The ZIS-110 is a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a pr ...

from

ZIL OJSC AMO ZiL, known fully as the Public Joint-Stock Company – Likhachov Plant () and more commonly called ZiL (, was a major Russian automobile, truck, military vehicle, and heavy equipment manufacturer that was based in Moscow, Russia. The la ...

introduced in 1946. The 110 was developed from the

reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...

of a 1942 Packard Super Eight during 1944. The first five prototypes were completed by August 1945. It was powered by a 6-litre, straight 8-cylinder engine, producing and giving a top speed of over . It was made in both sedan and convertible versions. The ZIS was rumored to use machinery from the

Packard 180 The Packard Custom Super Eight One-Eighty was introduced for the 1940 model year (18th series) by the Packard Motor Car Company to replace the discontinued Packard Twelve as their top-of-the-line luxury model. The car was derived from the Packar ...

assembly line which was sent to the USSR after American production ended. However, according to ''The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company'', there is no evidence whatsoever in the Packard archives of such a transfer. Moreover, as one of the main results of the collection of information and material of Bert Hein, there can be many current opinions within the car literature disproved. The database includes, in addition to some pictures of commissars with Packards, a registry of existing cars and information about all ZIS versions, but particularly a point to point comparison between the products of Packard and ZIS. Therefore more likely that the top commissars, including

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

, owned several Packards and wanted their first effort at a luxury car to be based on what is arguably one of the top cars of the 1940s. These cars were often given away as gifts to foreign communist leaders such as Chinese leader

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

and North Korean premier

Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...

. After Stalin, the ZIL 110 c cabriolet was used as a parade car for

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

and this model was also gifted to

Enver Hoxha Enver Halil Hoxha ( , ; 16 October 190811 April 1985) was an Albanians, Albanian communist politician who was the authoritarian ruler of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. He was Secretary (title)#First secretary, First Secretary of t ...

, the lifelong president of

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...

Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...

, the first president of North Vietnam, also received one (most likely from the Soviet Union), which can be seen on display on the grounds of his former residence in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. Production ended in 1958, with total of 2,089 cars made.

Variants

*ZIS-110A: Ambulance version. Produced 1948-1958. *ZIS-110B: Phaeton version. Produced 1947-1958. *ZIS-110I: ZIS-110 with GAZ-13 Chaika powertrain. *ZIS-110P: All-wheel-drive version. *ZIS-110SH: Prototype all-wheel-drive version. Four built (two based on Dodge WC51 and two based on domestic units). Produced in 1949. *ZIS-110SH: Staff car version. *ZIS-110V: Convertible version. *

ZIS-115 The ZIS-115 is a Soviet built armored version of the ZIS-110 limousine, designed and built especially for Joseph Stalin. 32 of the cars were manufactured between 1948-49. The heavily armored car's design was based on the American 1942 Packard Su ...

: Armored version. Also known as ZIS-110C.

References

External links

Autogallery.ru - ZiS-110 picture gallery with technical specifications and history

ZIS 110 Exterior and Interior in Full 3D HD
(Stereoscopic 3D video of ZIS 110, YouTube) {{ZIS/ZIL timeline 1930-1960 ZiL vehicles Luxury vehicles Cars introduced in 1946 Soviet automobiles Flagship vehicles 1958 disestablishments in the Soviet Union