1950 ZIS 110B Phaeton for sale
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- čas přidán 1. 05. 2024
- It looks like a 1942 Packard with some idiosyncratic features. It isn’t, despite oral history that had Franklin Roosevelt induce Packard to send its blueprints and production dies to the Soviet Union as a gift to Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin during World War II to play up to Stalin’s love for Packards.
The design, styling and basic layout (inline eight-cylinder side valve engine, independent front suspension, frame design) are 1942 Packard but there is not a piece of this ZiS that interchanges with any Packard of the period. It was made, wholly and largely by hand, in a small quantity in the ZiS factory complex (“Zavod imeni Stalin”, “Factory named for Stalin”) on the Moscow River within sight of the Kremlin.
Produced from 1946 through (and possibly beyond) 1958 the basic ZiS 110 was a large 4-door limousine, the preferred ride for high-ranking Soviet officials and a frequent gift to Soviet-aligned foreign dignitaries and heads of state including China’s Mao Zedong, North Korea’s Kim Il-sung and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh. Only a few over 2,000 ZiS 110s in all styles were built, of which only about 100 were open phaetons like this.
It was one of three ZiS 110B phaetons sent to Kyiv, Ukraine in 1955 for ceremonial use by high ranking military officers, state and communist party officials. In 1980, now thoroughly dated, the three Kyiv ZiS 110B phaetons were taken out of service and this one was sold in 1986 to the chairman of the Kyiv Avtoveteran club, Valentin Grigorevich Lelichko, from whose estate it was acquired in 2021 after years of negotiation.
It was restored in Ukraine in the early 2020’s by Mikhail Beskrovny, finished in Soviet Parade Air Force uniform Blue with Blue leather upholstery, then spirited out of the country after the Russian invasion in 2022. The bodywork, paint, top and chrome are excellent. It has Ukraine registration and a currently working on a U.S. title.