MAZ, BelAZ and three other giant cars from the USSR (11 photos)

Let's start with a not very large car, only 17 meters long. This machine was created by US using KRAZ and URAL units to deliver gas pipes to hard-to-reach places, such as the taiga and sandy deserts.

All 12 of its wheels are driven! The driveshafts go from the transfer case to the front and rear axles, and also go to all the wheels of the trailer, inside its body. Power - about 320 horses (12.6 horses per ton with a total weight of 25.5 tons). Didn't go into the series.

The largest dump truck in the history of the USSR was introduced shortly before the fall of the Soviet system, in 1991. This is the BelAZ-75501 with a carrying capacity of 280 tons, a two-axle dump truck on eight wheels (the weak link of heavy mining vehicles, as today, was tires, therefore, to reduce the load on them, their number had to be increased).

In model 75501, an articulated design was used for rotation. Under the hood is a diesel locomotive V12, with a volume of 165 liters and a power of 3150 horsepower, which rotates four motor wheels through a three-phase generator. The total weight of the vehicle is 480 tons, length is 15.7 m, height is 6.7 m.

Since we started talking about Belarusians, the main lovers of large sizes, then we will talk about MAZ. Version 7922 is the last multi-wheeled chassis produced by MAZ in Soviet times. Drive – on all 16 wheels. Under the hood is anything from a Yaroslavl 780-horsepower diesel engine to gas turbine engines (version 7923 “Bison”).

And in 1991, the production of such vehicles was separated into a separate structure, MZKT (Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant), and the previously developed chassis, in particular the 19th and 22nd models, formed the basis of the well-known missile carrier guy named Iskander . Its length is 23 meters and its weight is 44 tons. Judging by government procurement data, the cost of such an assembled chassis is 52 million rubles.

Let's continue. The MAZ-7904, like the previous car, did not go into production, but only turned into another, more monstrous modification (more on that at the end). This is an experimental vehicle built to transport the Tselina missile system (which weighed, for a second, 220 tons). Together with the complex, the vehicle weighed 360 tons.

The length of the car is 32 meters, all 12 wheels are driven (tires had to be purchased from Bridgestone; it was not possible to create such wheels ourselves). The engine is a marine V12 with a capacity of 1,500 horsepower and a 330-horsepower diesel engine to provide systems (steering hydraulic pump, brake system compressor, and so on). Soon the Tselina system lost its relevance, and along with it, MAZ. But “Tselina-2” appeared...

For which you also needed a car. And more. Thus was born the only car in the world with 24 driven wheels, of which 16 were steerable. Length – 30 meters. The power plant is a tank gas turbine with a capacity of 1250 horsepower, paired with an electric transmission that rotates 24 motor wheels.

Two such machines were built. Military units had to be reconstructed to accommodate their size. In an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, they were driven along... public highways (reaching a maximum speed of 25 km/h), steppes and crossroads. But the Cold War slowed down. And both cars were returned to the Minsk plant as unnecessary. In 1996, 7907 transported a boat weighing 88 tons, but on the way back all 24 motor wheels failed and the giant itself needed a tug.