Packard Forum Index » ZIS, ZIL, and other Packard Cousins!

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In the second part of the 1950s and latest on the threshold to the 1960s the Soviet designers had a problem of orientation after

- death of Stalin ("THE PATTERN OF ALL VIRTUES TO ALL ETERNITY")
- loss of Packard (the pattern of all Soviet luxury cars until 1956 1961*)

* The Soviets were five years behind schedule.

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The last Packard inspired ZIL started to get long in the tooth and every year the market-based U.S. economy produced dozens of new models and several modern improvements. The highest ranking CCCP officials were adequately supplied with the ZIL-111 but no new model came into sight. At least a facelift was a must. But even facelifts had been a new arena for the Soviet car industry.

Embedded in communistic concrete the Russian designers needed a new pattern. Another U.S. car company caught their eyes. Which company was most qualified in the eyes of Moscows elite?

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Cadillac continued its series of successes even in the Soviet Union. Below one of the first prototyps with Packard interior and tail end but small fins. The idea to go Cadillac was in the Russian drawer years before.
The pictured car has survived and is in save keeping.

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Interesting combination. It sort of looks like the Packard based ZIL body with a 59-60 Cadillac front end. I would have thought they would have picked Lincoln as a base to copy.

bit o' Buick in the side trim

ok. So they gave the same car in post #2 a face lift an a butt lift. Otherwise i see no difference in the two cars.

Packard dies wore out so they got dies under the table from Cadillac. Probably thru south America.

The Russkies never got any dies from Detroit (Packard specifically) they juast took cars that made their way over there and copied them, and put some agricultural engine in them. They are close, but no cigar.
The bit about the Packard senior dies being given to the Russians has been proved false--by the tape measurer, among other first hand accounts, especially since the fall of the Iron curtain. Quite simply: Packrad put the stamping dies for the senior cars outside for the duration of the war, the cosmolene job was not done properly and they rusted beyond use. Briggs did a better job of protecting the Clipper dies (Imagine what would have happened if those went bad!) and that is how Packard only had the Clipper body after the war.

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Yes Howard, add the new tail fins and you got it.

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An educated guess. The big moment of Lincoln came 5 years later. I did this pic with shaky hands as a young boy, car infected not much different than today.

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bkazmer, below the very first version (to my knowledge).

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