ZIS-101A-Sport (1939) was a two-seater roadster built in a single copy on the chassis of the ZIS-101, the first Soviet serial limousine, in essence, a sports version of this model. According to the drawings, it was referred to as "ZIS-Sport".
HISTORY OF CREATION
It was the creation of this advanced limousine, the production of which began in 1936 at the plant. Stalin in Moscow, prompted a group of young specialists, engineers of this plant, to build on its basis sport car. They worked on the project at the end of their work shift. General layout and the front suspension was handled by Anatoly Pukhalin, who is finishing the evening department of MADI with thesis on the topic "Sports car", his colleague Nikolai Pulmanov solved the problems of increasing engine power, Vladimir Kremenetsky worked on the design rear axle, and techie artist Vladimir Rostkov "conjured" over the exterior of the future roadster. By 1938, the sports ZIS was completed - on whatman paper, in the drawings.
Fortunately for this group of fanatics, the All-Union anniversary was approaching - the 20th anniversary of the Komsomol. In connection with such a "high-profile" event, a number of enterprises and institutions launched a campaign under the slogan "Motherland - in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Komsomol." The developers of the sports car project managed to push their creation as one of these "gifts to the Komsomol". Together with the publication of Komsomolskaya Pravda, the entire Soviet country. As a result, factory bosses were forced to give the green light to the project. official date birth ZIS-101A should be considered December 11, 1938, when Ivan Likhachev, the director of the plant, issued an order that literally painted the schedule of a sports car every day. The famous “red director” himself followed the progress, instantly removing all “organizational” obstacles, including supply problems, that could interfere with the implementation of such an important and “politically significant” project.
Many problems were overcome in assembling the complex configuration of a streamlined body. According to Rostkov's sketches, templates were drawn with all the "krivulins" on a 1: 1 scale, according to the templates, wooden parts were made to assemble the layout, and then iron figured sheets of the upcoming body were made by hand with mallets. The frame itself was assembled from wood using a lot of beech and other high-quality timbers - according to the then-rooted technology. After complete assembly, the car was painted in dark green color and trimmed with chrome strips. On the right side of the hood, a commemorative plate with the inscription "XX years of the Komsomol" was installed.
BODY
ZIS-101A with impressive dimensions of 5750 × 1900 × 1856 mm was mounted on a wheelbase of 3570 mm, which was huge for a car of that time. The weight of the sports car reached 2 tons. According to some, its body shape was modeled after the then American Buicks. Particularly stood out was the very successful from an aerodynamic point of view, the radiator lining, which was radically different from the mass-produced cars produced at that time.
The sports car was equipped with an in-line 8-cylinder forced engine from the ZIS-101 with a volume of just over 6 liters, or rather, 6.06, producing 141 hp. With. at 3300 rpm, 3-speed manual transmission and a novelty for that time - a carburetor with a falling flow. Compared to the production model, engine power has been increased by 21%. To drive the drive (rear) wheels, a hypoid main gear was used, and anti-roll bars formed the basis of the suspension design. The brakes were mechanical, drum, with a vacuum booster. Although the maximum design speed was supposed to be approximately 180 km / h, during the tests the sports car was able to accelerate no more than 162.4 km / h.
FATE
A prototype roadster was demonstrated in 1939 to Stalin and Kaganovich during the XVII Moscow Party Conference, where he earned the full approval of the top of the country. But this verdict did not help unique car in your future destiny. The departure of the plant director, the collapse of the team due to production needs and the war put an end to this project, and the only unique Soviet roadster "disappeared in time and space."
Some enthusiastic seekers are still hoping to find this "one hundred and first", but the experts of the Molotov Garage restoration center decided to act differently, namely, to recreate the roadster according to the drawings. And in 2012, at the 20th anniversary Oldtimer Gallery at Crocus Expo, they exhibited it in all its splendor.
Create for real quality car, in the pre-war years, was possible only in a very developed country from both a scientific and an industrial point of view. Not many will argue that it was the States that became the cradle of the automotive industry: not only the most massive, but also the most luxurious and masterpiece cars of the first half of the 20th century were produced there, remember at least about, or.
In those years, many automakers were equal to American cars, 
with an eye on the American auto industry, 101 was also created, which was originally intended for the Soviet elite. During the show of the finished car to Stalin, Iosif Vissarionovich was generally pleased with it, but in the future he hardly drove it, preferring the American Packard to it.
From 1936 to 1941, 8752 ZIS 101, 600 
of them belonged to the updated "A" series, which differed more powerful motor and an all-metal body: more details about the technical characteristics of the ZIS 101 will be written below.
In those years, it was difficult for Soviet specialists to develop an advanced design and the body structure itself, for a top-class car. 
Therefore, the work on creating a body was transferred to the Americans from the Budd Company, they also supplied the USSR with the equipment necessary to create bodies for the ZIS. The Americans received $1,500,000 for their services, but as ZIS representatives later said, the Americans did not do their part of the deal very well. The fact is that a significant part of the ZIS 101 frame was made of beech, and when working with wood, in this case, a very precise fit was required - the Americans decided to “do not worry” about this and the work on fine-tuning the frame fell on the shoulders of ZIS workers. In the photo of the ZIS 101 you can see this frame, later it was sheathed with sheet metal. More interesting is that central part the roofs of the 101st ZIS are wooden - this part is covered with leather. This is due to the fact that at that time it was very expensive to make a solid, metal roof in the USSR. After the upgrade, version 101A received a metal frame and an all-metal roof. "Ashka" you can recognize by the new grille - such a machine is shown second. With a wheelbase of 3605mm, the ZIS 101 was 5647mm long, 1892mm wide and 1856mm high. The curb weight of the 101st ZIS is 2550kg.
At that time, the ZIS 101 had chic equipment: in basic equipment included heater and radio receiver, 
and then it was not in every Soviet car. Interesting story associated with ZIS armchairs: I.A. Likhachev was the director of the Stalin Plant and he often told his craftsmen - making chairs that their seats were good, but they still did not reach Packard. Then, ZIS masters took their chair, put Packard upholstery on it and installed it in Packard; on the American seat, they pulled their trim and installed it in the VMS, and when Likhachev again sat in the seats of both cars and repeated his remark, the craftsmen told him what they had done) - they say that Likhachev had no more questions about domestic seats. Between the driver and passenger compartments in the ZIS, a glass partition was provided, which was raised with the help of mechanical drive.
Specifications ZIS 101
Modern car enthusiasts may not know this, but in the early days of the automotive industry, ICE pistons Cast iron, not aluminium. The same pistons were originally installed in the in-line "eight" of the ZIS. Heavy pistons did not contribute to good power, therefore, with a volume of 5.8 liters, the engine of a Soviet limousine develops only 90 hp. This eight-cylinder unit weighs 470kg!
The upgraded ZIS 101 received aluminum pistons and a new Stromberg carburetor, due to which the power increased to 110 hp. With such a motor, a heavy limousine was able to accelerate to 125 km. It is noteworthy that the consumption of gasoline at 26.5 liters per 100 km, even today, cannot be called very large, as for a car with such a huge mass.
The internal trunk of the ZIS-101 was very small. Therefore, for bulky items (suitcases, boxes) there was a folding luggage rack and leather fastening straps in the back
The gas tank neck with a chrome-plated cap just sticks out of the body of the ZIS-101 - they haven’t guessed to hide it under a special hatch yet
The rear sofa ZIS-101 provided the top of comfort for two passengers, the third person was completely useless there
On the ZIS-101 next to the headlights on the wings were installed parking lights not turn signals
When the development of the Soviet executive car was entrusted to the ZIS plant, the designers took the American Buick as a model, retaining only its spar frame with an X-shaped cross member, an overhead valve engine and a three-speed gearbox. The design of the car body was carried out by the American company Ambi-Budd. The first two prototypes of the car, called ZiS-101 were ready in March 1936. On April 29, 1936, the cars, one painted black and the other cherry, were presented in the Kremlin to Stalin and the top leadership of the country. It is known that Stalin, Molotov, Ordzhonikidze, Mikoyan and others very scrupulously studied new car, compared with foreign models, expressed their views. Stalin advised to build a separating one behind the front seat, to rearrange the lamp that was above back seat, as well as replace the mascot figurine on the hood. He proposed that the emblem be a flying red flag with a star. Serial production of the ZiS-101 began only in 1937., because the plant took a lot of time to install and master the equipment. In its design, for the first time, many technical innovations. This applies to the limousine style body with a dividing sliding glass behind the front seat. In addition, wood, in particular beech, was used in the manufacture of the body frame, which was only possible for highly qualified carpentry specialists. ZiS-101 was considered a very comfortable car. The cabin was heated by a heater, and in summer time, using rotary vents, the interior could be quickly ventilated. The car had a trunk and an additional luggage rack trimmed with chrome trim. The front seats were upholstered in leather, while the interior seats were upholstered in fabric. In some of the "hundred firsts" a radio was installed. The ZiS-101 engine was considered one of the most progressive in those years. The in-line "eight" with a working volume of 5766 cm3 developed a power of 110 hp. at 3200 rpm if the engine had aluminum pistons, and 90 hp. at 2800 rpm if the pistons are cast iron. The motor had crankshaft with counterweights, a crankshaft vibration damper, a two-chamber Marvel carburetor with exhaust gas heating and a thermostat in the cooling system that maintained the temperature in the cooling system and controlled the opening of the blinds. The solid weight of a limousine combined with soft dependent suspension wheels on long springs and double-acting hydraulic lever shock absorbers created the softness of the car. A vacuum booster was used in the brake system, which was called a “brake booster” at that time, although its work led to the fact that the left wheels braked somewhat stronger than the right ones. Depending on the type of engine, the ZiS-101 reached a speed of 115 or 120 km / h, but the fuel consumption was 26.5 liters per 100 km. In total, from 1937 to 1941, 8752 ZiS-101 vehicles were manufactured. various modifications. At the end of 1937, the plant developed two modifications with open body. The first is of the "phaeton" type with a folding awning and sidewalls fastened with buttons with celluloid windows. The second is a “cabriolet”, also with an awning, but with windows that slide out of the doors in frames that fit flush into the grooves of the stretched fabric top. On the basis of the ZiS-101, an ambulance was produced in small batches, while the layout of the rear of the cabin was somewhat changed, and a distinctive lamp with a red cross was installed above the windshield. A small part of the ZiS-101 cars in large cities was used as taxis, while at the right pillar windshield installed a taximeter. In June 1940, after modernization, the ZiS-101A model appeared. The increase in engine power was achieved thanks to the installation of a new MKZ-L2 carburetor. Now the mixture entered the cylinders not in an ascending, but in a falling flow, due to this, their filling and power improved. ZiS-101A was produced only with aluminum pistons. In total, about 600 cars of this model were manufactured. Before the start of the war, the plant's designers created prototypes of two new products: ZiS-101B and ZiS-103. The war prevented the implementation of plans.
Emblem ZiS-101
A passenger car should carry a new emblem - this was decided at the factory. For its selection, a competition was announced in which
everyone could participate. The winner among fifty different drawings was an inconspicuous sketch, made with a soiled chemical pencil on a piece of paper torn from a school notebook in a box. Its author, a simple worker of the plant's reinforcing shop, managed to grasp the main requirement for such an emblem: it must be concise and at the same time reflect the symbols of the Soviet state. So a fluttering red banner appeared on the radiator grille of the ZIS-101.
Specifications ZiS-101
The strict pediment of the radiator grille and the red flag on top personified the inviolability of the Soviet ZIS-101
The first Soviet executive car ZIS-101 rolled off the assembly line on January 18, 1937. This model was distinguished by many technical solutions that were not previously encountered in practice. domestic automotive industry. The car had a dependent spring suspension of all wheels, a spar frame, a vacuum brake booster, rod-driven valves located in the cylinder head. After modernization (in 1940), she received the ZIS-101A index.
Years of release - 1937-1939
Number of seats - 7
Engine: type - four-stroke, carburetor
Number of cylinders - 8
Working volume - 5766 cm3
Power - 90 l. s./66 kW at 2800 rpm
Number of gears - 3
Length - 5647 mm
Width - 1890 mm
Height 1856 mm
Base - 3605 mm
Tire size - 7.50-17 inches
Curb weight - 2550 kg
The highest speed is 115 km / h.
ZiS-101A-Sport
ZiS-101A-Sport - a sports car produced in one copy at the ZiS plant in Moscow
Pullmanov was engaged in forcing the engine from the serial ZIS-101 - he increased the speed and compression ratio, changed the valve timing and intake manifold
But ZIS 101 Sport has become an exception to the rule. Firstly, the plant where it was created was named after the leader, and secondly, the car was made for the twentieth anniversary of the Komsomol - the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union
ZiS-101A-Sport- a sports car produced in one copy at the ZiS plant in Moscow. Created on the ZiS-101 chassis. The name ZiS-101A-Sport is unofficial. sports version The ZiS-101 model was designed on its own initiative by a group of young engineers from the design bureau of the ZiS experimental workshop: Anatoly Pukhalin, Vladimir Kremenetsky, Nikolai Viktorovich Pulmanov. Designer — Valentin Rostkov. The prototype appeared due to the fact that in 1938 young engineers managed to add the car to the list of "gifts to the Motherland" for the 20th anniversary of the Komsomol. At the XVII Moscow Party Conference in 1939, the car was presented by the People's Commissar of Medium Machine Building I. A. Likhachev and received the approval of Stalin and Kaganovich. An eight-cylinder ZiS-101 engine with an increased compression ratio, displacement (up to 6060 cm³) and power (up to 141 hp at 3300 rpm) was installed on the car, a carburetor with a falling flow was used for the first time, forged aluminum alloy connecting rods operating on the necks of the crankshaft without liners. The suspension used anti-roll bars. For the first time in the USSR, a hypoid main gear was used. According to calculations, the car was supposed to develop 180 km / h, while testing the ZiS-101A-Sport showed 162.4 km / h.
Technical specifications:
Length width height: 5750x1900x1856mm
Base: 3570 mm
Max Speed: 162 km/h
Engine: gasoline, carburetor, in-line
Number of cylinders: 8
Displacement: 6060 cm3
Location: top
Power: 141 HP at 3300 rpm
Gearbox: mechanical three-speed
Front suspension: dependent, on longitudinal springs
Rear suspension: dependent, on longitudinal springs
Brakes: mechanical, drum, with vacuum booster
Modernization of the ZiS-101
Masa ZIS-101 exceeded imported analogues by 600-700 kg. The fact is that for the sake of strength and reliability, many nodes were too heavy, and as a result, dynamic performance suffered. For a large and solid car, a 90 hp engine. With. turned out to be rather weak, so the first modernization touched on the chassis. By replacing the cast-iron pistons with aluminum ones, it was possible to increase the engine power by 20 hp. with., which provided the car with a maximum speed of 120 km / h. But more substantial modernization was required. The car has been thoroughly redesigned. Not having achieved a serious reduction in the weight of the car, a more powerful 116-horsepower engine and an improved transmission were installed on it. The maximum speed at the same time increased to 125 km / h. At the same time, a new grille was installed on the limousine. Upgraded machines received the name ZIS-101A and began to roll off the assembly line in 1940. There were also options with six-cylinder engines Packard and Studebaker, ZiS-101E ("Extra") - armored (glass thickness 70 mm, 2 copies were produced), ZiS-101L with a telephone (1936, 1 copy was produced). On the basis of the ZiS-101A, a sports car ZiS-101A-Sport was created.
It was not possible to prepare the production of the ZIS-101 for release without anecdotal cases. For an executive class car, it was necessary to make a good passenger seat, and the upholsterers at the ZIS were simply wonderful, they worked clean and beautifully, but they could not get the required softness of the seat. There were no necessary materials: cotton wool, merino wool and eider down. The masters could not please I.A. Likhachev, who all the time compared the seat of the ZIS-101 with the seat of the Packard. And the upholsterers decided to play Ivan Alekseevich. They moved the upholstery from the Packard cushion to theirs, and the upholstery from the ZIS put on the American seat. Likhachev came in the evening and immediately asked: what, they say, could they achieve in a day? He was invited to try today's sample (Packard seat under our upholstery). The director sat on it: “Nothing, but still far ... to the Packard,” and, moving onto our seat, upholstered in Packard leather, he remarked: “This is another matter, you immediately feel that the springs are correctly selected, and the pitching is good.” Then the upholsterers revealed to him the secret and showed that he had fallen for the bait. At the same time, Likhachev not only was not offended, but laughed joyfully and ordered the seat not to be touched again.
The first domestic production car of the highest class ZIS-101 went down in history "from the front door" - as pride Soviet car industry, but, despite the "representative appearance", did not become the hallmark of the country.
Initiative from below
If the history of the ZIS-101 had begun with a more “correct” statement of the task, the fate of the first domestic executive class car could have been much more successful. Assemble from hand-made parts one copy of the "replica" of the extremely complex, "fancy" foreign equivalent- it's a simple matter.
But when the question of mass production of such cars arose, the customer, represented by the state, should have taken a more balanced, pragmatic position, focused not on sovereign ambitions, but on the real possibilities of production and the qualifications of mechanics serving government garages.
The design of the top-class limousine was inherited by the Stalin Plant (ZIS) from colleagues from the Leningrad Krasny Putilovets. Leningraders tried to reproduce exactly american car Buick-32-90 1932 model year and prepare it for mass
production in the performance of the "six-window sedan". Who came up with the idea in the early thirties to propose a deliberately unsupportable project? It turned out that it was an "initiative from below."
It all started in 1932, when it was decided to stop the production of obsolete Fordson tractors at Krasny Putilovets. A group of specialists of the plant, headed by technical director M.L. Ter-Asaturov, came up with an initiative to use the vacant production facilities for the production of cars.
Through the administrative-party chain, this initiative reached the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry, which at that time was in charge of the automotive industry, and, having turned into a directive there, returned to the plant in the form of an order signed by the manager of the All-Union Automobile and Tractor Association (VATO) S. S. Dyakonov. According to this order, the plant was to create and prepare for production
executive car.
At that moment, it was only about the type of machine, and Leningraders had the opportunity to choose a completely “lifting” prototype. The customer was not the Special Purpose Garage (GON), which served the first persons of the state, but the sectoral ministry - which means that the most important task was not to provide the state elite with a representative limousine, but rather an ideological victory: it was necessary to prove to the whole world that we can also produce top-class cars . Not without reason, subsequently, work was carried out under the slogan "Give me a Soviet Buick!".
There was no question of creating your own original design by the forces of the engineers of the tractor plant: initially it was planned to simply reproduce a foreign car of the corresponding class. The "fatal mistake" was made at the prototype selection stage.
It is difficult to say whether the Buick-32-90 was chosen by chance (presumably this model was company car either M. L. Ter-Asaturov, or S. M. Kirov himself) or one of the high-ranking officials decided to “swing to the maximum”, but it was difficult to find a more unsuitable object for development.
The fact is that this Buick model at that time was super-progressive even by American standards. Suffice it to mention the in-line eight-cylinder overhead valve engine with a lower camshaft and roller tappets on the rods; complex twin carburetors equipped with heated fuel mixture and automatic choke control; a cooling system equipped with a thermostat and a radiator shutter control mechanism; lever hydraulic shock absorbers with remote adjustment of their resistance; a centralized lubrication system for chassis units and a unique semi-automatic clutch control mechanism.
Be that as it may, "Red Putilovets" took on obligations - "called himself a loader." Now it was just a matter of getting into the box. Already in January 1933, the magazine Za Rulem wrote about the plant's plans to master the production of a copy of the Buick and about the readiness of Leningraders to subsequently produce up to 20 thousand cars a year. Why did the country need so many executive class limousines, no one dared to ask.
And then something happened that was supposed to happen. By the predetermined date - May 1, 1933 - at the plant, at the cost of incredible efforts, in fact by hand, six experimental cars, unpretentiously named "L-1" ("Lightweight first"). The cars passed through the streets of Leningrad as part of the May Day demonstration, then reached Moscow, where they were introduced to Sergo Ordzhonikidze, head of the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry. Ordzhonikidze approved luxury cars.
Today it does not matter whether all six L-1s really “broke and fell apart” on the way back to Leningrad, or whether this is just a myth. Fortunately for Krasny Putilovets, in 1933, the branch People's Commissariat reoriented the enterprise to the production of three-turreted T-28 tanks, and later the Universal tractors. There was nowhere and no one to bring limousines to mass production - all the forces and capacities were devoted to solving top-priority strategic tasks, and the still crude Buick project was transferred to the Stalin Plant for revision.
mission Impossible
It's scary to imagine what would have happened at Krasny Putilovets if he had not received an order for tanks with tractors in time. The domestic industry of that time was not ready for mass production such complex and capricious equipment as the "Russified" Buick-32-90. Nevertheless, no one dared to declare that “mission impossible”, and as a result, the designers of the ZIS were given the task not only to develop a top-class passenger car, based on the experience of their predecessors (including negative ones), but to bring to mind ( and before production) L-1 platform.
Fortunately, there was no longer any talk of exact copying of the Buick, which gave Muscovite engineers some freedom, but the overall architecture of the L-1 had to be preserved. Prototype redesign work led chief designer plant E. I. Vazhinsky. In 1934, the Buick itself was delivered to the ZIS for study, although it was of a different model, newer and simpler: it was the limousine of the current year - the model "57" of the "90" series.
Engine of the future stock car in the course of adaptation to production, he retained all his design features and options, including a crankshaft with counterweights and a torsional vibration damper, a complex gas distribution system, a two-chamber Marvell type carburetor with heated mixture and a thermostat in the cooling system. chassis and undercarriage managed to significantly simplify, focusing specifically on the design of the new Buick.
Fortunately for our engineers, the Americans abandoned the complex and unreliable transmission and suspension systems, so the designers jumped at the opportunity without violating terms of reference, equip the car with non-adjustable shock absorbers and an ordinary two-disc clutch. Of the innovations, it is worth noting the vacuum booster of the mechanical brake drive.
Already in October 1934, E. I. Vazhinsky described in detail the design of the future ZIS-101 car in the magazine “Behind the Wheel”, stating at the very beginning of the article that the new car was designed according to the type of the best American stamps Buick and Packard. The material was illustrated with photographs of the exterior and interior of the Buick. Interestingly, the model was not a limousine that was at the factory, but a four-window sedan. Next to this picture was the caption: "General view of the new ZIS-101 model."
Automobile fashion in those years was changing rapidly, and the artists of the body department of the ZIS, headed by I.F. Herman, were well aware that by the time the production of the new car began, not only the L-1 “suitcase-like” body would become obsolete, but also the rounded body of the later Buick ”, taken as a sample. Therefore, bodybuilders insisted on making the body according to the original sketches.
Unlike their Leningrad colleagues, who intended to make tooling for the production of bodies on their own or with the help of subcontractors, Moscow bodybuilders from the very beginning focused on the manufacture and purchase of stamps abroad. And since the equipment had to be ordered anyway, it meant that one could afford to develop a more modern variation on the theme of the American prototype.
This is what happened afterwards. The design of the body according to the finished original layout was carried out by the Philadelphia company Budd Manufacturing. They bought machines for stamping the chassis and body from her - for 1.5 million dollars. For another half a million, sheet metal presses were purchased from the Hamilton Foundry and Machine Company of Ohio.
The mistake of the ZIS customers was that they entrusted the design of the body to a company that had experience in creating such structures only for executive cars. Such machines were traditionally produced abroad in small batches, and therefore the assembly was supposed to be not conveyor, but slipway, with a large share of manual labor and individual adjustment of the elements of each instance. For a structure consisting of a load-bearing wooden frame and sheet panels “fitting” it, this assembly technology was quite acceptable. But the Stalin Plant was focused on conveyor production!
In 1935, equipment and 500 sets of finished stampings were received from the USA for ZIS, and on December 16 of the same year, the country's top leadership approved " production program for the production of a passenger car ZIS-101.
By the end of April 1936, the first pre-production samples were built, and on April 29, two of them were demonstrated in the Kremlin. Stalin was present at the bride. By the way, it was the demonstration of the ZIS-101 that laid the foundation for a tradition - unspoken, but mandatory procedure"presentations" of pre-production samples of domestic cars to the first persons of the state. Subsequently, the fate of our cars for decades depended on the goodwill of the leaders. One way or another, Stalin liked the ZIS-101, and the task could be considered completed.
Test of endurance
For a pre-production batch of five cars, the rally along the route Moscow-Leningrad-Kyiv-Mo-skva became a strength test. On June 11, 1936, all cars returned to Moscow in perfect working order, having won a dispute in absentia with L-1 about the advisability of blindly copying finished Western models.
However, it was too early to celebrate. The first limousines were assembled using slipway technology in an empty basement of one of the factory workshops. In total, in 1936, "on the knee" managed to assemble 11 cars. After the commissioning of the new press building, an assembly line was equipped in its sixth and seventh bays, from which the first serial ZIS-101 rolled off on January 18, 1937.
With the start of mass production (up to 17 cars a day) of a new domestic passenger car of the highest class, problems began. Firstly, the conveyor technology did not allow enough time and attention to be paid to fitting the elements of the beech body frame.
As a result, the bodies of some cars began to creak unpleasantly when driving already from the moment of production, others - during operation, after minor distortions of the frame chassis and drying of the frame itself. Secondly, it soon became clear that the plant was not technologically ready for the production of such a complex machine.
An attempt to operate the ZIS-101 in the Special Purpose Garage ended in failure. The management of the GON considered the technical characteristics of the domestic limousine to be “insufficient”: in other words, the car lost in terms of key indicators to foreign cars, which in those years formed the basis of the Kremlin’s fleet.
The cars were handed over to the passenger garage of the operational department of the NKVD - to accompany the cars of the first persons of the state, but even here the ZISs did not take root. No one made a tragedy out of this, because the “ideological super-task” was completed - “We did it!”. In 1937, the ZIS-101 (along with the GAZ-M1) represented the state at the World Exhibition in Paris.
However, such an expensive product had to find a practical application. And the limousines rejected by the GON poured into state-owned garages of a lower rank - car fleets of people's commissariats, embassies, regional party committees. An excess of passenger ZISs made it possible to use them even as taxis and ambulances. So thousands of professionals - drivers and mechanics - were able to evaluate the real performance and quality of production and assembly of these cars.
In 1937, in the October issue (No. 20) of the magazine Za Rulem, an open letter was published by three employees of the Narkomtyazhprom motor depot, entitled “Several Questions for the Automobile Plant. Stalin." In fact, the letter did not contain any questions. It listed "congenital defects" in the design, assembly and component flaws that caused permanent breakdowns. At the disposal of this motor depot at that moment were 14 ZIS-101 vehicles, so we were talking about typical cases.
Serious complaints were caused by defects in the crank mechanism (the engine knocked), constantly breaking valve springs, unreliable power and electrical systems, plastic lining on brake pads, poor quality control devices and window seals, and even a horn that quickly drained the battery.
The "red thread" in the letter was the topic of fuel consumption. People complained that the appetites of the ZIS-101 with a "native" carburetor require 28-31 liters of gasoline per 100 km, while the similar in class "Lincoln" consumes 22.5 liters, and the ZIS itself with the Buick carburetor consumed significantly less fuel.
From that moment on, a black streak began for the creators and manufacturers of the first domestic serial limousine. The leading designer of the ZIS-101, Evgeny Vazhinsky, was removed from the post of chief designer of the plant in 1937 and appointed head of the chassis department. In March 1938, Vazhinsky was arrested and shot as an enemy of the people, although this had nothing to do with the shortcomings of the ZIS. Moreover, on February 5, 1939, the "red director" of the Stalin Plant, Ivan Alekseevich Likhachev, was appointed head of the People's Commissariat of Medium Machine Building of the USSR.
Despite all the efforts of the factory workers and subcontractors, the design and quality of the ZIS-101 left much to be desired. In June 1940, to study the defects of the limousine, a special government commission was created under the leadership of an automobile expert, a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Evgeny Chudakov. Based on the results of the work of this commission, a decree was issued by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which raised the problem of the quality of the ZIS-101 to the state level.
Here is an excerpt from that ruling:
"Mark presence a large number defects in cars ZIS-101, manufactured by the plant. Stalin Narkomsredmash, in particular: a strong smell of gasoline in the back, gearbox noise, engine knock and increased gasoline consumption, frequent breakdown springs and suspension stiffness, quick failure of electric clocks, petrol gauges, windshield wipers, etc.
The presence of these defects is the result of a careless attitude to the quality of manufactured machines both on the part of the former director of the plant named after. Stalin, now People's Commissariat for Medium Machinery Comrade Likhachev, and the current director of the plant. Stalin Comrade Volkov, especially in recent times.
Narkomsredmash Comrade Likhachev, both as People's Commissar and as a former director of the plant. Stalin allowed the production of low-quality machines from the factory, did not take measures to eliminate defects and hid the presence of these defects from the government ... ".
This is how the once careless choice of the Buick-32-90 as a prototype for the creation of the first Soviet limousine at Krasny Putilovets came back to haunt the factory workers.
Son of difficult mistakes
It was almost impossible to eliminate the design flaws of the ZIS-101 in a short time. But the designers themselves were well aware of the weak points of their offspring, so the “package of changes” began to take shape long before the release of the sinister decree - almost immediately after the start of production of the “one hundred and first”.
In particular, a new Stromberg-type carburetor with a falling flow was used to increase engine power, changes were made to the design intake manifold, optimized valve timing. Contrary to popular belief, aluminum pistons were rarely installed on cars of the 101st family. Estimated engine power of 116 liters. With. could not be achieved in practice.
In the second half of 1940, the production of a modernized modification of the executive limousine, the ZIS-101A, began. The car was equipped with a more powerful engine (100-110 hp) and an improved transmission. The frame remained wooden. Externally, the ZIS-101A differed from its predecessor in a new, more modern radiator lining and hood.
The "corrected" limousine got rid of most of the minor flaws, but retained the main one - the excess (in relation to power) mass of all structural elements. And yet, with some stretch, he could be considered "pride domestic auto industry". Changes for the better were also noticed in the Special Purpose Garage: the ZIS-101A were operated in the GON, albeit on the sidelines, but much more actively than the ZIS-101.
Garages, which, according to their rank, were supposed to have cars of the highest class, were quickly filled with the same type of ZIS-101 limousines, and later ZIS-101A. At the same time, government garages tried to get rid of them as soon as possible, and already a couple of years after the start of mass production, the question of reducing production volumes was burning. Since 1940, the production of such machines has decreased by almost ten times.
Limousines unsuitable for milking service were not mobilized to the front and for the most part remained in the rear. In the post-war period, obsolete cars began to be remade for the needs of the national economy. On the basis of the ZIS-101 and ZIS-101A, many interesting, initially "unplanned" modifications were born.
Modifications ZIS-101 and ZIS-101A
ZIS-101 filming
Executive cars with a large mass and a smooth, soft ride are ideal for film work. For filming in motion forward, special hinged platforms were attached to the front of the car, on which the camera was located along with the operator. For filming the outgoing plan, the cameras were placed in the rear of the car, for which part of the roof was cut off over the rear seats.
ZIS-101A sanitary
party ambulances(30 cars) in 1949 produced the Aremkuz bodywork plant. Chassis of passenger cars ZIS-101 and ZIS-101A suitable for further operation were used. Sanitary vehicles even received their own index - "AKZ-4". A factory sanitary modification based on the ZIS-101 was built at the Stalin Plant in 1939-1940 in just two copies.
ZIS-101A van
Body factories capable of re-manufacturing the wooden frame of the body did not take on the difficult work of restoring the bodies of the ZIS-101 and ZIS-101A, but simply built the entire new body, leaving only the instrument panel and windshield frame from the old one. From limousines, quite decent vans were obtained, an acute shortage of which was felt in the post-war period in major cities. The van shown in the photo was manufactured at the Aremkuz plant in Moscow.
ZIS-101 pickup
Small car repair plants were not engaged in the restoration of lost or worn parts of the body frame of the ZIS-101 car. Part of the cab above the driver was left untouched, and attached to the back cargo platforms, turning executive limousines into pickup trucks. At the same time, some components of the car were replaced - for example, the engine, gearboxes and axles with wheels. The most popular "donor" for such alterations was the Gorky GAZ-51.
- there is an opinion that six copies of the Leningrad-1 (L-1) car, which was the forerunner of the "one hundred and first", assembled in 1933 at the Krasny Putilovets plant, appeared formally at the direction of the All-Union Automobile and Tractor Association, but in fact at the suggestion of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ( b). The prototype of "Leningrad" was an American car, but not a Packard beloved by Stalin - it was large and belonged, along with Cadillac, to the very upper class North American cars of those years - and Buick 32-90 1932, standing half a step below the "Packard" in the hierarchy and belonging to the American upper-middle class. The task was not to make a car for the government, but to master a more or less serial one and at the same time quite large and luxury car- read, catch up and overtake America.
In this regard, it is interesting to note that the L-1 was practically a copy of the Buick 32-90, but this circumstance, oddly enough, was not in the least considered shameful: in Soviet newspapers promising development so they called it - "Soviet Buik" (yes, with a small letter and without a soft sign). From the “American”, the Leningrad prototypes almost completely inherited their appearance, as well as a number of elegant engineering solutions: twin carburetors with automatic air control, an automatic thermostat that opens and closes the radiator shutters and even adjusts the stiffness of the lever shock absorbers from the driver's seat ...
The time for mastering the machine seemed to be good: in the early 1930s, the Fordson tractor was discontinued at Krasny Putilovets, as a result of which space was freed up. However, the plant did not have the capacity to launch a new car model, as well as skilled workers to assemble such complex equipment - some of assembled cars On the way back, the Leningrad-Moscow-Leningrad run broke down. Four more cars were assembled from the already manufactured car kits, bringing the total number of prototypes to ten, but in the end they did not modernize the Leningrad plant for the production of a new passenger car, but entrusted it with the task of a more familiar profile - the development of the T-28 tank, thereby finally transferring the enterprise to development of tractors and armored vehicles. And the refinement of the L-1 was delegated to Moscow, to the ZIS.
In 1934, a package was delivered to the ZIS required documents and another, brand new Buick series "90" - so to speak, for study. At the Moscow plant, the project was headed by Evgeny Ivanovich Vazhinsky, who had just taken the position of chief designer. Vazhinsky's right hand in the development of the ZIS-101 was Grigory Georgievich Mikhailov. And the work on the complex new body and its introduction into production was headed by Ivan Fedorovich German, who had once graduated from the St. Petersburg Art School - he drew beautifully, and therefore partly took on the functions of the project designer. However, the design of the first Soviet limousine is separate story which is worth mentioning separately.
Pictured: Buick Series 90" 1932 The Moscow team left many advanced technical solutions at the heart of the car american cars period 1932-1934. The Soviet version of the limousine received an overhead valve in-line eight-cylinder engine, which was structurally based on Buick (and, in fact, “moved” from the L-1), with a volume of 5.8 liters, producing about 110 hp. at 2,800 rpm. Engine with cast iron block had a crankshaft with counterweights and a vibration damper, a gas distribution system with suspended valves (driven from the camshaft through push rods), a two-chamber carburetor with heated working mixture and a thermostat with a radiator shutter control function. There were diaphragm fuel pumps and oil and gas pumps that had not yet become generally accepted. air filters. Steering and the rear suspension was practically borrowed from Packard. Suspension of all wheels with drum brakes was dependent.
Some of the frills were immediately abandoned - they went “in the minus”, for example, automatic control clutch and shock absorber adjustment - of the six American modes in the Soviet car, only one was needed - "for the most bad road". Something was decided frankly to the detriment of progress in the name of reliability and cost reduction - so a simple two-disc clutch appeared on the car. But the mechanical brakes received an innovative vacuum booster. And in general, the car turned out to be comfortable and justifying the status laid down - the base of 3,650 mm provided space in the cabin, which also had a heater (absolutely unprecedented for the Soviet automobile industry of that era!), And besides, it was decided to equip some of the cars with radios, which in those days was a very luxury option.
As a kind of summary of the novelties, we present the following list. On the ZIS-101, for the first time for a Soviet car, the following were used: a cabin heater, a radio receiver, a thermostat in the cooling system, a crankshaft vibration damper, a two-chamber carburetor, vacuum amplifiers clutch and brakes and a three-speed gearbox with synchronizers in second and third gears.
The chassis of the "original" L-1 (or Buick) was revised and thoroughly strengthened - in order to fit in the Russian expanses. But with the body it turned out more difficult. Their strength to design their own body, albeit with a serious eye on the Buick, was not enough. Therefore, the work was entrusted to the American Budd Company, instructing her to take as a basis the sketches provided by the Soviet side. The design embodied by the Americans, although secondary in terms of the trends of those years, still inspires awe - of course, the appearance of this limousine is the embodiment of elegance and chic. Under the contract, the Americans also supplied all the equipment necessary for production and 500 finished stampings. All these conditions have been met.
One bad luck - Budd Company made original bodies for ready-made chassis for small-scale, if not piece production, and therefore the architecture of the body was appropriate: under large stamped metal parts that were afraid of deformation during assembly, there was a beech frame, assembled by hand on screws, with numerous filigree adjustments required in order to avoid the slightest creak on the go - and after all, the GAZ-M1 “emka” already produced in those years had an all-metal body. Why, even the experimental L-1, which, as we know, developed into the ZIS project ... The contract with Budd Company was completed in 16 months and cost the Soviet state $ 500,000.
In the photo: GAZ-M1 "1936–1943 In the history of the ZIS-101, you can consider a lot of interesting "near-automobile" moments. For example, one of the first (if not the first) case in Russia, when the information about the expected car presented in the magazine turned out to be ... to put it mildly, inconclusive, if not “very inaccurate”. In October 1934, Vazhinsky himself wrote in the magazine “Behind the wheel” about the ZIS-101 car: “The appearance of the car will be very close to the 1934 Buick car with closed body sedan type. In the photo - really a sedan, that is, a body without a "deep" limousine rear, but with a pronounced trunk. But no ZIS-101 sedans went into production - although the ZIS-101B prototype with a protruding luggage compartment was built much later, but it was also a limousine.
In the photo: ZIS-101B Experienced "1941 And if we return for a minute to L-1, then there is another interesting journalistic story. According to the observations of Sergei Trufanov (" short life Soviet Buick", M-Hobby, No. 3, 2012), the interpretation of the letter "L" as "Leningrad" was first made already in 1993 - almost at the same time, such a decoding of the name appeared in the magazine "Behind the wheel" and in the book of Lev Shugurov "Automobiles of Russia and the USSR 1896-1957". Before that, in the literature of the 1940s-1980s, the L-1 index passed without any decoding at all, but in the 1930s, the letter “L” in the name of a car model simply meant “car”.
In the photo: ZIS-101 Pre-production "1936 Two prototypes of the ZIS-101 were assembled in the spring of 1936 and on April 29 were shown in the Kremlin to the top of the Politburo - Stalin and Ordzhonikidze. An interesting fact: it was from this moment that a tradition appeared in Russia to present all new models to the first persons of the state. The factory workers were very worried that day, but the Secretary and People's Commissar were in a good mood. The latter assured Stalin that the car turned out to be no worse than the American one, which the “father of nations” could not help but like. He meticulously examined the car - a limousine, and even according to American patterns, obviously, was very interesting to him - and at the end of the inspection he approved the ZIS-101. They say that it was Stalin who proposed using a star with a red banner as the emblem of the car. Everything was great. The trouble started later.
In the photo: ZIS-101 Pre-production On November 3, 1936, the assembly of the first batch started at ZIS (this date is considered the birthday of the "one hundred and first"), and assembly line production began on January 18, 1937. The fate of serial ZISs turned out to be difficult, but interesting: they transported not only (and not so much!) Top party officials, but completely different categories of citizens. It turned out so largely because the model had serious problems - both with build quality and design. The conveyor of the plant, which did not always cope with the plan even for trucks, did not allow me to be scrupulous about assembling the wooden frame of the limousine body, and on most of the assembled ZISs it began to creak almost immediately (and on the rest the creak appeared after the wood dried), and in general the design and auto assembly technology proved to be so complex that often the workers coped with their operations somehow or other. Machines as far as possible brought to mind after leaving the assembly line.
In the photo: ZIS-101 "1936–39 To the people
Although in 1937 the ZIS-101, along with the GAZ-M1, represented the USSR at the World Exhibition in Paris, his life at home was far from cloudless. At first, the assembled limousines, according to rank, were sent to the Special Purpose Garage, but they did not take root there, because they lost to local foreign cars in terms of technical specifications. Then the cars were transferred to the garage of the operational department of the NKVD as escort vehicles for the transport of the first persons of the state, but even there the ZISs did not come to court. As a result, they began to be transferred to regional committees, people's commissariats, embassies ...
In the photo: ZIS-101 "1936–39 The ZIS-101, rejected by the elite, has become a car much closer to the people. No, of course, he didn’t go on free sale, but, in addition to being assigned to middle and low-ranking officials, the cars were “distributed” among scientists and artists - Alexei Tolstoy had, for example, “one hundred and first”. In addition, in the pre-war years, it could be won in the cash and clothing lottery (at least in theory - the car was regularly included in the list of prizes). But there was a more real way to ride a novelty - in big cities, limousines worked in taxis on long routes!
In 1936, the 13th taxi fleet was created in Moscow, which included 55 "one hundred and first". The body color of these cars was different from the "bureaucratic" black - it could be blue, light blue or even yellow. Since 1938, these vehicles have served routes linking railway stations, airports and major highways, as well as the cities of Noginsk and Bronnitsy with Moscow. It is also known that in 1939 three "one hundred and first" were registered in a taxi in Minsk. In some places, ZISs were even used as ambulances.
In the photo: ZIS-101 "1936–39 Flaws as a crime
In October 1937, literally a year after the release of the first batch of limousines, simple drivers and mechanics who had a chance to deal with ZIS spoke out - "Behind the wheel" published an open letter from three employees of the Narkomtyazhprom motor depot, which employed as many as 14 "one hundred and first". The letter was titled “Several Questions for the Automobile Plant. Stalin ”and, in fact, did not contain any questions - it described in detail the typical shortcomings of ZISs: engine knock due to KShM defect, breaking valve springs, unreliability of the power supply system, capricious electrical equipment, requiring frequent replacement plastic (!) overlays brake pads, poor quality of control devices, body seals that do not cope with their functions, a sound signal that drains the battery and titanic fuel consumption - at the level of 28-31 liters per 100 km, while the American Lincoln, similar in class, noticed “Behind the Wheel”, consumed only 22 .5 liters. According to the magazine, the problem was partially solved by changing the carburetor from the native to the Buick carb, although it is not entirely clear where the car depot employees could get one.
In the photo: ZIS-101 "1936–39 In Soviet times, such publications were not made just like that, and the consequences could have been very serious. In the same 1937, the lead designer of the ZIS-101 Evgeny Vazhinsky was removed from his post and "demoted" to the head of the chassis department. Most likely, by such a measure they tried to save him from more serious consequences, but they did not save him. A few months later, in March 1938, Vazhinsky was arrested, recognized as an enemy of the people, and shot, and although this was not directly related to the ZIS-101, it certainly mattered. The “Red Director” of the plant was seemingly harmlessly transferred to the post of head of the People’s Commissariat of Medium Machine Building of the USSR, but even despite the fact that the plant once entrusted to him would later be named after him, the “hand” punishing for mistakes in mastering the limousine got him too.
In June 1940, a special commission was created to analyze the defects of the limousine, headed by a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Evgeny Chudakov, automotive expert and, in fact, the founder of the discipline "Theory and design of the car" in our country. Based on the results of the commission meeting, a government decree was issued that automatically brings the problem with the ZIS-101 to the highest, state level. In the conclusion of the commission, in particular, it was said: “It should be noted that there are a large number of defects in the ZIS-101 passenger cars manufactured by the plant named after. Stalin, in particular: a strong smell of gasoline in the back, gearbox noise, engine knock and increased gasoline consumption, frequent breakdown of springs and suspension rigidity, quick failure of electric clocks, gas gauges, windshield wipers, etc. The presence of these defects is the result of a careless attitude to the quality of manufactured machines both on the part of the former director of the plant named after. Stalin, now People's Commissariat for Medium Machinery Comrade Likhachev, and the current director of the plant. Stalin comrade Volkov, especially recently ... Narkomsredmash comrade Likhachev both as a people's commissar and as a former director of the plant. Stalin allowed the production of low-quality machines from the factory, did not take measures to eliminate defects and hid the presence of these defects from the government ... ".
In the photo: ZIS-101 "1936–39 Updates and prototypes
All these mistakes were recognized at ZIS and were ready to be corrected, however, there were not enough resources, both financial and personnel, for a full-fledged modernization. In fact, the decapitated design staff of the plant (Vazhinsky was no longer alive), besides constantly losing valuable specialists (arrests and disappearances of people have become the norm), did what they could: under the leadership of the former deputy Vazhinsky, Mikhailov, they managed to develop and transfer to production an all-metal body, as well as launching a motor with aluminum pistons and a compression ratio raised from 4.8 to 5.5, which made it possible to achieve a power of 116 hp. Plus, on the ZISs, a single-plate clutch and a carburetor with a falling (Stromberg type), and not an upward (Marvel type) flow, as before, appeared. Externally, the upgraded version, called the ZIS-101A, could be distinguished by an aerodynamic front end - a more rounded (in the top view) grille ("mask") and elongated, teardrop-shaped headlight housings.
In the photo: ZIS-101A "1940–41 With all this, somehow it was even possible to create modifications based on the basic model - alas, most of them remained at the stage of single prototypes. In 1936, a single ZIS-101L (“luxury”) equipped with a telephone appeared. At the end of 1937, a modification of the ZIS-102 appeared with an open "phaeton" body and all four doors opening along the course of the car ( rear doors"one hundred and first" were opened against the move). In 1938, eight of these gray-silver cars were created. In January 1939, two more open cars appeared with the same designation, the ZIS-102, but they were already called convertibles - the cars differed from the phaetons by lowering, hiding in the doors, and not by “stretched” side windows. In August, another phaeton was made, but with the use of modernized components and an updated appearance: it received the ZIS-102A index, participated in the parade on Red Square on May 1, 1941, and after the war "lit up" in a photograph taken in 1949 in Krasnodar region and has come down to our days. In addition, it is known about two armored ZIS-101E (“extra”) with 70 mm glass and one single most beautiful roadster ZIS-101A-Sport, built in 1939 ...
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The upgraded version of the "one hundred and first", ZIS-101A, went into production in August 1940, and in parallel with it, albeit almost piece by piece, they began to make ZIS-102 convertibles. It was clear that it was impossible to stop the progress of the model, because overseas "analogues" were updated literally every year. Therefore, the plant began to prepare two options for further modernization at once. Firstly, at the beginning of 1941, the only ZIS-101B was built, which had a pronounced closed trunk, which replaced the traditional grille at the stern, sixteen-leaf springs instead of nine-leaf springs, a new instrument cluster with rectangular dials and new steering wheel with chrome signal ring. And secondly, a version of the ZIS-103 was conceived, which, as follows from the index, could generally be positioned as an independent model - it was planned to have a modified body design and an independent front suspension, most likely tailored according to American progressive schemes with springs and fork levers. A 130-horsepower version of the engine could have appeared on this machine, and the “one hundred and third” was seen as a slightly more distant prospect, but the start of production of the ZIS-101B was planned for 1942 ...
In the photo: ZIS-101A "1940–41 Tests of the "beshka" started in May 1941, on July 7 they stopped producing the initial version of the ZIS-101 limousine. And on the 22nd, the war began, the first airstrikes swept through Moscow. But work on new car on ZIS ... we went right up to October! Meanwhile, on October 13, the Germans were in Kaluga, on the 14th - in Kalinin, and only on October 15, 1941, all work on the passenger car at the ZIS was stopped. In just four days, a state of siege was introduced in Moscow. But already in 1942, a government decree was issued on the development of a new representative class model at the ZIS. Yes, the ZIS-110 is a completely different story, but the bumps stuffed by designers and technologists on the "one hundred and first", as well as the experience of its modernization (say, that same independent front suspension) definitely came in handy for the "one hundred and tenth".
In the photo: ZIS-110 "1945–58 Piece heritage
However, it is worth recognizing that not a single executive car after the ZIS-101 even got close to it in terms of mass and “popularity” - in the next ten to twenty years, limousines turned into a piece product and finally became the prerogative of Soviet celestials. The One Hundred and First managed to produce 8,752 pieces, of which, unfortunately, only about 600 were modernized ZIS-101A, and literally within a few dozen - open ZIS-102. In the first post-war years, the ZIS-101 was the most common taxi in Moscow - these cars could be seen on the Garden and Boulevard Rings, as well as on the route Rizhsky Station - Sverdlov Square. Such popularity was explained simply: the GAZ-M1 emki in large numbers were “used” in the war, and the “hundred and first” for the most part did not get to the front due to relatively poor cross-country ability, and therefore stood on conservation throughout the war. When peace reigned, they found work again. But in 1946-1947 they began to be gradually replaced with more modern ZIS-110 and, of course, . The victory was both more perfect, and simpler, and more compact, and more economical, which was especially appreciated in the post-war period.
With Pobeda, the ZIS-101 had somewhat similar fates: both had a huge bouquet of "childhood illnesses" that hit their reputation hard, but in the case of Pobeda, the situation was rectified. If circumstances had turned out a little differently (if we imagine some ideal world in which there are no repressions and wars) - and the ZIS-101 could have had a much more successful life path ... Very few “one hundred and first” have survived to this day - we are talking, most likely, about multiple instances. There is no evidence of the surviving open ZIS-102 at all, just as there is no information about the pre-war prototypes of the ZIS-101B and ZIS-101-Sport. And alas, of course, not one of the ten L-1s built on Krasny Putilovets has reached our time.
In the photo: ZIS-101 "1936–39 Those ZIS-101s that occasionally shine at exhibitions are usually equipped with non-native engines - in the post-war years, with the “capital” of the car, the manufacturer recommended repair plants to put on the “one hundred and first” engines from trucks and, as well as from the ZIS-110 and ZIS-120. But whatever one may say, the surviving "one hundred and first" still remind us of those times when a simple Russian driver could at least imagine himself in the place of his overseas colleague - driving a powerful, large and truly beautiful car.
