GAZ-24-24

The GAZ-24-24, with the related GAZ-24-34 and GAZ-24-25 Dubl, was a special-purpose version of the Volga GAZ-24 built by the Gorky Automobile Plant, in production from 1973 to 1988, with the later GAZ-24-34 built on the GAZ-24-10. Outwardly it was almost indistinguishable from an ordinary Volga, but it carried a reworked version of the Chaika GAZ-13 V8 engine of 5526 cubic centimetres and 195 horsepower, an automatic gearbox, power steering and a stronger suspension, and could reach 185 kilometres per hour. The cars were built for the KGB for covert observation of the foreign cars used by embassy staff, which gave them the nickname dogonyalka, the chaser, while the black GAZ-24-25 Dubl escorted the fast limousines of the party leadership. The brakes were inherited unchanged from the standard car and wore out in about two thousand kilometres of hard use.