Soviet-made ZIL reaches Connecticut!

[Gregg D. Merksamer]

This past weekend (May 30th-31st, 2015), I went to Connecticut to serve as one of the official photographers for the 20th Annual Greenwich Concours d'Elegance. Having attended the event every year since its 1996 inception, I can vouch that truly unusual cars can always be counted on at this venue, especially in the case of Sunday's import-focused Concours International.

I was nonetheless completely stunned and captivated by this year's appearance of a Soviet-made 1985 ZIL 41045 limousine shown by Vinnie Baksht, a Moscow emigre (actually named Vitaly) who's a partner in a New Jersey Chevrolet dealership. As this hand-made Politburo Rolls is almost certainly the only one in the U.S. out of ten-or-so in private hands worldwide, he was inevitably coy about how he obtained it about a year ago. "I've got connections" and "it was put out for sale through certain people" was all he offered, while a Ukrainian friend of mine who showed his Zhiguli at last years' Greenwich Concours (y'all might know this beefed-up Fiat 124 design better by the Lada name used for Western European and Canadian sales) observed perceptively "all cars like this are like that."

Comrade Baksht was, on the other hand, thankfully generous in detailing the awe-inspiring technical specification of his ZIL, which measured 6.3 meters in overall length (roughly 248 inches) and was the last version of this iconically-blocky body style to employ circular headlights (with their own wipers!) before rectangular Bosch units freshened the front end. Even without full armor this is a three-and-a-half ton behemoth with doors like bank vaults, touting two brake calipers for each wheel and 245/70 4x4 Michelin blackwall tires with a weight rating of 2,149 pounds per-corner! I was hardly surprised to hear a $100 bill is required to fill the gas tank and that FIVE mpg was averaged on the drive from NJ to Connecticut, thanks to a 7.7 liter, 315 HP V-8 that was also used in the Soviet army's 4-wheel BRDM and 8-wheel BTR armored personnel carriers. Vinnie/Vitaly truly made my day - maybe my year or my decade! - by allowing me try out what might be the most comfortable back seat I've EVER experienced in a car, deep and plush like my living room recliner plus copious head-and-legroom and two Fleetwood Seventy-Five-style jump seats folding out from the partition. While the incredibly-busy carpet pattern would not have been out of place in a 19th Century Victorian parlor, it supposedly keeps dirt out of sight and there was undeniable old school appeal in the fitment of curtains to the rear quarter windows.

One surprising detail was that Mr. Baksht's purchase of this car was NOT its first trip was the U.S., as it had been part of the fleet of ZILs used by Soviet officials that accompanied Mikhail Gorbachev on his December, 1988 summit visit to New York City (another, Queens-based friend of mine at the Concours still fondly recalled seeing them on the Van Wyck Expressway north of Kennedy Airport). Though I'll almost certainly never have the chance to own one myself for a hundred obvious reasons that only begin with purchase cost, parts support and my rudimentary Russian language skills, a ZIL has always been at the very top of my dream car list along with Australian Ford Falcon GTs touting eight cylinders, four doors and three pedals; if the dream ever comes true, I'm dibbing the NYS special plate CCCPLIMO (Mr. Baksht suggested CCCPLNMO so I'd be incorporating a Cyrillic "I")! As it was such a treat to finally examine one in-person as opposed to a photo or scale model, I could not have been more thrilled to see Mr. Baksht evince interest in possibly showing the car at PCS Gettysburg next year. Cue Basil Poledouris' theme to THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER as we "sail into history!"

 

[John ED Renstrom]

shoe box styling and it looks well kept but at 8 MPG I guess I'll pass

 

[Gregg D. Merksamer]

Even with that gloriously retro horn ring, Ed? I would hardly think fuel economy ever deterred anyone in this company as its such a rare quality in our rigs!

 

[Rick Franklin]

As Artie Johnson on Laugh-In used to say : "Vedddddy Interesting!"

 

[Steve Lichtman]

Very nice. I like the T-handle console shifter, as seen on sports cars, in the big limo!

 

[Attila Bethlenfalvy]

Greg, aware of the '47 ZIS-110 in VA?

 

[Gregg D. Merksamer]

Is the ZIS you know of in Virginia a closed limousine or an open 110V parade car, Attila? I actually got to shoot a 1946 version of the latter at the 1999 Greenwich Concours (photo attached), where then-owner Sonny Abagnale told it had once belonged to Poland's government and had been imported to the U.S. in November, 1953. Though such claims are inevitable with these commissar-cars, it was also said Josef Stalin used it when Warsaw's Palace of Culture was opened in 1952.

"ZIS," for those of you who don't know, stands for Zavod imieni Stalina, which more-or-less translates to "Factory named for Stalin." When Stalin was denounced during Khrushchev's 1956 "secret speech," the Moscow plant and the cars and trucks it produced were re-named Zavod imieni Likhacheva in memory of Ivan Likhachev, a Soviet auto industry pioneer (he'd even been sent to the U.S. to study our car mfg. techniques in the 1920s) who was serving as deputy minister of the Ministry of the Automobile Industry of the USSR (the name plaque on his desk must have been wider than the blotter!) when he died at the age of 60 that same year.

If you haven't had enough ZIL or ZIS trivia yet, I heartily recommend you head to Amazon or www.velocebooks.com for Maurice A. Kelly's Veloce-published 2011 book RUSSIAN MOTOR VEHICLES: Soviet Limousines 1930-2003. This is also the definitive English language reference on the GAZ "Chaika" ("Seagull") long wheelbase sedans given to below-Politburo grade government officials and the Chinese Hong-Qi "Red Flag" limousines initially developed with Russian assistance in the 1950s.

 

[Mike McDonald]

Gregg: Just out of curiosity... did Packard ever had an issue with them nearly cloning their styling? The newer one has a "hint" of Mercedes to me at least in the same way. THX-MM

 

[Dave Hopping]

I've never heard of them raising a fuss.Don't know for sure,but it would seem that trying to enforce copyright/trademark protections on the CCCP would run up a lot of hours for Packard's legal division to no useful end.The Sovs were notorious for reverse-engineering Western designs without negotiating license agreements.Here are a couple of the better-known examples.

 

[Peter Grave - Deceased - 1938 - 2022]

There has been a tale for some time that FDR made a deal to send the body tooling to the USSR to help build relations with Stalin. Packard was through with the tooling when they shut down for WWll. After the war all Packards were children of the prewar Clipper not the earlier body shown here.Packard had come through the war in fine shape due to the manufacture of aircraft engines that helped win the war. The story continues that the ruskies had no suitable engine for the car and it ended up being powered by a big cube tractor motor. There is another Russian Limo that looks like a cross between a Checker and a 55-56 Packard. I had a chance for a close look at Hershey a few years ago and much body trim,interior, and dash parts were definitely surplus from Packard after their demise. So it would seem the Ruskies liked what they got from Packard the first time around.

 

[Gregg D. Merksamer]

In answering Mike McDonald's questions it's likely best I defer to Mr. Kelly's aforementioned book, as well as Andy Thompson's CARS OF THE SOVIET UNION: The Definitive History, published by Haynes in 2008. ZIS 110 development got underway, against the odds, while the Soviets were still fighting the Nazis in 1942, as Stalin wanted the car in production as soon as hostilities ended to emphasize the USSR's post-Victory superpower status. Though measurements of a ZIS 110 captured as a Korean War trophy confirmed it wasn't an exact copy, Kelly's book says the Soviets actually got permission from Packard to adopt Senior 180 Series design cues for their car and that quite of a bit of tooling - including dies and press work from the Briggs Body Corporation of Detroit - was U.S.-sourced by a wartime Russian delegation likely representing the American Trading Organization Amtorg. Thompson's book adds ZIS engineers also had access to 1942 Cadillac Series 67 and 75 models for design inspiration in addition to two of the very latest, full-fendered Packard Clippers and the more traditional 180, but General Vlasik (the man in charge of the Soviet government's car fleet) knew the Marshal was already partial to Packard and preferred a more formal look. Stalin even had a Super Eight presented to him by President Roosevelt, and newsreels from the Yalta conference also show him arriving in a heavily armored 1936 Packard V-12 with brightly-finished anti-delamination frames for the side windows.

Though the standard of finish and appointments were second-to-none, it goes without saying the ZIS 110's mechanicals had to be altered for Russia's more rudimentary road conditions and manufacturing tolerances. Its side-valve straight eight had the same bore and stroke as Packard's engine and a near-identical carburetor made in Moscow, but horsepower was de-rated from 160 to 137 through valving, ignition and compression changes acknowledging the lower-grade gasoline available (interestingly, the pre-war ZIS 101 had used an arguably more advanced overhead valve straight eight inspired by Buick engines). There was even a four-wheel-drive version where the development prototypes reportedly employed Dodge Fargo transfer cases that reached Russia through the Lend Lease program, while the spacious body shell lent itself to ambulance service. Packard-inspired styling, as many of you know, remained de rigueur on Russia's finest cars even after the last ZIS/ZIL 110 was built in 1959, with the tail-finned, hooded headlight look of 1955-56 models greatly influencing the 1958-63 ZIL 111.