Cars executive class always arouse increased interest among people, and their production is not available to all countries. Even today, such cars are often used to judge the technical and economic level of the country, and even in the 30s of the last century, limousines were an indispensable attribute of a powerful state. The Soviet Union could not but use such important aspect to promote the socialist system. In addition, high-class cars were really needed to service the apparatus of power.
State symbol
The decision to master the production of comfortable large-displacement cars in our country (in the terminology of that time) was made in 1932. To implement the idea, they first chose the Leningrad Krasny Putilovets plant, where at first they decided to make
an exact copy of the latest American Buick 32-90, sample of 1932. The drawings for the car were carried out at the Lengipro-VATO Institute (VATO - All-Union Automobile and Tractor Association) under the guidance of L. V. Klimenko. By the May 1933 demonstration in Leningrad, they were able to assemble a small batch of Soviet Buicks from 6 pieces under the name L-1 (“Leningrad-1”).
Cars L-1 for domestic automotive industry of that time had a rather complex design: an overhead eight-cylinder inline engine(105 hp), dual carburetor, gearbox with synchronizers in 2nd and 3rd gears, hydraulic shock absorbers with stiffness adjustment from the driver's seat, a closed seven-seater limousine-type body with a partition. As a result, things did not work out beyond the production of an experimental batch: the plant began to master the tractor-tank theme. And two cars
"Leningrad -1" was transferred to the ZIS, which was supposed to take over the production of limousines from the "Krasny Putilovets".
Soon, the original Buick sample 1932 with instructions to study it. The design of the new car, which received the name ZIS-101, was headed by the chief designer Evgeny Ivanovich Vazhinsky at the plant. To start Buick dismantled "by the bones",
and all groups of designers (including the body department, which was led by Ivan Fedorovich German) started copying it. Angular body Buick bodybuilders did not like it - it was already clearly outdated, then streamlined shapes came into fashion ... And what's the point of making a copy of the body Buick, if the stamps still order new ones?
In the body department, they made many drawings of the appearance of a passenger car - the designers dreamed of their own car.
Then Herman got a conditional agreement to start making his own body models. Of course, all of them somehow echoed the American cars of those years and represented combinations of the most successful solutions from various companies, while not being copies of certain models. A total of four different versions were developed.
Serial car ZIS-101
One of these layouts was adopted as the main one, and further design work began on it. They even managed to prepare some technical documentation and build the frame of an experimental body, but ... at the top they decided to order the body along with drawings and stamps abroad, in America, from the company Budd. And as a sample, an approved layout was sent to America.
For the development of the body, body stamps and welding jigs, they had to pay 1.5 million dollars - huge money for those times.
Company Budd design experience car bodies had almost no, and, according to domestic experts, the project was done very poorly. For example, the wooden frame of the body was simply “fitted” into the surface without the slightest regard for technology and load calculations.
Then this created great difficulties in working out wooden parts in a woodworking shop. In general, the body turned out to be surprisingly low-tech. The wooden beech frame was connected by numerous kerchiefs, corners and braces and sheathed on top with painted stamped metal sheets. To assemble such a body, it was necessary to conscientiously tighten thousands of screws, otherwise the structure would quickly loosen and begin to creak during operation. Stamps and the first 500 sets of stampings for the ZIS-101 arrived in the USSR in 1935. Assembly conductors and master models also came. Prototypes of cars had to be built by April 1, 1936. The task was not easy: the plant had never made a high-class passenger car before, and there were so many new, unexpected, incomprehensible things. The significance of the forthcoming event was so great that the director of the plant was personally involved in the selection of the brigade of assemblers of the first batch. When, in March 1936, the first chassis of the car, still without a body and wings, was rolled out of the workshop, Likhachev personally tested it, making a throw to Podolsk and back in terrible bad weather.
Experienced machines ZIS-101 were ready by the end of April. As always, one day was not enough to clean up somewhere, polish somewhere, eliminate creaking somewhere, correct a crease in the upholstery, and so on, and the first cars had to be presented to the country's leadership.
The demonstration of two ZIS-101 cars took place in the Kremlin on April 29, 1936. I.A. Likhachev, A.A. Evseev and other plant managers went to it. The cars were examined by Stalin, Ordzhonikidze, Mikoyan, Khrushchev and many others. New Soviet cars produced for top government officials good impression and the remarks made were not of a fundamental nature.
Inspection of prototypes of the ZIS-101 by the country's leadership in the Kremlin in the spring of 1936
ZIS-101 was a very comfortable car, especially for the 30s. Its body was supplied with a heater and a radio receiver, and the passenger compartment was separated from the driver by a rising glass partition. Only high-quality fabrics were used in the interior decoration, and the seats were upholstered in cloth or leather. The instrument panel and window frames were trimmed with expensive types of wood. Braided handrails with chrome-plated tips were installed on the interior partition and on the body pillars. At the rear of the car there was a trunk, which was accessed through a special luggage hatch, and bulky things could additionally be fixed behind the car on a folding grill. An interesting detail: the capacity of the body was most often indicated as seven seats, but there are data on the capacity of only six passengers. The point is that on dirt roads the passport capacity of the car was artificially limited to six people in order to reduce the load. The engine design and layout of the ZIS-101 were borrowed from Buick almost unchanged. The eight-cylinder in-line engine (5.77 liters) developed a power of 90 liters. With. and was able to accelerate a three-ton car to 115 km / h. In the ZIS-101 engine, such technical solutions, How crankshaft with counterweights and damper torsional vibrations, a two-chamber carburetor of the Marvel type with exhaust gas heating, a thermostat in the engine cooling system. For efficient braking brake system car was added vacuum booster.
The assembly of the first ZIS-101 was organized in the basement, under the gearbox shop. Until the end of 1936, only 11 copies of the ZIS-101 were assembled. Later, after the construction of a new press building at the plant, the assembly moved there, to the 6th and 7th bays, where an assembly line was organized. The first car was made there on January 18, 1937. Initially, the rate of production of cars was very high, up to 17 cars per day, but after 1939 production volumes were reduced, since the cars were expensive, and the consumers to whom they were intended were provided quickly enough.
From the beginning of 1937, ZIS-101 cars were assembled on a conveyor re
Machines were delivered exclusively to public service, and in private hands were transferred in rare cases, to individual representatives of the intelligentsia and the generals for outstanding services to the Motherland.
It was not possible to prepare the production of the ZIS-101 for release without anecdotal cases. For a luxury car, it was necessary to make a good passenger seat, and the upholsterers at the ZIS were simply wonderful (Sekin, Pugachev, Trofimov, Melnikov), they worked cleanly 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. Involuntary prejudice played a role. 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.
Emblem
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. But 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.
Modernization
No matter how beautiful and comfortable the serial ZIS-101 were, their weight was 600-700 kg (!) Exceeded their imported counterparts. The fact is that for the sake of strength and reliability, many nodes were too heavy, and as a result, dynamic performance suffered. For big and solid car 90 hp engine With. turned out to be weak, so the first
modernization touched 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 these were half measures, more significant 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. Max speed while increasing to 125 km / h. At the same time, a new, more fashionable grille was installed on the limousine. Upgraded machines received the name ZIS-101A and began to roll off the assembly line in 1940.
The well-made interior of the ZIS-101A cannot be called luxurious and spacious, especially from the standpoint of modern automotive design. The steering wheel and steering column switch here are from later ZIL trucks.
Lined up dials— sign of a car's worth. On simpler machines then they managed with one or two devices
Oil pressure gauge and coolant temperature sensor are made in one housing
The rear doors opened against the direction of the car
On the ZIS-101A, side lights were installed next to the headlights on the wings, and not direction indicators
The strict pediment of the radiator grille and the red flag on top personified the inviolability of the Soviet system
The gas tank neck with a chrome cap just sticks out of the body— hide it under a special hatch has not yet guessed
Spare wheels on the front fenders are stored in metal covers,
which drivers called "frying pans"
A solid car was supposed to have two rear marker lights, while most cars of that time had only one, on the left
The rear sofa provided the top of comfort for two passengers, the third person was completely useless there.
Executive class cars always arouse increased interest among people, and their production is not available to all countries. Even today, such cars are often used to judge the technical and economic level of the country, and even in the 30s of the last century, limousines were an indispensable attribute of a powerful state. The Soviet Union could not but use such an important aspect to promote the socialist system. In addition, high-class cars were really needed to service the apparatus of power.
State symbol
The decision to master the production of comfortable large-displacement cars in our country (in the terminology of that time) was made in 1932. To implement the idea, they first chose the Leningrad Krasny Putilovets plant, where at first they decided to make
an exact copy of the latest American Buick 32-90, sample of 1932. The drawings for the car were carried out at the Lengipro-VATO Institute (VATO - All-Union Automobile and Tractor Association) under the guidance of L.V. Klimenko. By the May 1933 demonstration in Leningrad, they were able to assemble a small batch of Soviet Buicks from 6 pieces under the name L-1 (“Leningrad-1”).
L-1 cars for the domestic automotive industry of that time had a rather complex design: an overhead eight-cylinder in-line engine (105 hp), a dual carburetor, a gearbox with synchronizers in 2nd and 3rd gears, hydraulic shock absorbers with stiffness adjustment from the driver's seat , a closed seven-seater limousine-type body with a partition. As a result, things did not work out beyond the production of an experimental batch: the plant began to master the tractor-tank theme. And two cars
"Leningrad -1" was transferred to the ZIS, which was supposed to take over the production of limousines from the "Krasny Putilovets".
Soon, the original Buick sample 1932 with instructions to study it. The design of the new car, which received the name ZIS-101, was headed by the chief designer Evgeny Ivanovich Vazhinsky at the plant. To start Buick dismantled "by the bones",
and all groups of designers (including the body department, which was led by Ivan Fedorovich German) started copying it. Angular body Buick bodybuilders didn’t like it - it was already clearly outdated, then streamlined shapes came into fashion ... And what’s the point of making a copy of the body Buick, if the stamps still order new ones?
In the body department, they made many drawings of the appearance of a passenger car - the designers dreamed of their own car.
Then Herman got a conditional agreement to start making his own body models. Of course, all of them somehow echoed the American cars of those years and represented combinations of the most successful solutions from various companies, while not being copies of certain models. A total of four different versions were developed.
Serial car ZIS-101
One of these layouts was adopted as the main one, and further design work began on it. They even managed to prepare some technical documentation and build the frame of an experimental body, but ... at the top they decided to order the body along with drawings and stamps abroad, in America, from the company Budd. And as a sample, an approved layout was sent to America.
For the development of the body, body stamps and welding jigs, they had to pay 1.5 million dollars - huge money for those times.
Company Budd She had almost no experience in designing car bodies, and, according to domestic experts, the project was done very poorly. For example, the wooden frame of the body was simply “fitted” into the surface without the slightest regard for technology and load calculations.
Then this created great difficulties in working out wooden parts in a woodworking shop. In general, the body turned out to be surprisingly low-tech. The wooden beech frame was connected by numerous kerchiefs, corners and braces and sheathed on top with painted stamped metal sheets. To assemble such a body, it was necessary to conscientiously tighten thousands of screws, otherwise the structure would quickly loosen and begin to creak during operation. Stamps and the first 500 sets of stampings for the ZIS-101 arrived in the USSR in 1935. Assembly conductors and master models also came. Prototypes of cars had to be built by April 1, 1936. The task was not easy: the plant had never made a high-class passenger car before, and there were so many new, unexpected, incomprehensible things. The significance of the forthcoming event was so great that the director of the plant was personally involved in the selection of the brigade of assemblers of the first batch. When, in March 1936, the first chassis of the car, still without a body and wings, was rolled out of the workshop, Likhachev personally tested it, making a throw to Podolsk and back in terrible bad weather.
Experimental vehicles ZIS-101 were ready by the end of April. As always, one day was not enough to clean up somewhere, polish somewhere, eliminate creaking somewhere, correct a crease in the upholstery, and so on, and the first cars had to be presented to the country's leadership.
The demonstration of two ZIS-101 cars took place in the Kremlin on April 29, 1936. I.A. Likhachev, A.A. Evseev and other plant managers went to it. The cars were examined by Stalin, Ordzhonikidze, Mikoyan, Khrushchev and many others. The new Soviet cars made a good impression on senior government officials, and the comments made were not of a fundamental nature.
Inspection of prototypes of the ZIS-101 by the country's leadership in the Kremlin in the spring of 1936
ZIS-101 was a very comfortable car, especially for the 30s. Its body was supplied with a heater and a radio receiver, and the passenger compartment was separated from the driver by a rising glass partition. Only high-quality fabrics were used in the interior decoration, and the seats were upholstered in cloth or leather. The instrument panel and window frames were trimmed with expensive types of wood. Braided handrails with chrome-plated tips were installed on the interior partition and on the body pillars. At the rear of the car there was a trunk, which was accessed through a special luggage hatch, and bulky things could additionally be fixed behind the car on a folding grill. An interesting detail: the capacity of the body was most often indicated as seven seats, but there are data on the capacity of only six passengers. The fact is that on dirt roads, the passport capacity of the car was artificially limited to six people in order to reduce the load. The engine design and layout of the ZIS-101 were borrowed from Buick almost unchanged. The eight-cylinder in-line engine (5.77 liters) developed a power of 90 liters. With. and was able to accelerate a three-ton car to 115 km / h. In the ZIS-101 engine, such technical solutions as a crankshaft with counterweights and a torsional vibration damper, a two-chamber carburetor of the Marvel type with exhaust gas heating, and a thermostat in the engine cooling system were used. For effective braking, a vacuum booster was added to the car's brake system.
The assembly of the first ZIS-101 was organized in the basement, under the gearbox shop. Until the end of 1936, only 11 copies of the ZIS-101 were assembled. Later, after the construction of a new press building at the plant, the assembly moved there, to the 6th and 7th bays, where an assembly line was organized. The first car was made there on January 18, 1937. Initially, the rate of production of cars was very high, up to 17 cars per day, but after 1939 production volumes were reduced, since the cars were expensive, and the consumers to whom they were intended were provided quickly enough.
From the beginning of 1937, ZIS-101 cars were assembled on a conveyor re
The cars entered exclusively into public service, and in rare cases were transferred to private hands, to individual representatives of the intelligentsia and the generals for outstanding services to the Motherland.
Interesting fact
It was not possible to prepare the production of the ZIS-101 for release without anecdotal cases. For a luxury car, it was necessary to make a good passenger seat, and the upholsterers at the ZIS were simply wonderful (Sekin, Pugachev, Trofimov, Melnikov), they worked cleanly 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. Involuntary prejudice played a role. 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, having moved to 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.
A passenger car must carry a new emblem - this is how the factory decided. 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. But 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.
Modernization
No matter how beautiful and comfortable the serial ZIS-101 were, their weight was 600-700 kg (!) Exceeded their imported counterparts. 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 weak, so the first
modernization touched 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 these were half measures, more significant 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, more fashionable grille was installed on the limousine. The upgraded machines were named ZIS-101A and began to roll off the assembly line in 1940.
The well-made interior of the ZIS-101A cannot be called luxurious and spacious, especially from the standpoint of modern automotive design. The steering wheel and steering column switch here are from later ZIL trucks.
Lined up dials- sign of a car's worth. On simpler machines then they managed with one or two devices
Oil pressure gauge and coolant temperature sensor are made in one housing
The rear doors opened against the direction of the car
On the ZIS-101A, side lights were installed next to the headlights on the wings, and not direction indicators
The strict pediment of the radiator grille and the red flag on top personified the inviolability of the Soviet system
The gas tank neck with a chrome cap just sticks out of the body- hide it under a special hatch has not yet guessed
Spare wheels on the front fenders are stored in metal covers,
which drivers called "frying pans"
A solid car was supposed to have two rear position lights, while most cars of that time had only one, on the left
The rear sofa provided the top of comfort for two passengers, the third person was completely useless there.
Folding strapontens were intended for accompanying persons-
Very comfortable despite the ugly look
As in any limousine, in the ZIS-101A the driver and passenger parts of the cabin were separated by a glass partition with a mechanical, and not electric drive. Therefore, passengers had to turn the handle, like a door window lifter.
It was very expensive and difficult to make the roof as a one-piece deep-drawn part at that time, so it was combined, with wood and leather inserts on top.
- 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 american car, but not beloved by Stalin Packard - he 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 and at the same time quite large and luxurious 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: dual carburetors with automatic air supply control, an automatic thermostat that opens and closes the radiator shutters, and even adjusts the stiffness of 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 was a diaphragm fuel pump and an oil and air filter that had not yet become generally accepted. Steering and rear suspension car almost borrowed from Packard. Suspension of all wheels with drum brakes was dependent.
Some of the frills were immediately abandoned - "in the minus" went, for example, automatic clutch control 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. And here mechanical brakes received an innovative vacuum amplifier. And in general, the car turned out to be comfortable and justifying the laid down status - the base of 3,650 mm provided space in the cabin, which, moreover, also had a heater (completely unprecedented for Soviet car industry of that era!), and besides, it was decided to equip some of the cars with radios, which at that time 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 soviet car were used: a cabin heater, a radio, a thermostat in the cooling system, a crankshaft torsional vibration damper, a two-chamber carburetor, vacuum clutch and brake boosters, 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: “ Appearance car will be very close to a 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 much later a prototype ZIS-101B was built with a protruding luggage compartment but he 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 scrupulous attitude to the assembly of 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 collected limousines, according to the rank, were sent to the Garage special purpose, but they did not take root there, because they lost to local foreign cars by 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 more real way 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 of plastic (!) Linings brake pads, low quality control devices body seals that do not cope with their functions, planting the battery sound signal 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 time 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 set up to analyze defects in a limousine, headed by Evgeny Chudakov, a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, an automobile expert and, in fact, the founder of the discipline "Theory and design of a 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 is necessary to note the presence a large number defects in cars ZIS-101, manufactured by the plant. Stalin, in particular: a strong smell of gasoline in the back, the noise of the gearbox, the sound of the engine and increased consumption gasoline, 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 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 such machines were created. grey-silver color. In January 1939, two more open machines with the same designation, ZIS-102, but they were already called convertibles - the cars differed from the phaetons by lowering, hiding in the doors, and not by "attachment" 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 ones, new combination instruments with rectangular dials and a new steering wheel with a 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.
At 3,200 rpm
Characteristics
Mass-dimensional
| Width: | 1 892 mm |
dynamic
At Krasny Putilovets, in the early thirties, the obsolete Fordson tractor was just taken out of production, respectively, production areas were freed up.
It was an almost exact copy of the Buick-32-90, which by American standards belonged to the upper-middle class (higher than most brands, but lower than Cadillac or Packard).
As a result, "Red Putilovets" was reoriented to the production of tractors and tanks, and the completion of the L-1 was transferred to the Moscow "ZiS".
At the ZiS plant, the ZiS-101 model was created on the basis of this car. The work was supervised by Evgeny Ivanovich Vazhinsky.
History of creation
At the plant. Stalin in Moscow, the designers did not copy the Buick, but went along the path of creating own car based on his designs. From the design, in particular, such dubious - difficult to manufacture and not distinguished by reliability - components, such as automatic clutch control, remote adjustment of shock absorbers, were eliminated. The frame and undercarriage have been strengthened for operation in road conditions USSR, which also required their processing.
Nevertheless, the Buicks of the 1932-34 models still remained at the heart of the ZiS design, in particular, the car inherited from them a very perfect overhead valve (OHV) eight-cylinder engine; some Constructive decisions were also borrowed from Packard models - for example steering and rear suspension.
Since the body of the Buick was no longer in line with the fashion of the mid-thirties, it also had to be redesigned. This work was entrusted to the American bodywork studio "Budd" (Budd Company), which, based on Soviet sketches, designed an elegant and outwardly modern body for those years, and also supplied everything necessary for series production snap. It cost the state half a million dollars and took 16 months.
Stalin at the car ZiS-101
beech) frame, then stamped metal panels were sewn onto it. It was difficult, mostly handmade. The manufacture of the frame was especially time-consuming, and perhaps the most difficult was to achieve noiselessness on the go - the joints of wooden parts are prone to creaking at the slightest fit defects. The abundance of large-sized, easily deformable stamped sheet steel parts also did not contribute to the acceleration of machine assembly. This technology was well suited for small-scale assembly of cars in body shops, but it made mass production very difficult. Mass models, such as GAZ-M-1, in those years already had all-metal bodies.
It is noteworthy that in the magazine "Behind the wheel" for 1934, an early prototype of the car was shown, which had a sedan-type body (not a "limousine") with a protruding trunk, outwardly copying (as noted in the article) "Buick" model 1934 , and it was claimed that the car would be produced in this form and with this type of body. Nevertheless, the car went into the series with a significantly modified design and a limousine body.
The first prototypes (two cars) were made in the spring of 1936, April 29, 1936 in the Kremlin, prototypes were shown to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks I. V. Stalin. Conveyor assembly began in January 1937.
Unlike the later ZiLs, the ZiS-101 cars (as well as the later ZiS-110) served not only top party and government officials, but also ordinary citizens. Of course, there could be no talk of selling for personal use in those years (although the ZiS-101 could be won in the lottery). But in major cities In the USSR, representative ZiS models were widely used as taxis on long routes.
In 1936, the 13th taxi fleet was created in Moscow, equipped with 55 ZiS-101 cars. Unlike government ones, they had a "cheerful" color - blue, light blue, yellow. Since 1938, the "101st" ZiS from the 13th taxi fleet began to enter the routes connecting railway stations, airports and main transport routes, as well as the cities of Noginsk and Bronnitsy with Moscow. Such taxis were also operated in other cities. For example, in 1939 there were 3 ZiS-101 taxis in Minsk.
After the Great Patriotic War, for some time, the ZiS-101 turned out to be one of the most common Moscow taxis: the bulk of the Emoks were sent to the front during the war years, where they ended their days; ZISs, on the other hand, were distinguished by relatively poor cross-country ability, therefore, until 1945, they stood on conservation. Immediately after the war, they cruised along the Garden and Boulevard rings and on the line Rizhsky Station - Sverdlov Square. Their gradual replacement by cars of the Pobeda and ZiS-110 brands began only in 1946-47.
Design and characteristics
During those years, each new model The car was a milestone for the Soviet automobile industry, and the ZiS-101 was no exception: for the first time in the industry, such innovations as a cabin heater, a radio receiver, a thermostat in the engine cooling system, an engine shaft torsional vibration damper, a two-chamber carburetor, vacuum servo clutch and brake boosters were applied. The three-speed gearbox, also an industry first, featured synchromesh on II and III gears. The suspension of all wheels is dependent, on longitudinal springs, the brakes are drum-type, with a mechanical drive.
Modernization
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| ZiS-101A | |
In 1940, the car was modernized based on the conclusions made by a commission headed by Academician
ZIS-101A-Sport (1939) was a two-seater roadster built in single copy on the chassis of the ZIS-101, the first Soviet serial limousine, in essence, sports version 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 a sports car on its basis. 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." Project developers sports car 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. Once fully assembled, the car was painted dark green and trimmed with chrome trim. 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 stream. 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 stabilizers formed the basis of the suspension design. roll stability. The brakes were mechanical, drum, with 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 still hope 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.
