Soviet auto tourism of the 60s: what was the road to the sea for our grandparents

Today, auto tourism is a trip to the forest, to the lake or the sea. Well, or a trip to Europe by your own car. At the same time, motorists do not bother much about a set of tools, a jack, refilling antifreeze, a washer, a compressor for pumping tires is enough, and it is good. But not everyone has even this modest list. Whether it's a trip by car in the 60s: a full trunk of iron, reference books, tents, a lot of things for any occasion — romance…

In the 50s and 60s, at the time of the birth of auto tourism, gas stations were very rare, even in large cities there were at most two or three of them. There were also no navigators, their work was performed by "Tourist Guides" with popular routes. Of course, you could not particularly count on a meeting with a car service, and therefore every driver was ready to solve any problem with his big and strong hands.

No spontaneous trips! Trips to the resort were planned for several months, because the car had to be properly prepared so that it would not get on the road.

In the pre-Zhiguli era, in the mid-60s, the list of spare parts and tools that you need to take with you looked like this: operating fluids and materials; engine oil (for 5000 km of the way) for one refueling; grease US or USs (solidol) — 1 kg, 1-13 (fat) - 300 g; transmission oil-0.5 l; brake fluid-0.5 l; distilled water-0.5 l; wax paste-1 jar; insulation tape-1 pc.; glue 88, BF-2 and BF-6-3 tubes; twine-1 skein; soft iron wire-1 m; electrical wire (lighting, high-voltage) — 1 m; first aid kit for tire repair — 1 pc.; spool assembly-2 pcs.; laundry soap (household) — 1 piece; sealing wax-0.5 bars (the one that sealed envelopes in the old days); oil-resistant rubber-1 piece; cleaning material (rags, rags).

"What a list!" - you will say. Yes, but this is not all, then there are the necessary spare parts. Are you ready? Let's go: car cameras — 2 pcs., fan drive belt-1 pc., oil fine filter filter insert-1 pc., fuel pump sump cup — 1 pc. (roughly speaking, it was a fuel filter at that time), fuel pump sump cup gasket-2 pcs., fuel pump diaphragm assembly-1 pc., condenser-1 pc. (in the old contact ignition distributors there was a capacitor), electric lamps-1 set, the ignition distributor rotor-1 pc., a set of ignition distributor contacts — 1 pc., the contact coal of the distributor cover-1 pc., generator brushes — 2 pcs., spark plugs-1 set, fuses-4 pcs., front headlight and front light glasses — 2 pcs., front brake hose-1 pc., front wheel bearings-1 set, dirt-proof rubber covers-1 pc.

Uhhhh… Just a little bit left! A canister for gasoline — 1 pc., a funnel with a grid for filling gasoline-1 pc., a plastic or folding canvas bucket — 1 pc. (why?), a sponge for washing the car — 1 pc., a soft hair brush for washing the car — 1 pc., a clamp for vulcanizing chambers — 1 pc., a hose with a device for transfusing gasoline — 1 pc., a plastic canister for 10 liters or a thermos for water — 1 pc., a pocket electric lantern — 1 pc., a tow rope — 1 pc., a waterproof litter — 1 pc., a small adjustable wrench — 1 pc., a metal hacksaw — 1 pc., files triangular, flat, semicircular — 1 piece each, a cover for a car or a combined tent-tent — 1 piece, a tourist shovel (sapper), a hatchet and a saw-hacksaw for wood — 1 piece.

Now imagine that you load all this into a car and go on vacation to the Caucasus or to The Baltic States. At the same time, you need to go there for several days, because the average distance that is recommended to travel per day is 500 km. Here it should be taken into account that the cars of those years went slower, and the load of the wow, just turns out that they moved at an average speed of 60 km / h.

By the way, it is worth adding to this list a regular set of tools that are attached to the car from the factory. And do not forget that in addition to the endless iron, you need to take some personal things.

It's good if you were going to a boarding house, but you usually went by car to carouse with savages, which means that you also need a tent and a lot of tourist equipment. And the tent in those days was not the usual compact bag, but a bulky canvas structure that occupied half of the trunk.

Sleeping bags, sets of bed linen, folding chairs, a primus stove, a small stove, water tanks... are you already glad that you do not live in the 60s? And advanced motorists cut out a table on the steering wheel from plywood and hung mosquito nets on the windows.

It seems that all this will fit only in a minibus, but our grandparents managed to cram such an arsenal into "Moskvich", "Volga", "Victory" and even into a small humpback "Zaporozhets". The reference books also mentioned this — there was a short master class on pushing things in the car.

There were also cars with a trailer-lucky ones! But there were also those who went to the sea on a motorcycle,or even on a scooter. Of course, there were much fewer things with them, but no one seemed to complain.

The real dawn of Soviet auto tourism came at the beginning of the production of the second-generation Muscovites and the first-generation Volga. It is these cars that can be seen in most of the photos associated with that era.

The new cars were characterized by increased reliability and did not require maintenance so often. Moreover, it became real to get to the sea from Moscow, without ever changing the oil! Just a furor.

The level of comfort has also increased — for example, the unfolded seats of the Moskvich formed a decent sleeping place.

In the Soviet Union, there was no cult of trailer trailers, as in America, although something similar was still produced. The trailers were released in 1958 and were called "Camper".

The model was not popular, although rather it was not affordable. Motorists tried to correct the situation on their own. Here, for example, is the trailer "Teremok", which was recommended to build in the magazine "Modelist-constructor" in 1972.

Much more often, motorists did not go to the sea, but to the neighboring forest or to the river — you could not take all this bunch of tools with you.

By the way, the same reference books recommended not to go on long trips alone, it was desirable to move in a column of 3-4 cars. Firstly, it is mutual assistance, and secondly, the entire set of tools could be divided into several machines. And yes, it was recommended to go in the morning, then it's hot and the engine can overheat.

"Moskvich" 408 and 412, "Zaporozhets" 966-series and Vaz "Kopeyka" gave a big push to the development of Soviet auto tourism. The popularity of this type of recreation began to grow actively, but the necessary infrastructure, unfortunately, did not appear. But did this stop anyone?