Outwardly, “emka” (one way or even more affectionately - “emochka” was called the car for the M index - “Molotovets”, GAZ then bore the name of V. M. Molotov) was very reminiscent of “Ford”. However, the Soviet car was very different in design: the front suspension on the longitudinal springs, and not on the transverse, the engine was not a V8, but a four-cylinder GAZ-M. 3.3 liter unit with a capacity of 50 hp at 2800 rpm - an improved GAZ-A engine - equipped with a new carburetor and even an automatic ignition timing. The gearbox on the GAZ-M1 was three-stage, and the brakes were mechanical. The machine, simple in design, was reputed to be very unpretentious, strong, reliable.
On the basis of the "emka" they made a GAZ-M415 pickup truck. In 1941, they began production of the GAZ-11-73 with a different body finish, but most importantly, a 3.5-liter six-cylinder engine. The GAZ-11 motor, created on the basis of the Dodge-D5 design, developed 76 hp. at 3400 rpm After the war, versions of this unit were put on ZIM (GAZ-12), GAZ-51, and then on Gorky trucks until the … 1980s! On the basis of the six-cylinder Emka, several copies of the GAZ-11-40 convertible were built.
Thinking primarily about the army, they designed the GAZ-61 - a variant of the GAZ-11-73 with the same engine and all drive wheels. In addition to cars with a closed body, they released several all-wheel drive GAZ-61-40 convertibles (all of them converted from GAZ-11-40) and about 40 GAZ-61-417 pickups.
Four-wheel drive "emki" (they were built about 200) officers appreciated for the excellent cross. The driver A. Buchin, who drove Marshal G. Zhukov on a variety of vehicles, remembered the GAZ-61 particularly warmly.
But the main commander’s vehicles of the Red Army at the beginning of the war were ordinary GAZ-M1s, which in June 1941 had about 10.5 thousand in the army. In addition to the officers, the car was reputed to be a journalistic one. It is no coincidence that K. Simonov, who was then a war correspondent, immortalized the emka in poetry, a line of which became the title of this material.
