Soviet limousine ZIL-41041 - the pride of the era

You can and should write about this machine only with a capital letter. ZIL-41041 - not just a car - it's a symbol of a whole era. His development fell at the time of the great confrontation in the Cold War. He was a model of the machine-building industry of the Soviet Union, and he witnessed its collapse.

The car was not collected, not passed throughconveyor, and built like a ship at the shipyard. In 1986, the legendary ZIL-41047 was rightfully considered to be the heaviest and longest serial limousine in the world. Its V-shaped eight-cylinder engine with a working volume of 7695 cm3 accelerated more than 3-ton car to 190 km / h in just 13 seconds. Agree, excellent indicators for that time. Of course, this premium car was not sold for private use. It was available only to the leading politburo top. All other high-ranking officials were supposed to have a GAZ-14 "Chaika".

Until the early 1990s, the productionthe ZIL-41041 machine documentation was classified. And cars that ran 100,000 km or more were subject to recycling. Each ZIL car that escaped destruction had its own uneasy destiny ...

A bit of history

AT In 1985 the first ZIL-41047 limousine was built,which came to replace the car ZIL-41045. Coupled headlights designers made rectangular, increased the grille, replaced the tail lights. On the passenger and driver's door were removed rotary windows. In the period from 1976 to 1983, ZIL-4104 was produced with various modifications, then from 1983 to 1985 saw the light of the ZIL-41045 model. It was distinguished by the round shape of the headlights and a number of other technical characteristics. The 41047 car became the largest and heaviest limousine of that time.

Performed according to the classical canons with the body onspar frame, with independent suspension of the front wheels, it had a length of about 6330 mm, a height of 1500 mm and a wheelbase of 3880 mm, the ground clearance was 170 mm. It was impossible to turn the car over. Even with the sharpest turn of the rudder at high speed, the car did not lose stability. The first person of the state - President Mikhail Gorbachev - until 1991 relied armored ZIL extended model, whose weight was 6 tons. The size of the armor reached 7.5 cm. A powerful 8-cylinder power unit with a total capacity of 7 liters consumed more than 23 liters of high-octane gasoline per hundred kilometers.

Closed production

Cars ZIL-41041 were built only in closed autoenterprises,which belonged to the 9th Department of the KGB of the USSR. A multi-page manual for the use and maintenance of the machine remained in a few copies, which are now as rare as the machines themselves. The whole process of building a car was carried out manually. The base of the body was a heavy weldedframe. Its original design provided the machine an incredible superstability. The car had a front independent lever suspension, telescopic shock absorbers, and a stability stabilizer.

Body ZIL-41041 limousine type was created by all-metal,welded, four-door. He had three rows of seats, as well as a special auditory partition, which separated the driver and guard from the salon with high-ranking people. Salon in the basic configuration could seat seven seats. The front seats were trimmed with expensive leather, the rear seats were trimmed with velor. The basic option was a complete electrical package. The limo salon was like a museum of furniture art. The frames of the windows, doors, front panel - all this was finished with natural wood. And the air cooling system consisted of two independent climate systems.

The car is not for everyone

Interestingly, the limousine body was made by hand. Masters of the rare profession - knockers involved in the production of parts of small series, created doors, wings, roof, hood and trunk lid. After that, all these elements were scrupulously mounted in the body of the car, individually adjusting to each other. When the limousine body was ready, it was covered with paint, using a complex multi-step process. It included the application of 9 to 15 layers of paint. Each layer was polished and dried. Virtually all limousine nodes were original designs and did not have any analogues. ZIL was then and now is a car for the elite.

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