The ZIS-101 was a

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 which can be operated mechanically by hand or by a button electronically. A luxu ...

produced by the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

car manufacturer '' Zavod Imeni Stalina '' from 1936 to 1941. Its

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of a manufactured object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

was

reverse-engineered 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 accompl ...

from a Buick 33-90, except for the front suspension, engine, exhaust and battery carried over from 1933 experimental limousine L-1, itself an unlicensed Buick 32-90 copy, but the body was designed by

Budd Company The Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars, airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense produ ...

for $1,500,000 while the stamps were made by Hamilton Foundry & Machine Company for another $500,000. It was equipped with an straight-eight OHV

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

metric Metric or metrical may refer to: Measuring * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics ...

copy of Buick 345) producing up to and giving a top speed of . The car was fitted with a 3-speed manual

gearbox A transmission (also called a gearbox) is a mechanical device invented by Louis Renault (who founded Renault) which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication/r ...

. It was followed by the ZIS-101A that had improved the engine giving and a new top speed of approximately . Production ended in 1941 with over 8,000 cars built. 39 Zis Stalin

In 1939, a two-seat sport version designed by Valentin Nikolaevich Rostkov called 101-Sport was built. The engine was the same as in the 101-A, but boosted to and a top speed of (although a ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

'' article claimed 170–180 km/h). It was, however, not made in more than one or two copies.

Variants

* ZIS-101: Initial production version. Produced 1936–1939. * ZIS-101A: ZIS-101 with improved engine. Produced 1939–1941. * ZIS-101B: Improved ZIS-101, prototype. * ZIS-101E and ZIS-101S: Prototype armored versions. * ZIS-101L: Prototype version with an intercom for communication between the passengers and driver. * ZIS-101 Sanitary: Ambulance version. * ZIS-101 Sport: Two-seat version. Produced in 1939. * ZIS-102: Convertible version. Produced 1938–1940. * ZIS-103: Prototype improved version of the ZIS-101.

References

Cars of Russia Cars introduced in 1936 1940s cars ZiL vehicles Luxury vehicles Sports cars Soviet automobiles Flagship vehicles First car made by manufacturer {{Classicpow-auto-stub