GAZ-2308 "Ataman" is an experimental all-wheel-drive pickup truck built by the Gorky Automobile Plant in 1996. An experimental run of about a hundred vehicles was produced, after which production was discontinued.[1]
Two versions
The "Ataman" was built on the GAZ-2307 platform and existed in two configurations: the rear-wheel-drive GAZ-2309 and the all-wheel-drive GAZ-2308.[1][2] The idea was market-driven: to give the country a cheap frame-based pickup for rural areas and small business — a niche no one else in Russia occupied in the 1990s. For the all-wheel-drive version the plant developed a new transfer case — the first in the country to use a multi-row chain; on the pickup's base the plant also built a double-cab modification, the GAZ-230812, and a nine-seat station wagon, the GAZ-230810 "Ataman Yermak," both shown at the 1999 Moscow Motor Show.[2]
The vehicle never reached the assembly line: in those years the plant's resources were tied up with the GAZelle," and there was nothing left for a second new family of vehicles.
Sources
- kbsmirnova.ru — Smirnov Design Bureau — GAZ-2308 "Ataman" (archive)
- zr.ru — "Za Rulyom" — GAZ's Unborn SUVs: Aesket, Ataman, and Yermak (archive)