GAZ Tiger

GAZ Tigr at a glance

The Tigr is a heavy, high-mobility 4x4 designed to carry people and light cargo off road, built by GAZ Group's Military Industrial Company (VPK) at the Arzamas engineering plant. Under one name sit several families. GAZ-2330 covers the unarmoured vehicles, GAZ-2975 is the military armoured designation, and GAZ-233014 is the armoured special-purpose version.

The body bolts to a separate ladder frame, so the same chassis can take an open pickup, a soft-top, a five-door wagon or a welded armoured shell. That is why the range runs from a two-door pickup to a seven-seat police vehicle, and why published dimensions vary so much. The Tigr continues a long GAZ line of light military off-roaders that began with the 1940s GAZ-67 and continued with the GAZ-69, although it is a far larger and heavier vehicle than either.

Development: from a Gulf-funded project to series production

The Tigr started as an export project rather than a home-grown design. In about 2001–2002 prototypes called the Tiger HMTV were shown at the IDEX defence exhibition in Abu Dhabi. Development was funded by Bin Jabr Group (BJG) of the United Arab Emirates, with Jordan's King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) as the intended end customer. No supply contract followed.

GAZ also helped design the Nimr, a related but separate vehicle that the UAE company Advanced Industries of Arabia began building in 2005. A second series, the GAZ-233034, appeared at a motor show in 2002, and two prototypes went to an Interior Ministry special unit late that year. The ministry became the first real customer.

Pilot production started in 2004 at Arzamas, with 96 vehicles in the first batch. The army took its first vehicles in 2006, formally adopted the type at the end of that year, and series manufacture for the forces is dated to 2007. For the background of the group behind it, see this history of GAZ.

Licence and partner production

Beijing Yanjing produced a Chinese version from 2008, MZKT in Belarus built a licensed derivative, Corvus in Slovakia has worked on it since 2017, and STREIT in the UAE showed a version called Falcon in 2018. One 2020 count put total output at more than 2,000 vehicles, exported to 16 countries.

Versions and derivatives

The family divides into unarmoured utility vehicles, armoured security versions, the modernised Tigr-M and a civilian line.

Beyond these, the armoured chassis has served as a carrier for specialist bodies such as radar and reconnaissance equipment. Depending on the body, sources give up to nine or ten occupants.

Engines, transmission and chassis

Every Tigr engine is a turbodiesel, supplied by Cummins, GAZ, YaMZ or, for the civilian car, Steyr. The 5.9-litre (360 cu in) Cummins B-series came in three ratings: the B180 with 130 kW (180 hp), the B205 with 153 kW (205 hp), which industry references describe as the base engine, and the B-214 with 160 kW (215 hp). GAZ's own option is the GAZ-562, a 3.2-litre (195 cu in) turbodiesel with 147 kW (197 hp). The Tigr-M switched to the YaMZ-534 diesel.

Power goes through a five-speed manual gearbox as standard, with an Allison 1000-series automatic as the alternative. Behind it sits a two-speed transfer case and a lockable centre differential. Drive to all four wheels is permanent.

Suspension and off-road equipment

Every wheel is independently sprung on torsion bars, with hydraulic dampers and anti-roll bars at both ends. Steering is power-assisted. A central tyre inflation system lets the driver lower pressures on sand or mud and raise them again for the road. A 4,000 kg (8,818 lb) electric winch is usually quoted as part of the equipment. German references note that some running gear was taken from wheeled armoured carriers.

The off-road figures follow from that layout: approach and departure angles of 52 degrees and a fording depth of 1.2 m (3.9 ft). Top speed on the road is 140 km/h (87 mph). One industry source gives 80 km/h (50 mph) off road and a range of about 1,000 km (621 mi). For heavier GAZ off-road hardware, see the GAZ-66 4x4 truck.

GAZ Tigr specifications

The figures below describe the military GAZ-2330/2975 family. Dimensions and weights depend on body and armour, so ranges are given where sources differ.

Protection and safety

The Tigr's protection is rated to ballistic standards, not crash tests. The SPM-1 uses 5 mm (0.20 in) welded armour steel, rated class 3 under GOST R 50963-96 with class 5 at the front, which corresponds to STANAG 4569 Level 2. The SPM-2 uses 7 mm (0.28 in) steel and is rated class 5.

There is no Euro NCAP or IIHS rating for any Tigr, including the civilian Tigr-2. Vehicles of this type are not submitted to consumer crash-test programmes, so road-crash protection cannot be compared with a passenger SUV.

Rivals and comparisons

The Humvee is the usual comparison. It uses a 6.5-litre diesel of 119–153 kW (160–205 hp) depending on version, tops out at about 113 km/h (70 mph) and fords 0.76 m (2.5 ft) without a kit. The Tigr fords 1.2 m (3.9 ft) as standard and is quoted at 140 km/h (87 mph), but it is also much heavier: an M1151 Humvee is listed at 2,359–2,676 kg (5,201–5,900 lb) at the kerb, while the military Tigr starts at about 5.3 t.

Closer in concept is the Iveco LMV, first built in 2001 with a 142 kW (190 hp) diesel and a payload of 800–1,500 kg. The UAE's Nimr is a relative rather than a rival, because GAZ helped design it. For civilian buyers the Tigr-2 has no direct rival: it is far heavier than a production diesel SUV and was only ever built in small numbers.

The civilian Tigr-2 and ownership

The Tigr-2 is the road-going version of the design, shown in September 2006 and built as a small series from 2008. It uses a Steyr turbodiesel rated at 140 kW (190 hp), weighs about 3,500 kg (7,716 lb) at the kerb and has 330 mm (13.0 in) of ground clearance. That makes it lighter than the military versions, which start at about 5.3 t.

No published reliability, running-cost or service-interval data exist for the Tigr-2 or for ex-service vehicles, so this page does not quote any. What is clear from the specification is that the engine is the first thing to establish on any example: Cummins, Steyr and GAZ units need different parts and know-how, and the Allison automatic adds another supplier. Next to other 4x4 and all-wheel-drive cars it is a specialist vehicle, and it sits far from the vans and trucks among the other GAZ models.