Powerful and comfortable, the Chaika embodied the then car-making innovations. At the Brussels World Exhibition the Chaika prototype won the Grand Prix.
The Gaz-13 Chaika was extraordinary in design and the abundance of technical novelties.
Its 1960s styling featured fighter-like forms, turbine-like bumper tusks, abundance of chrome, radiator grill with flying bird silhouettes. The 5.6-meter-long car did not appear heavy: the elegant lines made it look as light as a feather.
The overhead-valve and two-bank V-engine was compact, relatively light and offered more room for passengers. With its 195 HP engine Chaika developed a speed up to 160 kilometers/hour, accelerated from rest to 100 km/hr in 20 seconds and burned 21 litres per 100 kilometers.
The use of entirely new units - automatic gearbox, hydraulic steering booster, vacuum brake booster -- increased driving attraction.
Chaika had a spacious comfortable passenger compartment, seating 7. There were in it two spring seats and two additional folding seats.
Most of the Gaz-13 Chaika's had closed four-door bodies with three rows of seats without inner partitions. Built to special orders, the car could have a partition between the driver and passenger compartments. This modification was called the Gaz-13A. Another modification, Gaz-13B, had an open convertible body, whose upper part got up and down by the electrohydraulic system, actuated by the driver.
Chaika's were intended for use as office cars in top public institutions. Their passengers were ministers, heads of departments, USSR ambassadors in foreign countries.
Nikita Khrushchyov gave Chaikas as presents to Mikhail Shlokhov, Yuri Gagarin, Galina Ulanova, Fidel Castro.
The Gaz-13 Chaika cars, a symbol of the entire epoch, were manufactured for over 20 years /1959-1980/. During that time, 3,179 Chaika cars werw produced.
