ZIL–131: When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going

It has neither corkscrews for wheels nor chubby wings to fly it above the Caspian. Still, the ZIL–131 is one badass Russian military truck. More »

Cars Of The Soviet Union: The Definitive History, by Andy Thompson

Whether you're wrenching on a flying Spitfire or a leaking Spitfire, Haynes has a shop manual for you. Very useful, but hardly the sort of thing you'd keep on your coffee table. More »

ZIL 49061!

When most Westerners think of ZIL, we think of the vehicles that carried top Party apparatchiks to their weekend dachas. But ZIL also has also constructed some fantastical trucks — for example, the scary-crazy 2906 screw-motivated machine, as well as this stonking amphibious 49061, a six-by-six that has undoubtedly run down many a piddly ZAZ. Heck, it might've even sunk a few destroyers, for all we know. More »

ZIL Parade Concept

Russian President Vladimir Putin is fast tightening his iron grip on the once proud nation. In a move not seen since the Cold War, nuclear missiles are being aimed at European cities while foreign governments are the targets of coercion, sabotage and open hostility. Internal dissent is cause for exile while the government consolidates its power. So perhaps it's appropriate that their design students are dreaming up dictator-appropriate modes of transport. Who knows, the next time we see the ZIL Parade might be at the front of an armored column parading through Red Square. More »

We Will Bury You! The ZIL-111

While Ladas and Zastavas were all fine and good for the workers, the big shots rolled in a ZIL. The company was born as ZIS at the hands of the Fathers of the USSR - including but not limited to Stalin himself. The Post-Stalinist ZIL brought American styling cues into the mix with the likes of Yuri Gagarin and Nikita Kruschev waving from the drop top. Current Russian President Vladimir Putin rolled into the 2001 G8 Summit in a restored ZIL-111, but did not take off any shoes. – Mike Bumbeck More »

In Russia, Geely Assembles YOU for a Happy Life!

Hiho! The people at Geely have nailed down a contract with former ZIL unit Automobile and Motors of Ural to assemble semi-knocked-down examples of their CK sedan for sale on the Russian market. While we'd rather have a Niva or a vintage Volga than a CK, we do find it a bit humorous that analyist Kirill Chuiko expressed skepticism over the Chinese vehicles' potential in the market in saying, "Nobody knows what those cars are like." Right. Because the Fiat-based cars made of Russian steel are the most reliable machines ever. – Davey G. Johnson More »

Meet Me At The Red Star Drive-In, Comrade!

Life in the USSR, circa 1951, wasn't all gulags and long lines for sausage rations. Nyet! Turns out some of Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili's designers at ZIL/ZIS were hard at work coming up with the too-jaw-droppingly-awesome-for-words ZIS "112" prototype. Look at it. Look at it! That 50-Stude-zonked-on-Siberian-fly-agaric face! Had they been on the ball, the Commies could have seduced an entire generation of DA-hairstyled flathead-Ford-driving hoons away from their Detroit Iron and into chopped-and-channeled ZISs. The small-block Chevy would have been a footnote in automotive history! From there... well, you can see how the Cold War might have ended differently. Comrade. – Murilee Martin More »

Hoon of the Day: Russian Military Trucks

I don't know about you, but we're having flashes of "Red Dawn. More »

In Soviet Russia, Car Auctions YOU!

Hey kid, wanna buy a ZIL? The limo used by Gorby and Yeltsin, a vehicle straddling the greatest divide in geopolitical power seen in the non-wartime 20th Century, is up for grabs at Sotheby's first-ever auction in Russia. Also on the block? How 'bout Leonid Brezhnev's specially-constructed Nissan limo? Unfortnately, Lenny Bruce, Lester Bangs, birthday parties, cheesecake, jellybeans and booms are not included. Nor, for that matter, is Michael Stipe. More »