How One American Engineer's 'RIDICULOUS' Jeep Design Amazed Soviet Mechanics скачать в хорошем качестве

How One American Engineer's 'RIDICULOUS' Jeep Design Amazed Soviet Mechanics

September 1941. Moscow Auto Works, Soviet Union. Chief engineer Vitaly Grachuev stood in warehouse number seven, watching his breath cloud in the freezing air as workers pried open wooden crates marked "Willys-Overland Company, Toledo, Ohio, USA." Inside, packed in cosmoline and straw, lay disassembled components of what the Americans called a reconnaissance vehicle. Grachuev had seen the specifications three weeks earlier. He had laughed then. He was laughing now. The vehicle weighed 2,450 pounds. His own GAZ-64, the Red Army's standard reconnaissance vehicle, weighed 3,800 pounds. The American machine measured 132 inches long with an 80-inch wheelbase. The GAZ stretched to 148 inches with a 94-inch wheelbase. The Americans claimed their toy could carry 800 pounds of cargo and achieve speeds of 65 miles per hour on road surfaces. Grachuev's team had tested the GAZ-64 at Kubinka proving grounds in July. Maximum stable speed: 50 miles per hour. Load capacity before suspension failure: 650 pounds.