Re: ZIS 110

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2008/7/7 13:59:10

I've now had a chance to examine the ZIS-110 limousine being restored by Johan Berg in Stockholm, Sweden. His estimate is that about 5070 were built from the close of World War II until the mid-50s, and perhaps 180 remain, one still in government service in North Korea, and one interestingly owned by Vladimir Putin. There were at least 4 body styles; limousine, armored limousine, 4 door open parade car, and ambulance. Some dimensions are metric, others English system. Probably the most accurate description is that the car is ?inspired? by the 42 Packard, close in some details, not in others, and exactly the same in extremely few (for example, some internal speedometer parts are identical). No parts were supplied by Packard. None of the body panels interchange, for example the rear doors are about 5 inches thick at the bottom, perhaps so the same door can be used for the armored version with almost 3 inch thick glass and weighing 5.1 tons (the standard limo weighs about 2.5 tons). The engine block is about 1 cm longer than the 356 Packard so the heads, manifolds, crankshaft, etc. will not interchange though the water and fuel pumps and carburetor interchange. The carburetor is a knock-off of the Carter 531S, though different in details and apparently one with a governor was also used on occasion. Apparently there were three different variants of the engine, perhaps a higher hp version for the armored version and supposedly an even higher performance variant as well. The transmission and driveshaft/universal joints are quite different. I was also able to confirm that the round item on the manifold side in the prior picture posted that was in proximity to the oil pump is indeed an oil filter.

The ZIS convertible parade car shown at the Packard Centennial was owned at the time by Sonny Abagnale of New Jersey, I'm not sure of it's current whereabout. Some years back a gentleman named Duggin (?) from South Jersey also had a limousine.

There is a small cadre of owners and restorers with some difficult availability of original parts, and some Packard mechanical parts can be substituted, some with modification (like transmissions) and others without.