAX was built in a sports club - far from ideal conditions, Agitov was able to create a truly worthy car. The most advanced and modern developments in science and technology were at his service.

The donor was not the hopelessly outdated GAZ-A, but the GAZ-M1, mass produced since 1935, a copy of the American Ford-V8-40 car of 1933. However, production of Ford's V-engine could not be dominated, so the car was equipped with an in-line four-cylinder engine with a working volume of 3285 cm3 with a power of 50 hp at 2800 rpm, the Ford-BB power plant was taken as a basis.

An aerodynamic body with a protective windshield was installed on the frame of the GAZ-M1. ?. V. Agitov had his own point of view on aerodynamics, different from the opinions of Nikitin, Girel and Tsipulin. The body at the rear was flattened in the horizontal plane. In October 1938, test pilot A. F. Nikolaev reached an average speed of 147.84 km/h with the GAZ-GL1 at a distance of 1 km from the runway. But already in 1940, the production GAZ-11-73 with a new GAZ-11 inline six-cylinder engine with a displacement of 3485 cm3 reached a speed of 140.077 km/h.

The vehicle needed to be modernized. The GAZ-GL1 received a new engine from the GAZ-11, forced to 100 hp at 3,600 rpm. But there were other difficulties, the engine got very hot and the aerodynamics also required modifications. The aerodynamic hood over the driver's head, the new radiator lining, the aerodynamic wheel covers made it possible to improve the aerodynamics of the car, but the weight increased to 1100 kg. The maximum speed achieved by the modified GAZ-GL1 was 161.87 km/h. At that time it was the fastest car in the Soviet Union, but abroad 10 years ago the threshold of 350 km/h had been exceeded. Perhaps the result could have been improved, but in June 1941 the war began.

However, the experiments with the GAZ-11 engine were not in vain, in 1949, the same engine, boosted to 90 hp, was used in the GAZ-12 ZIM production car. It should be noted that the GAZ-GL1 is one of the few pre-war sports cars that has survived to this day. Today it is kept in the GAZ museum.

Source:

• GAZ GL-1
  https://dar-web.ru/st_gl_adaptiv.php
  
• The Soviet hot rod: the history of the GAZ GL-1 and its records
  https://www.diariomotor.com/2015/06/06/gaz-gl-1-hot-rod-sovietico/