KamAZ celebrated the 50th anniversary of the production of the first car

The first production truck, the KamAZ-5320 flatbed, rolled off the assembly line of the new Soviet auto giant in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny on February 16, 1976. Over the past years, these trucks have become as widespread as possible in the post-Soviet space. The name “KAMAZ” has become a household name: this is what people who are not very versed in technology call any heavy truck in everyday life. About the project to build a new automobile plant and the creation of the first KamAZ trucks – in the material Motor.

The decision to build KamAZ was made in 1969. The economy of the Country of Soviets was growing, the volume of cargo transportation was increasing, and the need for modern high-capacity vehicles was urgently felt. The products of existing Soviet factories could not fully meet the country’s needs. In addition, GAZ and ZIL, for example, produced gasoline trucks with a smaller carrying capacity. KrAZ trucks were hardly suitable for long-haul transportation, and MAZ’s capacity was not enough.

The construction of KamAZ took place in a number of other all-Union construction projects: the Baikal-Amur Railway (BAM), the Volga Automobile Plant in Togliatti, hydroelectric power plants in Siberia, as well as the active development of the oil industry in the USSR and increasing export supplies.

Raw materials exports, a new source of foreign exchange earnings, allowed the USSR to finance large industrial projects, purchase equipment abroad and attract new technologies. According to historical information from the official KamAZ website, about 700 foreign companies took part in equipping it with the necessary equipment.

The city of Naberezhnye Chelny in Tatarstan was chosen for the construction of a new automobile plant from approximately 70 options, construction started in December 1969. The plant was designed to produce 150 thousand heavy vehicles per year and 250 thousand engines.

Where did KamAZ trucks come from?

Work on a new family of cabover trucks started at the Moscow ZIL on the initiative of chief designer Anatoly Krieger back in 1964 – a year after the plant began serial production of the ZIL-130 model. In 1965, a prototype ZIL-169 was built with a cab over the engine, a gasoline V8 and a new independent suspension.

And in 1967, ZIL designers received the task of designing two new families of heavy trucks: nine modifications with a 6×4 wheel arrangement and six all-wheel drive, 6×6. At the same time, the Yaroslavl Motor Plant received the task of creating a new diesel engine.

Experimental ZIL-170 – prototype of KamAZ
KamAZ

The task for designing a family of heavy-duty freight road trains was finalized by order of the USSR Minister of Automotive Industry dated April 3, 1968 and concerned five Soviet factories, including ZIL and the Yaroslavl Motor Plant.

At the time of the start of the project, the location where the new automobile plant would be built had not yet been determined. Accordingly, there was no separate name for the new family of vehicles: the cabs of the first prototypes of the new trucks bore the abbreviation ZIL.

On the KamAZ assembly line
KamAZ New KamAZ trucks at the finished products site
KamAZ “The first stage of KamAZ is here!”
KamAZ “KAMAZ Arctic”
KamAZ On the day the first trucks were released
KamAZ Truck tractor “KAMAZ-65 116−37”, runs on compressed methane
KamAZ A KamAZ prototype at a November demonstration in Naberezhnye Chelny
KamAZ Crew bus on a KamAZ all-wheel drive chassis
KamAZ Shipment of finished products at KamAZ
KamAZ Dump truck “KAMAZ-6595” with a 6×4 wheel arrangement
KamAZ Restored first copy of KamAZ-5320
KamAZ ZIL-170, prototype of the future KamAZ
KamAZ Experimental KamAZ dump truck
KamAZ All-wheel drive KamAZ – a gift from the plant to the CPSU Congress
KamAZ Interior of early KamAZ trucks
KamAZ “KAMAZ-53 212” increased power and load capacity
KamAZ Model 5511 dump truck
KamAZ Prototype of the KamAZ truck tractor
KamAZ “KAMAZ-54 112”, truck tractor with increased load capacity
KamAZ “KAMAZ-54 902” with semi-trailer TZA
KamAZ “KAMAZ-65 222”
KamAZ KamAZ dump truck running on methane
KamAZ

By the end of 1968, a prototype truck tractor was assembled, in 1969, two chassis for a promising dump truck, and since 1970, the ZIL management, created to design vehicles for the future KamAZ, began work on future all-wheel drive KamAZs.

Could have taken a Mercedes-Benz

As in the case of VAZ passenger cars, which were a Soviet adaptation of the Fiat 124, KamAZ could also localize foreign trucks – Mercedes-Benz.

“It turns out that in 1970, when KamAZ was just being built, it was supposed to produce… Mercedes – as many as 150 thousand trucks a year. The technical requirements for the “three-axle Mercedes truck for the USSR” were already ready, eight vehicles were sent to our country,” Autoreview reported, citing archival documents from Daimler. However, that project did not receive development and was soon abandoned.

In 1971, one of the prototypes of the future KamAZ assembled at ZIL was brought to Naberezhnye Chelny by ZIL tester Ivan Shvedov; this vehicle took part in a demonstration on the occasion of the November 7 holiday.

In 1975, all documentation for the new family of trucks was finally transferred to Naberezhnye Chelny. The first production truck rolled off the assembly line of the new Kama Automobile Plant on February 16, 1976: the start of its production was timed to coincide with the 25th Congress of the CPSU. In honor of this event, four new trucks were demonstrated in Moscow on Red Square at the end of February, and the start of work of KamAZ, built in 6.5 years, was mentioned in his speech by the Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev.

Found and restored

The first copy of KamAZ worked for many years in Bashkiria, and already in the 2000s it was purchased by the plant and restored. Subsequently, the millionth anniversary KamAZ, which was produced in 1988 and worked in Altai, also returned to the plant.

The basic model – a flatbed truck with index 5320 – was produced until 2001. In the first years of its existence, KamAZ also mastered the 5511 dump truck with a lifting capacity of 10 tons and the 5410 truck tractor, designed for operation as part of a road train with a total weight of 26 tons.

At the time of its creation, KamAZ was an advanced design for the Soviet automobile industry: it received an 8-cylinder diesel engine with a power of 210 hp, with lightweight pistons and a closed cooling system designed to operate on antifreeze rather than water. The car had a pneumatic braking system with four independent circuits and, importantly, a spacious three-seater cabin with a sprung driver’s seat. A cabin with a sleeping compartment was also installed, designed for long-distance transportation. KamAZ trucks also worked in the Sovtransavto association, which was engaged in long-distance transportation in the Soviet Union, including international ones. But for trips to Western countries, the USSR purchased significant quantities of foreign equipment. And already in post-Soviet times, KamAZ with a semi-trailer and a tricolor on the cab became a full-fledged hero of the TV series “Truckers”.

The beginning of the journey

Soviet and Russian carriers appreciated the KamAZ trucks, but at first there were organizational problems with their operation. In particular, the Lenin Banner newspaper wrote about the work of the first trucks from the new plant in the Moscow region in July 1976. She reported complaints from carriers about the lack of lifting trailers for the first KamAZ trucks received, as well as special grades of oils, without which the vehicles could not be operated, as a result of which they were idle. And for long-distance transportation on KamAZ trucks, it was not easy then to find cargo in the required volumes and cost-effective routes, since the system was “tailored” for the use of the railway, even when delivering cargo over short distances.

One way or another, KamAZ trucks gradually took root on Soviet and Russian roads. By June 1979, the hundred thousandth truck had been assembled, in 1981 the second stage of the enterprise’s production capacity began operating, and by 1986, KamAZ trucks accounted for a quarter of the country’s truck fleet. The plant in Naberezhnye Chelny assembled its millionth truck in 1988. In the same year, the KamAZ-Master sports team was founded, which became the hallmark of the plant and achieved great success in international competitions. The same year became a record year for KamAZ in terms of production volumes: 126.8 thousand vehicles were manufactured.