Supercars from the USSR

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

It just so happened historically that the best and most progressive technology in our country was born, as a rule, for the needs of the "defense" and the aerospace complex: small arms, aircraft and helicopters, submarines and tanks, ballistic and space missiles …: in the days of the USSR, we built incredible vehicles, and not only on wheels or tracks!

One of the main "monster factories" was then considered the special (and in those days, consider secret) design bureaus of the ZiL and MAZ factories (the Zilovsky SKB was headed by the famous designer Vitaly Grachev, and the Mazovian was headed for a long time by the no less famous engineer Boris Shaposhnik). Civilian four-wheel drive trucks produced by these factories are unlikely to surprise anyone today. But in the Soviet years, special bureaus of these factories designed such machines for the military and other structures that you look at and proudly think: they knew how before! And then sadness rolls over from how much of this unique heritage has disappeared and was thrown into the wind …

No. 1 ZIL-E167

Year Built - 1962

According to legend, in the early 60s, this orange-colored experimental all-terrain vehicle from Zilov's SKB Grachev, which was tested in Siberia, scared the Americans a lot. Their spy satellites allegedly photographed several of these vehicles in a short time in very distant places. And the secret services reported to the White House that the Russians had created a batch of snowmobiles to attack the United States through the Sulfur Pole. It did not even occur to analysts that the satellites filmed the same car: it just briskly moved through the taiga due to its incredible cross-country ability!

Whether this story was true or just a story, you can’t tell for sure. But it is known for sure that in 1961 the Moscow City Economic Council ordered a passenger snow and swamp-going vehicle of especially high cross-country ability for the Far North to ZiL. And the requirements were specific: a 6x6 wheel arrangement, high ground clearance, a smooth bottom and the ability to climb on any meter-thick snow with a load in the body. But due to employment on other projects in the design bureau of Grachev, this order was remembered only a year later. But the prototype was made in just two months, and the leading designer of the project was a woman! And already in January 1963, the ZIL-E167 ("E" means "Experimental") went for testing.

The cross-country ability and especially high ground clearance of the ZiLu-E167 were provided by huge tires with a landing diameter of 28 inches. And to lighten the weight of the wheels, their rims were made of fiberglass.

The resulting device from the Zilov designers had a length of 9.4 m and a minimum clearance of 750 mm, itself weighed 12 tons and took on 5 more, and up to 18 people could be packed into its fiberglass body with additional heaters and a reserve stove-stove. In the stern, there were two 180-horsepower Zilovsky gasoline V8s (one for the wheels of the right and left sides), which worked in tandem with 3-speed automatic gearboxes. True, the maximum speed was only 75 km / h, but the fuel consumption was 100 liters per 100 km! The wheels of the front and rear axles were on an independent torsion bar suspension, the middle axle was rigidly attached to the frame, and the front and rear wheels were turned to increase maneuverability.

For several years, the ZIL-E167 has wound more than 20,000 test kilometers, showing just crazy cross-country ability on all types of off-roadby which it surpassed all domestic wheeled vehicles (including 8x8 vehicles) and was not inferior to tracked tractors! The car especially distinguished itself in 1965 during winter tests during the construction of the Shaim-Tyumen oil pipeline. There the Zilovsky all-terrain vehicle easily kneaded meter-long snowdrifts on the laying of routes and the transportation of goods, and also pulled congestions out of the convoys of cars stuck on the "winter roads". Alas, neither the Soviet gas workers nor the Ministry of Defense placed orders for the production of this super all-terrain vehicle. For many years, the only released test sample knocked about in the corners of the Zilov territory, dilapidated and fell into decay. Until, fortunately, it fell into good hands - and now, already restored, it amazes visitors to the Military Technical Museum in Chernogolovka near Moscow.

No. 2 ZIL-4904

Year Built: 1972

All-terrain vehicles on auger rotor propellers, made on the principle of Archimedes' screw, have been known for a long time. The first auger vehicle was invented back in 1868, and in Russia the first patent for such a self-propelled gun was issued in 1900. Of all land transport, the off-road passability of augers is close to absolute - where everything wheeled and caterpillar sadly sinks and sinks, the self-propelled "meat grinder" confidently rushes forward, and even knows how to swim. But such an apparatus hurts the soil mercilessly, it cannot move on hard surfaces and, in general, is so specific and highly specialized that very few companies were engaged in their development. But guess where the world's largest auger was created? That's right, in the Soviet Union!

And they created it in the same famous Zilovsky design bureau of Grachev as the ZIL-E167. In general, the Zilovites in the 60-70s designed various augers, differing in size, power and carrying capacity. But the largest was the ZIL-4904 (aka PES-3). The only prototype was built in 1972, and it turned out to be huge: 8.5 m in length, more than 3 m in width and height, and the ground clearance exceeded 1 meter! To lighten the car, the cab was made of fiberglass, and the hefty screws themselves were made of light alloys. As a result, the apparatus itself weighed 7 tons and had a carrying capacity of 2.5 tons. The augers turned two serial Zilov 8-cylinder 180 hp engines. each.

On tests, the ZIL-4904 showed cross-country ability, which is easier to evaluate on video than to describe in words. The same car was tested for both the passenger and the cargo version, but according to the results, the device showed a very low speed: on water and snow it was about 10 km / h, in a swamp - 7.3 km / h. And despite the outstanding cross-country ability, the ZIL-4904 remained in a single copy - it was not used. But many of the developments on it were later used for his younger brother ZIL-29061, which became part of another interesting Zilovsky special project.

No. 3 ZIL-4906 "Blue Bird"

Year of construction: 1975-1991

The floating search and rescue complex with the romantic name "Blue Bird" is the latest and, perhaps, the most famous development of the Zilovsky Special Design Bureau. It is noteworthy that this complex, intended for the search and rescue of spacecraft crews, consisted not of one, but of three vehicles at once.

A passenger version of the ZIL-49061 was created for the removal of the cosmonauts who returned from orbit, which the rescuers nicknamed "Salon". The second is a model truck ZIL-4906 with a manipulator (a nickname among rescuers - "Crane"), which took out the descent vehicle. And in the back of the second "Crane" a compact and lightweight floating auger ZIL-29061 driven by two VAZ engines was transported to the landing site. In the event that the descent spacecraft landed where even the infantry would not pass, the auger was removed from the truck - and it went after the astronauts, regardless of any impassable roads. And so that the equipment could be clearly seen on the snow, in the steppe and desert, all vehicles of this complex were painted in a special bright blue color scheme, for which ZIL-4906 and ZIL-49061, in fact, were nicknamed "Blue Birds".

According to the terms of reference, the vehicles were to fit into the cargo compartments of the Il-76 and An-12 aircraft, and the Mi-6 and Mi-26 helicopters. Therefore, the passenger version got such a low silhouette of the cabin, and the glazed cab covers were made completely removable. To make the huge (9250x2480x2537 mm) all-terrain vehicles extremely lightweight, their frames were made of aluminum, and the bodies were made of fiberglass. The Bluebirds were set in motion by one 150-horsepower gasoline V8 from the ZIL-130 truck, and instead of the automatic gearboxes that were popular in the SKB, there was a 5-speed "mechanics". But everything else was in the spirit of the Grachev Design Bureau: a 6x6 wheel arrangement with two pivot axles, an independent suspension and wheel gears giving a clearance of 544 mm, the ability to swim, developing a speed of up to 8 km / h on water …

The technical solutions are also impressive. For example, it is still the only self-propelled transporter in the world with all 24 wheels driving! Moreover, 8 of the 12 axles were made swivel, due to which the huge "centipede" turning radius was only 27 meters. The power plant and transmission were also unique to this type of machine. A gas turbine engine was borrowed from the T80 tank, boosted to 1250 hp. He turned the generator, and he powered the traction electric motors - one for each of the 24 wheels! True, the maximum speed of this colossus was only 25 km / h.

MAZ-7907 was actively tested until 1987, and the tests were carried out both in Minsk and in the Tver region, where the car was transported by rail in a disassembled state. But perestroika was already raging in the country, then the Union collapsed, the "cold war" ended - and no one needed the Belarusian multi-axle vehicle together with missiles.

True, a few years later they shook off the dust: in the summer of 1996, one of the assembled MAZ-7907 transported an 88-ton motor ship 40 meters long, which was successfully delivered 250 km from the Berezina River to Lake Naroch. True, during unloading, the car was flooded, which is why on the way back the traction electric motors of the Minsk giant failed, and it had to be dragged in tow. In 2006, out of two MAZ-7907, which stood at the plant's landfill, they assembled one, which is awaiting restoration and its place in the museum of the car plant.

No. 5 MAZ-7904

Year Built: 1983

Of course, the 12-axle MAZ-7907 is capable of impressing anyone, but it had an even more spectacular predecessor brother - an experimental wheeled chassis MAZ-7904 with a 12x12 wheel arrangement. The only prototype was assembled in 1983, but it is still not completely clear what exactly this huge mechanism was designed for. According to one version, it was also built for the Molodets missile. On the other, for collecting spent blocks of the first stage of the Energia rocket across the Kazakh steppes. According to the third hypothesis, MAZ-7904 was made under the Energia-Buran program for transporting missile system blocks for assembly.

MAZ-7904 relied on huge Japanese Bridgestone tires with an outer diameter of 3 meters, for the purchase of which, they say, a special secret operation was even carried out!

In any case, whatever the reason for the creation of MAZ-7904, its dimensions and characteristics are still amazing! Mahina with its own weight of 140 tons and dimensions of 32, 2x6, 8x3, 45 meters had a carrying capacity of 220 tons - almost one and a half times its own weight! The giant was set in motion by a V12 ship diesel engine with a volume of 42 liters and a power of 1500 hp. He turned the wheels through two 4-speed hydromechanical boxes and planetary hub reductions. There was also a second engine on board - an 8-cylinder 330-horsepower YaMZ-238 turbodiesel worked as a drive for a steering hydraulic pump, a brake system compressor and other auxiliary units.

MAZ-7904 was one of the main secrets of the Soviet automobile industry. It was even run in and tested at night, checking the flight schedule of spy satellites - so as not to be detected! In early 1984, the transporter was delivered for testing at Baikonur. And after several thousand test kilometers across the Kazakh steppes, it became clear that MAZ-7904 with a load is too clumsy (turning radius was 50 m) and heavy, and due to huge axial loads (60 tons per axle) it simply sinks on weak soils.

Today, in Russia, multi-axle trucks are actually made only by the Bryansk Automobile Plant. The photo shows the civilian flagship model BZKT-69099 with a 12x12 wheel arrangement, equipped with a 470-horsepower YaMZ diesel engine and capable of carrying 40 tons of cargo.

As a result, the 7904 project was covered up and a lighter and more maneuverable 12-axle 7907 was created to replace it. And what happened to that one MAZ-7904? Alas, the car that could decorate any automobile museum has vanished in Baikonur. In the early 90s, the cosmodrome and the transporter standing on its territory became the property of Kazakhstan. In 2004, the car was written off, and in 2010, according to official information from Roscosmos, to which Avtoitogi.ru refers, MAZ-7904 was completely disposed of.