ZIL 114

The ZIL was a large limousine built for high ranking communist party officials in Russia. It was targeted as a replacement for the ZIS, which had been nothing more than a 1941 Pack hard under a different badge. The tooling had been bought off the Americans after the war. Through heavy influenced by contemporary American design, the ZIL was more its own car. It has a 220 bhp V8 engine, with light alloy cylinder heads and a push button two speed automatic gearbox. ZIL drivers enjoyed luxury unknown to the average Lada or Moskvitch owner, including power steering and electric windows.

The earlier 111 G limousine had a 5 liter engine and could manage 105 mph, but from 1967 there was a longer wheelbase 114 model with a 7 liter V8 and a claimed 300 bhp. These cars had squarer more modern styling and came with disc front brakes and air conditioning as standard. No one has been able to come up with information on what types of options were available.

As Communism crumbled and Russia began to open up there was less need for a special state party officials limousine and ZIL production finally finished in 1987. The ZIL was one of the luxuries of that high ranking members of the party enjoyed and there was never any problem with other traffic. No one driving a Lada or Moskvitch foolish enough, to halt the progress of a person in a ZIL.