The birth of the elite ZIL dynasty
In the first part of the material on the parade phaetons of Red Square, we stopped at the open ZIS-110B, which first appeared at the main military reviews of the country only after Stalin's death. Automotive fashion was changing, this was closely followed by the Central Committee of the CPSU, and already on May 1, 1961, a new open car, ZIL-111V, entered the scene. By the way, this brainchild of the Moscow Automobile Plant gained worldwide fame a little earlier - on April 14, 1961, the open ZIL became the ceremonial car of Yuri Gagarin who returned from space.
ZIL-111V, developed on the basis of a limousine with the index of the same name, was a serious breakthrough for the Soviet car industry, which no one was able to repeat later. First of all, this is the country's first "light" eight-cylinder engine with a capacity of 200 hp. sec., providing a car weighing 2, 8 tons remarkable for its class and time dynamics. The engine was also called ZIL-111 and was developed specifically for the government limousine. Of course, a large proportion of the engine's power was consumed by a two-stage hydromechanical gearbox (a copy from the Chrysler unit), but, nevertheless, the car was capable of accelerating to 170 km / h. The new passenger flagship of the Soviet Union received an air conditioner of its own design (a car with the index A), power windows, a transistor radio, power steering and vacuum brake booster, as well as tubeless tires.
The stylistically open ZIL was very reminiscent of the GAZ-13 "Chaika", which is not surprising, since the appearance of the limousine was painted by the designer of the Gorky Automobile Plant (then this profession was called an industrial artist) Lev Mikhailovich Eremeev. The laconic bodies of the legendary ZIM-12, GAZ-21, Moskvich-402 and, of course, GAZ-13 Chaika came out from under Eremeev's brush. Why didn't the Zilovites themselves draw a new body for themselves? They tried, but the ZIL-111 "Moscow" turned out to be overly conservative both in appearance and in technical stuffing - the base was from the ZIS-110. As a result, they ordered to create a new top-class car, and the design was entrusted to the Gorky Automobile Plant. The history of the appearance of the 111th car goes back to 1956, when a private display of equipment purchased abroad took place at NAMI. We were looking for an analogue for the future "Seagull" and found it in Packard Patrician. Eremeev creatively reshaped the project, it turned out very well, and now he had to scale it on the ZIL-111 platform.
As you know, it is the American auto industry that has become a role model for domestic high-class cars. This was not the exclusive prerogative of limousines - for overseas motives, trucks were designed, for example, the ZIL-157. But for the cars of the mass sector, they chose smaller European counterparts (Opel, later Fiat), which made it possible to seriously save production resources. Everyone knows a little paradoxical story with the forced release of an open modification of the GAZ-M20 "Pobeda", which was made cheaper than the base all-metal car. This is one of the rarest cases in the global automotive industry when a soft-top car was more affordable than the less prestigious closed version. Everything was very simple - there was not enough high-quality rolled steel, and we had to organize the production of a convertible at a reduced price. However, due to the peculiarities of the climate in the country, these cars did not become widespread, and a considerable part of them were converted by the owners into closed versions.
And the ZIL-111V convertible, which appeared in 1960, did not become a mass car, but turned into a unique small-scale exhibit. The gray parade version was built in 7 copies, and later this series was supplemented with five cars intended for representative functions. Taught by the difficult experience of working with the ZIS-110B phaeton, the ZIL workers took seriously the strengthening of the machine's frame, as a result of which the ground clearance even decreased from 180 to 170 mm. A certain help to the engineers was brought by the partition in the middle of the cabin, which allows, firstly, to strengthen the power structure, and, secondly, to hang the rear doors on it. The side windows were equipped with an electric drive and guide-seals, creating the necessary frame for the soft top in the closed position.
The soft top folding mechanism, equipped with an electrohydraulic drive and remote control from the driver's seat, can be considered a small engineering masterpiece. The factory workers had to individually adjust the work of a complex unit on each convertible. It took 7 seconds to lower / fold the top, and it was a real technical ballet.
The status of the ceremonial ZIL was much higher than its predecessors. Nikita Khrushchev did not give out cars even to the leaders of the Warsaw bloc countries. An exception was made only for the ceremonial crew of the Polish capital - in the early 60s, he got two cars. Interestingly, the staff of the Kremlin garrison required three vehicles - two main and one replacement (which, by the way, was never required in the work). How the Poles got along with only two is unknown. It should be mentioned separately that it was from the ZIL-111 model that all the representative cars of the Moscow Automobile Plant became truly elite means of transportation. Now the functionality of limousines and convertibles included only the service of top management, the meeting of state-level personalities and work in the parade crews. The more democratic "Stalinist" ZIS-110 was produced, firstly, on a large scale (2089 cars), and, secondly, it had modifications for taxis and ambulances.
Evolution in Soviet style
How the parade began with the participation of the steel-gray marshal ZILs is best described by the specialized Soviet edition "Behind the Wheel":
“The chimes on the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower struck ten. A car with the Minister of Defense of the USSR drives out of its gates, and, swaying slightly on the cobblestones, moves towards the center of Red Square. Towards him - the same car of the parade commander. So they gathered in the center of the square, opposite Lenin's mausoleum. The commander reports to the minister, and a detour of the troops begins. This ceremonial parade every year on November 7 opens a military parade on Red Square, and two steel-gray ZILs are an integral part of the solemn ritual."
Actually, according to the same principle, the parades on May 9 were accepted, only the cars and colors changed.
One of the results of the creative rethinking of American automotive fashion was the rapid obsolescence of the appearance of the ZIL-111, which was especially striking in Nikita Khrushchev's foreign trips. The US auto industry could afford to change the style of cars every two to three years in the battle for the wallets of the Americans, sometimes radically changing the body lines. In addition, the main opponent of the Soviet leader, John F. Kennedy, moved to the luxurious Lincoln Continental X-100, which surpasses the ZIL-111 in all respects. It is for this reason that in 1961 Khrushchev actually forces ZIL to start developing a new machine, named ZIL-111G. Here they have already moved away from the analogies with Packard and took as a basis the style of the mentioned Lincoln, as well as the 1962 Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine Series 75 and the 1960 Chrysler Crown Imperial. In fact, the Soviet novelty was only a product of a facelift, or "facelift" - the inner filling has not changed. According to the same recipe, a convertible was remade, named ZIL-111D and produced in only eight copies (according to another version, there were 12 cars), of which none appeared on Red Square. Some sources mistakenly note that the new convertible became standard at parades on November 7, 1967. However, the archival video confirms that the celebration was still hosted on the ZIL-111V. At least two "Khrushchev" ZIL-111Ds were donated to high statesmen - Fidel Castro and Eric Honecker. And in North Korea, the car was used for direct ceremonial purposes.
A fundamentally new car on Red Square was the two-door convertible ZIL-117V, which first appeared at the parade on November 1, 1972 and had been in this role for exactly 8 years. And in the modern history of Russia, these machines participated in parades in St. Petersburg until the mid-2000s! The remarkable durability of the Zilov cars, coupled with low mileage (no more than 4 thousand km annually) and careful maintenance, did their own thing. It is noteworthy that at the very beginning of its career, ZIL-117V made an unpleasant gift to its creators. At the rehearsal of the parade, which took place on the Khodynskoye field, Marshal A. A. Grechko's adjutant could not open the door the first time. I could not even from the second, third, and in the end the marshal simply stepped through the door. Naturally, he made a strong statement following the incident, both to the developers and to the responsible officers of the GABTU. This did not happen again.
The model for imitation of the ZIL-117 can be considered the American Cadillac Fleetwood Brige, although the domestic limousine was much more laconic. A distinctive feature of the new car was the abundance of servos. In addition to the usual electric drives for the side windows, it was possible to remotely lock the locks, raise the antenna and tune the radio receiver. The main achievement in the new generation government limousine was the ZIL-114 engine, which develops 300 hp, decent for its class. with. Placed under the hood of the ZIL-117V ceremonial convertible, which appeared in 1972, this motor allowed the car a lot on the road. It is believed that the development of a two-door open car was personally initiated by Leonid Brezhnev, a well-known fan of fast cars. A total of ten cars were built, of which only three were in steel-gray ceremonial livery (the soft top was also in the body color), the rest of the convertibles were painted black. On the front ZIL-117V, due to the two-door layout, the right front seat was removed - in its place they left a flat platform with a strong handrail for the left hand. In the Special Shop No. 6 of the Moscow Automobile Plant, which was busy with the slipway assembly of cars for the Special Purpose Garage (GON), among other things, one copy of the ZIL-117VE with a shielded ignition system was produced.
The next evolutionary step of the ceremonial convertibles was the ZIL-41044, released in triplicate in 1981. This car was also called ZIL-115V according to the factory nomenclature and, in fact, was a stylistically revised convertible of the previous generation. The parade convertible, as part of the GON, met the collapse of the USSR, the change of centuries and waited for Anatoly Serdyukov to take over as Defense Minister, after which ZIL-41044 resigned.
Times of Serdyukov
The new Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation decided to change the cars of the Soviet era to new ceremonial convertibles. For St. Petersburg in 2007, an open GAZ-SP46 "Tiger" was developed, which looks a little cumbersome for a solemn event. It took only 7 months to develop the car and build three copies. The two-door SUV was equipped with a Brazilian Cummins diesel engine with a capacity of 205 liters. with. and an Allison Transmission 1000 series automatic transmission, and completely altered the interior in gray leather. Now the color of the ceremonial phaetons was strictly black with stripes and a coat of arms. Naturally, the developers from Arzamas removed the carrying armored vehicle, replacing it with civilian ones, which reduced the weight of the vehicle from 7200 to 4750 kg. But even so, the Tiger is now the heaviest parade convertible in the world, some trucks are lighter. As a result, the ceremonial "Tigers" are now on the balance sheet of the Leningrad Military District and are hosting parades on Palace Square instead of the honored ZIL-117V.
Off-road vehicles from Arzamas were not allowed to the main parade of the country due to their specific appearance, as well as their name. Think about it, "Tigers" on Red Square! But it was impossible to leave the ancient ZIL-41044 either. The work on the development of the new convertible was entrusted to the Nizhny Novgorod office "Atlant-Delta", the general director of which was appointed the former head of the GON Yuri Kruzhilin, and the technical director - the military engineer Igor Mazur, who previously worked as a personal driver Oleg Deripaska, who oversaw this project. It was from this idea that the true "American" was born, who occupied Red Square for several years. Stylistically, the car copied the last limousine of the Soviet Union ZIL-41047, but the overseas frame pickup GMC Sierra 2500 with an engine of 353 hp was chosen as the base. with. We bought three cars, removed all the body panels and … But there was nowhere to get domestic body panels from government ZILs.
The appeal to the Moscow Automobile Plant did not lead to anything - the Zilovites were wounded by such inattention on the part of Serdyukov and did not share anything. They say that Luzhkov personally banned it. In addition, in the special shop №6 of ZIL, an alternative version of the ceremonial convertible was developed in spite of the Atlant-Delta. I had to buy used ZIL-41041 sedans with pretty shabby bodies and tap out three ceremonial convertibles on my knees. As a result, the cars, named ZIL-41041 AMG, first appeared on Red Square exactly ten years ago at the parade dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the Victory. The Moscow version of the ZIL-410441 was shallow due to the controversial appearance ("Chinese" lighting technology and the hump of the folded awning), as well as the lag behind the schedule - the Zilovites managed to make only one convertible for testing. In addition, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense was initially more favorable to the car of the Nizhny Novgorod residents. Nevertheless, the debut of the "American" at the parade was overshadowed by the cracks on the sills and the body that appeared afterwards, which, however, were eliminated by the engineers of Atlant-Delta for the 66th anniversary of the Victory. And the unsuccessful ZIL-410441 was bought by the then President of Ukraine Yanukovych in 2011 and used a convertible in Yalta for some time. Where the car is now is unknown.
In 2019, the era of "American" cars in many ways in Red Square is over. On May 9, the Aurus-412314 convertibles drove onto the pavement. The history of these convertibles is just beginning …
