“Moscow speaks and shows. Listen and watch Red Square! Victory Parade!” - the annual ceremonial march of parade units across Red Square has become an integral symbol of May 9. But the symbol of the parade itself, perhaps, can be called... cars. Rulers and military leaders changed, but the luxurious phaetons of the commander and host remained unchanged participants in each parade.
“Comrades! Be vigilant, tirelessly master military affairs, strengthen the economic and military power of our beautiful Motherland with tenfold energy in all areas of socialist construction! Everyone understood perfectly well that war could not be avoided, although it was possible to delay the ruthless meat grinder - the main thing was to show how “the defensive power of the Soviet state had significantly strengthened.” Soldiers and officers thundered with their boots, motorcycles and military equipment rumbled with their engines, military planes flew by... Foreign diplomats watched all this.
The column of armored vehicles was headed by an unusual car - as the magazine “Behind the Wheel” wrote, “an elegant, well-finished phaeton, with a beautiful streamlined body shape.” This car is an open ZIS-102, a modification of the ZIS-101 limousine without a hard metal roof. A great future was predicted for the elegant, swift phaeton - then the commander and host of the parade rode along the cobblestones of Red Square on thoroughbred trotters, but the appearance of a beautiful ceremonial car could change the established order: why not military leaders switch to cars? However, Joseph Stalin categorically snapped: “We will not change the good tradition of the Soviet army.”
|
Trotters were replaced by cars only after the death of “Iron Joseph”, in 1953. During the May parade “dedicated to International Workers’ Solidarity,” a 4-door ZIS-110B phaeton, an open version of the six-window ZIS-110 limousine, drove onto the cobblestones of the country’s main square. At the end of the war, Stalin personally ordered the creation of this limousine, and therefore the family of cars for the top of the Soviet government turned out to be similar to Packard cars (Danila Mikhailov told in detail about the history of the American brand). The leader loved this brand very much, and the designers, knowing the preferences of Joseph Vissarionovich, drew the first representative car of the USSR in the image and likeness of the luxurious Super Eight 180 model of 1942. At the same time, looking at another car from America - the Buick Limited, which turned out to be wider and more spacious than the Packard.
|
The engineers based the ZIS-110 on an impressive spar frame, reinforced with a powerful crosspiece, so the empty ZIS-110 weighed a lot - more than 2.5 tons! Therefore, the engine from its predecessor, the ZIS-101, turned out to be rather weak for the massive vehicle and the designers had to create a new power unit - an inline 6.0-liter “eight”, which produced a modest 140 hp by today’s standards. For this engine, oil workers even had to start producing a new type of gasoline, A-74. In total, the 1st Automobile Plant named after. I.V. Stalin" (it became a plant named after Likhachev only on June 26, 1956) 2089 open "zises" were produced, many of which worked... as taxis.
|
In the sixties, the good old ZIS-110 was sent into retirement, and their place was taken by a new generation of convertibles - the ZIL-111V. When creating this car, the stylistic influence of the “Americans” was again involved... But if the “ten” was a copy of specific models, then the design of the “eleventh” is a kind of collective image of a “typical American car” of the late fifties. Under the hood of the new family, a V-shaped “eight” appeared (a relative of this engine is the ZIL-130 truck engine), but the most important innovation used on the ZIL-111, of course, was the two-speed automatic transmission.
From 1960 to 1962, twelve (!) open cars were produced, and then the production of both limousines and ZIL-111 convertibles was curtailed. And all because Nikita Khrushchev personally “asked” to update the appearance of executive cars. According to legend, the then first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee did not like that the car for the government elite was similar to the GAZ-13 “Chaika”, which appeared a year later, and was intended for middle management. Khrushchev was also amazed by John Kennedy's newest Lincoln Continental, compared to which the Soviet ZIL seemed like a poor relative. In general, the “eleventh” was hastily updated, creating the ZIL-111G. The open version of the car received the index 111D.
True, the “pre-reform” ZIL-111V drove to Red Square until 1967! New convertibles replaced their predecessors at the parade dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, and served until the mid-seventies. Then the next generation of government convertibles, ZIL-117V, took over the work shift. For the first time, designers - they were then called artists - having received absolute freedom, created a new car without regard (or rather, almost without regard) to foreign competitors, so that the exterior turned out to be original, strict and less susceptible to the influence of fickle fashion than the bodies of its predecessors. Another solution uncharacteristic for ZIL cars is the presence of short-wheelbase (ZIL-117) and long-wheelbase (ZIL-114) versions.
|
For the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution, the engineers of the Likhachev Plant decided to prepare a “gift” - to update the classic features of government cars. The proportions changed slightly (the hood became longer and the trunk became shorter), the design of the front and rear parts of the body, the plumage elements were adjusted... The car received the factory index ZIL-115 and the industry-wide index ZIL-4104. In 1981, several shortened sedans (historians continue to argue how many cars were created) served as the basis for the construction of the next generation of ceremonial convertibles, which externally looked like representatives of the ZIL-115 family, but received a less powerful engine from its predecessor, the ZIL-114.
These convertibles served as the “main ceremonial cars of the country” for more than a quarter of a century. In 2006, the Ministry of Defense decided to bring fundamentally new vehicles to Red Square - GAZ Tiger SUVs. In just six months, Nizhny Novgorod engineers “tailored” several two-door convertibles. In terms of mechanical components, the “front” SUV differed from the usual one only in the gearbox (instead of the “mechanics” they installed an “automatic”) and the interior design. But the high army authorities did not like the Tigers, and now the brutal black giants are serving... in St. Petersburg.
But for the main, Moscow, Victory Parade, instead of the ancient ZIL-115V, it was necessary to build a hybrid, although reminiscent of the classic ceremonial ZILs, but not one. On the chassis of American GMC Sierra pickup trucks (you can read about this “monster” in the article GMC Sierra 1500 - a real American dream alive) they installed converted bodies from used (!) ZIL-41041 sedans. This project was carried out by specialists from the Nizhny Novgorod company Atlant-Delta (it belongs to Oleg Deripaska and is famous for the implementation of unusual ideas: for example, the creation of luxurious yacht interiors), since the capital's ZIL lost the tender. By the way, this is why Nizhny Novgorod residents had to use used bodies - the new Zilov workers simply refused to sell them.
It is interesting that classic ceremonial convertibles, regardless of generation, were always the same gray color - like the shade of a general's winter overcoat - in color. But the Nizhny Novgorod-American “hybrids” broke the Soviet tradition - their bodies are painted black! The change in color can be explained simply: until recently, the parade was hosted by a civilian minister. In a black suit. And now that the Ministry of Defense is once again headed by an army general... No, they are not planning to repaint the cars, although the noble gray color suits the strict features of the “main convertibles of the country” much more than mourning black. Maybe only the next generation of ceremonial convertibles (as part of the “Cortege” project, not only a limousine for the president will be created, but also a new generation of open cars) will acquire their usual colors. But this will not happen until 2015.
Alexey Kovanov
A urus Senat exists not only in the form of a presidential limousine and a sedan, the approximate market price of which is , but also as a convertible. Moreover, the creators of the car do not intend to limit themselves to its use at parades on May 9, but plan to establish mass production. I remembered what convertibles the Soviet Union produced and who they were intended for.
At all times, with the exception of the first decades of automotive history, convertible cars have been a real status symbol, a sign of wealth and an integral part of a good life. In years past, convertible cars were on the list of any self-respecting manufacturer, including mass brands on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Even if buyers were not ready to buy a Chevrolet or Peugeot with a drop roof en masse, such cars attracted customers to car dealerships, from which they already left as owners of a simpler and cheaper model.
With the introduction of increasingly strict safety measures, the development and production of convertibles has become increasingly expensive, so that such cars have now become the prerogative of premium and luxury brands. And it is not surprising that Rolls-Royce Dawn, Bentley Continental GTC and Mercedes-Benz S-Class Cabriolet want to play in Aurus - the position that the new Russian brand is claiming is obligatory. At the same time, Aurus continues the long tradition of convertibles that existed in the USSR at all times. Only they were released for completely different purposes.
The bright path of the poor
The first mass-produced Soviet cars were without a hard roof. And the point is not at all in the desire of the country's leadership to please the first Soviet motorists with the wind in their hair and a feeling of unity with nature, but in the banal economy of steel. Strictly speaking, GAZ-A were not even convertibles, but phaetons, because in addition to the roof, they also did not have side windows. Instead, it was proposed to use attached pieces of material with celluloid windows. Prohibition-era gangsters loved phaetons for their ease of shooting while moving, but Soviet workers complained about the cold inside the cabin for most of the year. Nevertheless, from 1932 to 1936, 41,917 GAZ-A were manufactured in Gorky and Moscow.
In 1933, a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars was issued, which required that all cars be provided with closed bodies, so the next generation of cars from Gorky GAZ-M1 already had a closed body as the base one. Although they couldn’t do without a phaeton: the GAZ-11-40 received an open body and a new six-cylinder engine with a power of as much as 76 horsepower. The car never saw serial production (they were limited to a small batch of headquarters all-wheel drive phaetons for the Red Army), which did not prevent the car from becoming perhaps the most famous Soviet convertible.
The fact is that it is on the GAZ-11-40 that the heroine flies over Moscow in the film “The Shining Path”. Not as luxurious as the ZIS-110, but still inaccessible, this car was ideally suited to the role of the dream transport of a Stakhanovka weaver.
1 /4
After the war, cars without roofs were remembered again. And again, not from a good life. Both in Moscow, at the new Small Car Plant (ZMA), and at GAZ, they began producing convertible sedans (or convertible sedans) - cars that did not have a roof, but retained the glass frames. In this simple and inexpensive way it was possible to cope with the shortage of rolled metal. GAZ-M-20 “Pobeda” and Moskvich-400-420A with this body were produced from 1949 to 1953 and 1954, respectively. During this time, 14 thousand 222 Pobeda sedans and convertibles and 17 thousand 742 Moskvich cars were produced.
Unlike the GAZ-11-40, the roofless Pobeda and Moskvich appeared in films more than once, and in the film She Loves You! and both cars lit up at once. The modest zoo worker Konstantin Kanareikin () drives a Moskvich-400-420A, and his beloved Olga () drives the Pobeda sedan-convertible of her friend Tamara ().
But neither roles in films, nor all the delights of summer operation of convertible sedans could outweigh the cold in the cabin in winter, so the owners of Moskvich and Pobeda tried by hook or by crook to turn them into sedans by welding a sheet of metal instead of a soft top. As soon as the shortage of metal in the country became less acute, both models were consigned to the dustbin of history. However, today it is the sedan-convertibles that are the most valuable versions of Moskvich and Pobeda for collectors.
For fields and astronauts
The real heyday of convertible aircraft manufacturing in the USSR occurred during the reign of Nikita Khrushchev. Both the first mass-produced Soviet limousine ZIS-101 and its successor ZIS-110 had convertible top versions, but only six of the former were made, and the 110th phaeton was used in parades and as a minibus in Black Sea resorts. Fearing assassination attempts, Stalin preferred armored Packards, and then ZIS-115, a protected modification of the “one hundred and tenth”.
But everything changed with the arrival of the new Secretary General. Having worked for many years in Ukraine with its mild climate and devoid of Stalin’s paranoid tendencies, Khrushchev loved to ride without a top. The roofless ZIS-110V, and then the ZIL-111V and 111D were used by Nikita Sergeevich during his vacation at the resorts of the Crimea and the Caucasus, and during a visit to the southern regions of the USSR, and at ceremonial meetings of important guests such as leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries and astronauts. ZIS engineers even developed the ZIS-110P phaeton with all-wheel drive so that Khrushchev could drive around the virgin lands without a roof, but the car remained experimental.
During the Thaw era, the USSR acquired another luxurious convertible - the GAZ-13B "Chaika" - which was released in 1961. Some of the cars were sent to state dachas in the Caucasus, and some served as ceremonial cars in military districts.
Convertibles in the 1950s were used by many world leaders who were not afraid of assassination attempts. And this was not always done because of the desire of those in power to ride with the breeze and have a good time. Until television came to every home, the convertible was an excellent opportunity to show the national leader to the people. Everything changed on November 22, 1963, when the presidential Lincoln Continental X-100 convertible was killed in Dallas. After this, many world leaders began to think about safety, moving from convertibles to armored limousines. And we're not just talking about dictators.
However, Soviet leaders continued to drive along the capital's wide avenues in convertibles for several more seasons. In 1963, the Special Purpose Garage (GON) received a new ZIL-111D convertible, made in the style of contemporary American cars. Khrushchev drove it in the summer of 1964, and Brezhnev, who replaced him in October of the same year, continued to use it. Moreover, ceremonial drives around the city with the roof down were not exclusively a summer practice - convertibles were used when meeting astronauts in the winter. A sheepskin hat, a warm overcoat and low speed saved me from frostbite.
1 /4
The use of convertibles by top officials and important guests of the USSR was put to an end by shots fired on January 22, 1969, when Brezhnev, along with cosmonauts and Georgy Beregov, entered the Kremlin through the Borovitsky Gate. Despite the fact that Ilyin ended up shooting at the car with the cosmonauts, and not with the Secretary General, and that 111G limousines were used that day, and not 111D convertibles, the GON decided not to take any more risks. However, they did without armored vehicles, which again began to be produced at ZIL only in the 1980s.
One day car
However, convertibles did not disappear from the ZIL range, they just now had a single role - to be a ceremonial car. Therefore, in the new generation, the family of executive cars did without a four-door convertible with three rows of seats. Its place was taken by a two-door convertible ZIL-117V, in which the parade commander and parade host had to stand in the place of the front passenger seat. The rear seats were nominal and not used.
From 1972 to 1981, these cars were used for parades in Moscow, and after the appearance of the next generation of ceremonial ZIL-41044 convertibles, they went to St. Petersburg, where they served until 2009. A year later, the ZIL-41044 at the Moscow Victory Parades was replaced by black convertibles from the Nizhny Novgorod company Atlant Delta. They were bodies similar to their predecessors, mounted on the chassis of American GMC Sierra 1500 pickup trucks. The color of the convertibles changed due to the fact that the then Minister of Defense was a civilian and accepted the parade in a black suit, and not in a gray marshal's overcoat, as was the case in Soviet times.
It is interesting that when the army general came to replace Serdyukov, they did not repaint the ZILs. Just as they did not return the gray color to the Aurus Senat convertibles. However, the correspondence between the color of the car and the color of the clothes of the Minister of Defense disappeared even with, who took part in the parade in a black suit in a gray car. Parade convertibles were traditionally produced in triplicate: two for parade use and one reserve car.
However, on May 9 and November 7, parades took place not only in Moscow and Leningrad, but also in other cities of the USSR. Usually convertibles that had served their time in Moscow were sent there. Thus, ZIL-111V were sent to Alma-Ata, and 111D to Kyiv. But the problem of outdated externally and technically worn-out cars was quite acute, so it was decided to develop a ceremonial convertible at a lower level.
The logical choice fell on the GAZ-14 “Chaika” - an executive sedan for regional and republican leaders. However, it was turned into a convertible on a relatively budgetary basis: if the ZIL had a shortened wheelbase and developed a folding top with a hydraulic drive for it, then for the open version of the Chaika they did not shorten it, and they did not provide a roof at all. While parked, an awning was simply pulled over the car, protecting the interior from rain.
1 /3
Meanwhile, in the parade version of the GAZ-14-05, according to the old tradition, the parade host was located in the rear of the cabin, and not in the place of the right front passenger, as in the last two generations of ZILs. A total of 15 GAZ-14-05 were built: two cars were sent to each of the military districts, and another car remained in Gorky.
In small towns, the role of ceremonial cars was played by the GAZ-69 SUVs, and later by the UAZ-459, which in the military version did not have a hard roof at all, as well as convertibles based on the Pobeda and Volga, produced in small series. Moreover, the latter still serve today. In Novosibirsk, they turned the GAZ-24 Volga into a ceremonial convertible on their own, in Samara and Vladimir - a director's GAZ-3102. And if in the first two cities the cars were painted in the traditional gray color for parades, then in Vladimir they left them black.
The bestial grin of capitalism
Of course, Soviet engineers dreamed of cars without a roof, because convertibles and roadsters - two-seater open cars - have a low, and therefore swift, silhouette. Moreover, we are talking specifically about machines that are attributes of a beautiful life. Alas, there was no place for them in the country of workers and peasants, and they never went beyond the experimental departments, but it is impossible not to mention them.
In 1939, a group of young engineers from the ZIS Design Bureau, on their own initiative, developed a luxurious two-seater ZIS-Sport car based on the ZIS-101A limousine. The car was made in the latest style at that time, and the proportions with a long hood and trunk and a short interior were typical of American sports cars of the 1930s. Incredibly, ZIS-Sport managed to be included in the list of “Gifts to the Motherland” for the 20th anniversary of the Komsomol.
The public debut of the car took place at the XVII Moscow Party Conference. The People's Commissar of Medium Engineering personally presented the car to high authorities. Stalin liked the car, but soon the war began, and with it the already illusory chances of the ZIS-Sport at least for piece production sank into oblivion. In 1941, the car was not taken out of the factory during the evacuation of the ZIS to Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Miass and Shadrinsk, and it died during one of the air raids on the city.
Alas, Autoexport estimated the costs of developing the Tourist even in small-scale production and decided that they could easily do without this beautiful, but niche car. Once again, convertibles were forgotten in the USSR for 20 years, until a family of front-wheel drive cars was introduced into production in the early 1980s. Convertibles based on the VAZ-2108 were produced in small series by several European Lada dealers. Sometimes Lada Natasha, Lada Carlotta and Lada Cabrio were even re-exported to the USSR and Russia, but calling them Russian convertibles is still a stretch.
So it turns out that both in the USSR and in Russia, the car without a roof with the largest circulation remains the GAZ-A - the first mass-produced domestic car. And Aurus Senat clearly will not be able to beat his achievements.
The forerunner of the convertible is the phaeton - a body in which the side windows are not hidden in the doors, but are fastened separately, or are absent as such. At the very beginning of the existence of the USSR, there were plenty of such cars. The direct heir to the automobile industry of the Russian Empire - which appeared in 1922, aka the pre-revolutionary Russo-Balt with an identical digital index - was a phaeton, and it had four doors. This design - a removable top and four (not two, which is more common now) doors - would later become traditional for the Soviet convertible.
The NAMI-1 car, the first copies of which were assembled in 1927, was a two-door car, although at the development stage there was also a three-door version - with a pair of doors on the left side. NAMI-1 was compact, combining the ideas of a “cycle car” (car-motorcycle) and a full-fledged car.
If you do not take into account the idea of a backbone frame borrowed from it, the car was already a completely independent development, including a 2-cylinder air-cooled engine. There were a whole bunch of problems with the serial assembly, but NAMI-1 was luckier than Prombroni, which was made only five pieces - from 1927 to 1931, at the Moscow plant No. 4 "Spartak", according to various estimates, from 200 to 500 NAMI phaetons were produced. 1.
NAMI's experience, despite advertising the car, was rather inglorious, partly because, being assembled almost piecemeal, the car was very expensive - 8,000 rubles. And although the price was later reduced to 5,180 rubles, at the same time there was a GAZ-A, which was essentially an “American” Ford-A, and cost only about 2,000 rubles. However, the GAZ-A, the most popular Soviet model of the early 1930s (almost 42,000 cars from 1932 to 1936), had its problems.
1 / 4
2 / 4
3 / 4
4 / 4
With this model came the understanding that an open car for Russia is “no ice.” More precisely, just the same, and directly on the faces of those sitting in the cabin.
In 1933, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on providing all car models with closed bodies. These also appeared on GAZ-A - GAZ-3 and GAZ-6 (Pioneer and Fordor). The era of carefree youth in the Soviet automobile industry is over.
In an attempt to "take off my hat"
Three years after the release of the aforementioned resolution, it was already clearly noticeable that the Soviet automobile industry had turned towards models with a hard stationary top - the GAZ-M-1, released in 1936, was closed. But at the same time, both factories, Gorky and Moscow, were working on open modifications - even though the phaeton was no longer the main body, from a design point of view such an “almost forbidden” body was perhaps more attractive than ever. Alas, the elegant version of the open “Emka” that the Gorky residents produced never became serial.
1 / 5
2 / 5
3 / 5
4 / 5
5 / 5
On the ZIS, just before the war, they tried as many as two variants under the general designation ZIS-102 - both with side windows and those with doors that dropped into the doors, thus building the first Soviet convertible. Alas, only 20 or 30 were made of open cars in all versions, including those redesigned at the same time as the main model and equipped with a forced 116-horsepower ZIS-102A engine.
1 / 2
2 / 2
The last pre-war splash on the theme of “torn off cap” was the KIM, a car diametrically opposed to the ZIS. The compact KIM-10-50 was destined for the laurels of a Soviet car for the people, but even in a closed body they managed to produce it only a short time before the war. The open version of KIM-10-51 was built in several copies. And after the war, a completely different story began.
The first post-war cars aimed at ordinary citizens were, first assembled in June 1946, and launched in December of the same year.
The fact is that they were also the first Soviet cars with a monocoque body, and this circumstance made the implementation of an open modification many times more difficult. However, a solution was found: both cars had a convertible version, which, however, retained the frames of the doors and roof, and with them a fair share of the power structure of the original body.
1 / 3
2 / 3
3 / 3
This can hardly be called a convertible in the full sense (in fact, in the case of Pobeda, the body was called a “sedan-convertible”, and not so long ago), but these cars still gave the feeling of an open car. And the soft top in this version was put on the roof relatively simply and, which is especially important for our climate, reliably.
More than 14,000 of these “partially crazy” copies of the Pobeda, which, according to some sources, had their own index GAZ-M-20B, were produced from 1949 to 1953. In the same year as the Pobeda sedan-convertible, the open Moskvich-400-420A went into production and remained on the MZMA assembly line until 1954 - in total, almost 18,000 of these cars were assembled... On these two cars, in fact, the history of the mass domestic convertible began and ended.
1 / 3
2 / 3
3 / 3
Not a hat for Senka
Since then, the niche of open cars in the USSR began a steady drift into the upper class, inaccessible to mere mortals. Moreover, over time, these machines became completely piecemeal.
1 / 4
2 / 4
3 / 4
4 / 4
The 7-seater ZIS-110 limousine, which appeared in production in 1945, was a frame one; designing its open version was relatively simple, especially considering the small production series. Yes, yes, this model, one might say, was only pretending to be serial: from 1945 to 1961, a little more than 2,000 basic limousines were produced, and the number of ZIS-110B phaetons (1949-1957), most likely, goes down to a few or, at the very least, in case, dozens - however, this looks like a minuscule amount if you don’t know how everything turned out in the future. There was also a ZIS-110V convertible, but in only three copies - with an electro-hydraulic mechanism for raising the roof and windows that went into the doors along with the frames.
1 / 3
2 / 3
3 / 3
In the late 1940s, high party officials traveled in open ZIS vehicles while on vacation in the Crimea, and much later, some of these vehicles ended up serving as taxis in resort cities. In the 1950s they hosted parades on Red Square; Nikita Khrushchev, whose favorite car was an open ZIS (one of the photographs shows that the Secretary General had a ZIS-110V, with sliding glass frames), moved around Moscow in this car, gave rides to foreign guests and even spoke from it during visits to the province.
 |
 |
 |
And one more car could have an open version - the Gorky one, standing half a step below the ZIS in the Soviet automotive hierarchy and after 1957 renamed GAZ-12. This six-seater sedan model was produced from 1949 to 1959 and was relatively widespread - more than 21,000 copies were produced. Despite its main function as a “personnel” of the government nomenklatura at the level of minister or regional committee secretary, ZIM enjoyed success among the establishment - workers in culture, art and science.
1 / 3
2 / 3
3 / 3
It even appeared on open sale, unlike the “descendants” under the Chaika brand - however, at a price of 40,000 rubles, which made it unattainable; people dreamed of saving 9,000 rubles for a Moskvich-400 or, if they were very lucky, 16,000 rubles for Pobeda. And the open version, despite the more or less stable “series” of the main model, did not appear at ZIM - the experimental convertible, already photographed for advertising with a large family seated in the cabin, never received its own index and remained produced in quantities either two or three copies.
The GAZ-13 Chaika car was a little more lucky - about 20 open GAZ-13Bs were assembled, some of them worked in the Union republics - for example, a newsreel captured young Alla Pugacheva being taken to a concert, presumably in Yerevan, in an open Chaika.
 |
 |
 |
The next Chaika, GAZ-14, also had a version with a drop-top GAZ-14-05, but these were exclusively ceremonial cars, and only a few of them... And then there were, essentially, only Zilov “member carriers” - in the sense, convertibles based on ZILs (in 1956, the Stalin Plant, ZIS, was renamed the Likhachev Plant, ZIL), created to transport members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee.
1 / 2
2 / 2
These cars were used for parades and holiday escorts. The first in this series was the ZIL-111V (1960), which had similar stylistics to the more modest-sized “thirteenth” Chaika. Only true celestials could reach the open ZILs - on April 14, 1961, Yuri Gagarin solemnly arrived from the airport to the Kremlin in a ZIL-111V. These cars were assembled only until 1962, that is, before the “upgrade” of the parent model, and manually, 12-15 pieces per year. This piece-by-piece assembly has become traditional for all government vehicles.
When in 1962 the basic limousine underwent restyling and a change in index from ZIL-111 to ZIL-111G, the question arose about updating the phaeton - despite the sliding windows, open versions of government cars were still called in the old fashioned way. The first “phaeton” with a new exterior design received the index ZIL-111D and was released at the beginning of 1963, and a total of eight cars were assembled. Why, only 112 limousines were assembled from 1958 to 1967 - compare this with the two-thousandth edition of the ZIS-110, which until recently seemed so small! It’s as if someone decided that large cars, especially open ones, are no longer needed in this country.
Such cars were made not only for the sake of luxury, but also out of necessity.
The former naive provincial girl, and now a noble weaver and also an order bearer, Tanya, performed by Lyubov Orlova, flies over the new socialist Moscow in the newest Soviet car. Of course, in a convertible! The film by Grigory Alexandrov “The Shining Path” logically included a new product from 1940 - the open GAZ-11-40 - a modification of the six-cylinder Emka, the GAZ-11-73 sedan. Very few such cars were produced, and the convertible did not become a mass-produced car at all.
The first Soviet cars NAMI-1 and GAZ-A were open, of course, not for foppish reasons. Such bodies are the simplest and cheapest. But, of course, they are not very suitable for our climate. New products of 1936 - GAZ-M1 and ZIS-101 were closed and had hard roofs. But the leader proclaimed that life had become better and more fun. And based on standard cars, both factories produced convertibles. Gorkovsky, we repeat, did not become a serial artist. The ZIS-102 with an in-line eight was also made in scanty quantities. After all, the era when Soviet leaders rode in open cars in front of their enthusiastic subjects has passed, and the new times of general secretaries appearing in public came only twenty years later. Well, it was just as difficult to imagine, say, a carefree, cheerful company in a huge and powerful convertible in the USSR as, for example, a leader of nations walking around Moscow.
ZIS-102, according to various estimates, was produced in 20-30 copies. The convertibles had a souped-up 116-horsepower engine.
The first Soviet car intended for private owners - KIM-10 - also had an open modification. But very few of these cars were produced, probably even fewer than the closed ones.
Army all-terrain vehicles - from GAZ-67B to UAZ-469 - are hard to call convertibles. But immediately after the war, as many as three open cars went into production in the victorious country. The main one was the ZIS-110B. Photos have been preserved in which even some top managers (of course, not the highest) were traveling in open ZIS cars on vacation in Crimea even before 1953.
Later, ZIS vehicles began to be used for parades on Red Square. But in resort towns, seven-seater convertibles even ended up in taxis! The open ZIS came to the court of the new leader of the country. Now friendly foreign delegations were often greeted in open cars, and in the provinces Khrushchev sometimes even spoke to the people from a ZIS with a folded roof.
The awning of the ZIS-110B was lowered and raised manually. There were versions of the 110 with celluloid side windows and sliding windows, which were more modern for the late 1940s. Pre-war Soviet cars did not have them, but Western thoroughbred convertibles had sliding windows already installed in the mid-1930s. In 1957, they even made three ZIS-110Vs with a hydraulic roof drive, like American convertibles.
Anyone could buy the open Pobeda GAZ-M20 and Moskvich-400-420A. Moreover, convertibles were even cheaper than standard cars. Unlike pre-war cars, which, let me remind you, did not have sliding windows, Pobeda and Moskvich retained the side pillars and roof frames. This simplified the production of a convertible based on cars with monocoque bodies. Both cars left their mark on Soviet cinema. “Moskvich”, for example in the comedy “She Loves You!” with Georgy Vitsin, and the open “Victory” - in the detective story “Case No. 306” and in the film “Ivan Brovkin in the Virgin Lands,” where the GAZ-M20 played the appropriate role of a wedding car.
Alas, the short history of serial Soviet convertibles ended there. Neither the Pobeda second generation GAZ-M20V, nor even the 402nd Moskvich had an open version.
IN PARTY UNIFORM
But the country needed ceremonial cars. Therefore, the ZIL-111 and ZIL-111G limousines had open modifications - 111V and 111D, respectively. True, they made a little over ten of these machines. In addition to parades, they were used to welcome friendly foreign delegations. There were also open ZILs in some socialist countries, where, again, they appeared in public in connection with the visits of the heads of socialist states.
Huge four-door ZIL convertibles were used until the end of the 1970s, since the ZIL-114 no longer had an open modification. But the convertible (the first two-door for the Moscow plant, not counting the non-serial pre-war ZIS-Sport) was made on the basis of a shortened ZIL-117. In addition to the traditional gray parade cars, there were also black ones. They said that one of them was driven by “beloved Leonid Ilyich” himself, a great connoisseur of cars, during his vacation in the south. Later versions of ZILs also had a two-door open modification ZIL-41044. The apogee of cabriolet construction on the already dying ZIL was the recent cars with a domestic appearance and American filling.
GAZ also made convertibles of a lower rank. True, only three experimental vehicles were built on the basis of ZIM. Serial production of a large open car based on the GAZ-12 sedan with a monocoque body would be too troublesome. But a small number of GAZ-13Bs also worked in the Union republics. For the sake of history, a filmed episode of the concert of Alla Pugacheva, who is being transported in an open “Chaika” past the jubilant spectators who filled the union (it seems, Yerevan) stadium, has been preserved. Later, fifteen ceremonial GAZ-14-05 “Seagulls” were built.
Well, for even more provincial parades, army auto repair plants made home-made convertibles based on Pobeda, and then Volga of various models, ranging from GAZ-21 to GAZ-3110. The latter still appear in public.
"Natasha"
A timid attempt to make an open Moskvich-408 was made at MZMA after a blue Renault Floride, donated to N. S. Khrushchev in France, arrived at the plant. This model even comes with a variety of removable hardtops! They tried, using the connections of one of the factory workers, to show the car to the new leader of the country, L. I. Brezhnev. But it didn’t work out. And in general, such a project in the USSR was doomed.
Much later, VAZ made a couple of copies of the VAZ-2108 with a targa body (removable middle roof) that was fashionable at the turn of the 1980s, designed by designer V. Pashko. But where is it...
But the damned capitalists were offered open versions of our Samara and Niva! True, they were no longer made in the USSR. Convertibles based on the VAZ-2121 were built in Germany and France, as well as in Belgium, Holland and even Australia. The VAZ-2108 also had several open variants, including the Natacha version created by VAZ designer V. Yartsev. During perestroika times, a number of “emigrants” returned to their historical homeland, where these cars aroused increased interest.
One of the foreign convertibles based on the VAZ-2121 named Lada Niva Savanna
Around the same time, homemade convertibles based on Soviet cars began to appear. Among them was ZIM, supposedly miraculously preserved from those three experimental specimens. There were Volgas, Zhigulis and, of course, the humpbacked Zaporozhets. Moreover, some samples were built so talentedly that you inevitably treat them with warmth. In the end, amateur non-factory convertibles are also a document of the era and our idea of what the Soviet cars we dreamed about could have been...
Lada Samara Natacha designed by V. Yartsev. 456 of these machines were produced.
This could be a convertible based on the Volga GAZ-21
