Visually the vehicle included a completely new fascia, reminiscent of the more muscular fashion of North America, framed by East German built square headlights with water jet washers, a more angular chromed bumper with resin lining, fog lamps suspended below and the trademark "Baleen" grille.

As a measure of additional security, the fuel tank migrated behind the rear seat from its position under the boot, allowing the spare wheel to occupy its space.

Inside, the vehicle had a completely new interior, with headrests on all seats, a new polyurethane coated dashboard with integrated instrument clusters and steering column controls for windscreen wipers/washers and indicator/high beam lights, rear window heater and other features.

Polyakov, who was keen to see the VAZ giant producing newer cars secured a hefty investment sum for Porsche to assist in development the new front-wheel drive Lada Samara family.

Autoexport was also cautious of such engine, as fuel economy became a major issue following the 1973 oil crisis in Europe, export to which was a source for much needed foreign currency.

The spark plugs were located inside these chambers, and lean fuel-air mixture in main cylinders was ignited by conical jets (the "torches") from these prechambers.

Though the country's economy was stagnating at an alarming rate, its ageing ruling class (the nomenklatura) was increasing, as were its appetites, and in the semi-official hierarchy, not everyone was entitled to upgrade from the old Chaika to the new one.

As a result, GAZ-13's assembly, a car developed largely from the 1956 Packard Patrician and built since 1959, was continued alongside the new Chaika, despite its obvious archaism for the time.

On 4 October 1980, outside the city of Minsk, a truck rammed the motorcade killing the First secretary of the Byelorussian Communist Party, Pyotr Masherov.

Such turn of events left the Soviet third-ranking nomenklatura without a status car, for whom the standard GAZ-24 Volga was no longer acceptable.

Despite its status and assembly quality, by the mid-1980s it was clearly an out-of-date automobile compared to its western counterparts (Mercedes-Benz W124, Volvo 760, Renault 25, Nissan Cedric etc.).

With ascendancy of Mikhail Gorbachev, the start of perestroika and the appointment of Nikolay Pugin, former administrator of GAZ as Minister of Automobile Production, headway was made into development of their replacements by the new 3103/3104/3105 family.

At the same time, hand assembly of the GAZ-3102 has all but ceased as the target market, the mid-level officials, now had access to foreign cars, with whom the GAZ-3102 could not compete.

Again this was a temporary measure, as the small-volume unit anticipated a new car (in the form of GAZ-3105 and GAZ-3111, see below), but "temporarily" lacking one would leave a sizeable workforce unemployed.

Without a stablemate (the GAZ-14 Chaika was forcibly retired in 1988, again see GAZ-3105 section) GAZ now had the resources to increase volumes to ten thousand per annum (which it reached in 1996).

The upgrades included a 5-speed gearbox, fuel-injected ZMZ-406 engine, ventilated Lucas disc brakes, a single rear axle, power steering, new electric dashboard and trim.