An extension of the state is its official vehicles. Heads of state get their special cars, below those are police and emergency vehicles, and at the most basic, there are tthe municipal fleet vehicles are used to maintain infrastructure. Sometimes these cars, vans, and trucks are among the most ordinary things in that particular setting and corner of the world, sometimes there’s a weird blip on the radar such as the Impala SS fleet of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland.
In countries with automotive production, the top tier of cars can be a domestically produced limousine. In Sweden, Volvo produced long-wheelbase versions of the 960 and S90 and called them Royal, and they were fit for the King. The fourth-generation, presidential Lincoln Continental will always be linked with JFK’s fate in Dallas, November 1963, but they were used all the way till 1977 in the same capacity, only with additional shielding and armor. The stately Toyota Century sedan has a deep connection to the Emperor of Japan, also in convertible form. But the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia have produced some of the most notorious state cars on all levels of power.
The Last Soviet Limousines
One of my favorite automotive documentaries is The Last Limousine, a 2013 film depicting the final moments of state car production at the ZIL manufacturing plant in Moscow. ZiL, which was called ZIS before the Soviets erased S for Stalin and replaced it with L for Likhachov, made large cars for almost a hundred years. Its first state limos were heavyset and often armored Packard knock-offs from the 1930s onwards, with the later vehicles also reminiscent of comparable American cars but just more … Soviet. ZIL mostly built trucks, but it had a separate department at the plant for hand-assembling state cars.
Decades ago, ZIL and its GAZ equivalent, the Chaika commanded enough power to have specific lanes on the main Moscow streets dedicated to them, for unimpeded shortcuts through traffic. They were also important enough to be brought with Soviet state leaders on their foreign state visits, including to the United States.
In turn, Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet premier during Nixon’s tenure, was personally gifted a Cadillac Eldorado he often drove spiritedly. Brezhnev’s driving relied more on outright speed than utmost precision, and he crashed his Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in Moscow. The still-crumpled car is also displayed at the Riga Motor Museum with a Brezhnev decoy behind the wheel.
One of the last occasions of ZIL trying to stay relevant was the 1987 4102, which was reportedly not well-received by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet ruler. Three ZIL-4102 limousine prototypes were built, still using the same old 7.7-liter V8 as earlier, and only one of them survives. The bronze color on it somehow matches the surroundings, and despite looking very odd, the car isn’t AI-generated or a Grand Theft Auto game vehicle.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, things would never be the same, and by 2010 the situation was approaching unintentional parody, as Daria Khlestkina captured in her film. The 45-minute ZIL documentary is hosted on YouTube, and it shows how the state car production department is roused back into business after an order for three parade cars comes from the Ministry of Defense. Some of the workers are brought back from retirement to work on the ZIL-410441 cars, themselves relics from the 1970s but built in 2010.
The documentary is fascinating to watch. Almost everybody working on the cars is old and a master of their craft, but within this specific, brown-tinted, post-Soviet bubble of motivation and demotivation. Traditional bureaucracy raises its head every now and then, and the boss comes down to the assembly hall to motivate the craftsmen, observe the quality of work, and to bring food from a nearby McDonald’s for the night shift. The factory is ancient and run-down. Old ladies drive forklift trucks around the foundry, where Uzbek temp workers toil in hope of the elusive paycheck. Cats roam the factory and its offices. Part of the workforce just shows up “to maintain an illusion of a working factory,” and I get the feeling a lot of them kept coming to work even past retirement age because there simply wasn’t anything else.
If you were to try t replicate it all with a mockumentary, you wouldn’t get even close to the off-beat feel of an industrial dinosaur still functioning and doing the one thing it still can do, the finest cars they knew the factory could produce. Everything is made in-house, often from scratch.
Everybody knows this is the last time they’ll make cars and the last chance to show their expertise. And at completion, defeat is grasped from the hands of victory, just like so many times in the history of Mother Russia. There are also some killer lines in the documentary, and I’m not going to spoil them all for you – see for yourself.
Volga, Volga, Love Or Death
Below ZiLs and Chaikas were Volgas, which probably correspond to Caprices and Crown Vics. Western audiences may know them from films such as GoldenEye, set in St Petersburg, and HBO’s excellent Chernobyl, which also shows the Soviet Union entering its final phase in the mid ‘80s amidst the nuclear disaster.
Even a Wikipedia article on the 1986 disaster specifically mentions the Volgas, even just as a description of the failing reactor’s sounds.
“Akimov, the unit shift chief, was in charge of the test. He took over the shift at midnight from Tregub, who stayed on the site. At 1:23:04 a.m., the test began, and the main circulation pumps started cavitating due to the extremely high temperature of inlet water. The coolant started boiling in the reactor, and because of a combination of a positive void coefficient and xenon burnout, the power began to increase dramatically.
At ~1:23:30 a.m., Toptunov asked Akimov whether he should shutdown the reactor for the planned maintenance. Akimov showed a gesture to Toptunov to press AZ-5. Toptunov pressed the button at 1:23:39. A second later, at 1:23:40 the SKALA computer registered the command. Akimov and many others heard a sound described as a Volga car failing to start up followed by two explosions. The room went black.”
Black Volgas were the vehicles of the secret police in Soviet-controlled Eastern European states, in the Eastern Bloc, during the Cold War, and they became synonymous with stories of abductions and interrogations. Partly, it was also about an urban legend, with the NKVD or KGB also substituted with the Russian Mafia, satanists, or ultimately the devil himself.
The black cars didn’t even need to be Volgas. The Securitate in Romania used black Dacias, which were badge-engineered Renaults even then. Dictator Ceausescu got a Dacia 2000, which was a rebadged, French-built Renault 20.
These days, Volgas have had a sort of resurrection themselves, as the brand is reportedly staging a return in the form of rebadged Geely cars. For obvious reasons, by which I mean the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the continuing war, Western car brands have withdrawn from the Russian market, and Chinese brands have rolled in to substitute them.
The interesting thing is that being based on a Geely makes these Volgas CMA platform siblings to the Polestar 2 and Volvo XC40/C40, while the manufacturers of these Swedish cars would probably prefer not to be associated with Volgas and business in Russia. Volga already attempted to resurface with Chinese Changan cars, which in turn have ties to Ford and Mazda, but nothing came from that.
Not all Volgas were black and terrible, however. The cars were also exported, and European Volga importers did some interesting things with them. In Finland, Konela-Auto fit them with three-liter Ford Essex V6s as well as diesel engines, and Martorelli in Italy offered Automec 4WD versions of the Volga 2477 wagon, using Lada Niva front axle parts.
They were a sort of Soviet AMC Eagle or Peugeot 505 Dangel, and rightly, they were also offered with Peugeot diesel engines. Moving over 3700 lbs of station wagon steel with just 76 diesel horsepower was a tough task, and top speed was understandably just 78 mph.
Argentine Falcons, North Korean Mercedes-Benzes, The Truth Is Out There
In Argentina, green was the official color for cars of the state police of the military junta and the Argentine anticommunist alliance, from the 1970s to 1983 when the Dirty War ended around the time of the Falkland war and subsequent collapse of the junta rule.
The car of choice was the Argentine-produced Ford Falcon, an oddball development of the 1960s Falcon that was eventually facelifted to look more 1980s via Ford Cortina/Taunus light clusters.
In totalitarian North Korea, domestic car production hasn’t been significant enough to veer away from Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-Benz-related cars. The SsangYong Chairman was famously a W124 development, and it received a local name as the Pyeonghwa Junma. This photo shows a cavalcade of W201 190E rolling through Pyongyang traffic.
From a car enthusiast’s standpoint, vehicles with a heavy history carry a strange baggage. I’ve seen the former Soviet state cars in the Riga Motor Museum, and the uneasy feeling I got standing next to them was only partially explained by the slight hangover I seem to have every time I visit the museum.
It’s one thing to replicate movie cars from horror films, such as Christine, because in the end, it’s about entertainment and popular culture. Then there’s the completely different discussion of what a black, ex-law-enforcement Crown Vic stands for, or if a black Chevy Suburban now corresponds to the aforementioned Volgas, just on the other side of the world.
For anything affiliated with the deep state and government agencies, I’d just prefer to think about the rental Chevrolet Luminas that were an X-Files staple. I’d love to get a ‘90s Lumina and slap a big fake Lariat Rent-A-Car sticker on the rear bumper.
Top graphic images: Wheelsage; DepositPhotos.com
Somewhere, I still have some pics of a ’60s(?) Volga that some guy chopped, widened, and otherwise totally customized it. He’d wedged a BMW V12 into it, looked stock. EXTREMELY sharp-looking vehicle.
Three’s a heavy metal/punk band called “Black Volga.” I never really thought about they where they got their name, and now I know.
John, good point. And fun fact: the German band Rammstein used a Chaika for years, supposedly to get to the dark side of the Force a bit faster – more on Soviet cars at http://www.guscha.de.
Up until this moment, I had never seen nor heard of the 505 Dangel and wow, would I love to own one.
“From a car enthusiast’s standpoint, vehicles with a heavy history carry a strange baggage. I’ve seen the former Soviet state cars in the Riga Motor Museum, and the uneasy feeling I got standing next to them was only partially explained by the slight hangover I seem to have every time I visit the museum.”
I had a similar feeling standing in front of a museum exhibited T-54. It felt like a Sword of Damocles poised to murder me just resting there.
But now that you mention it for me such an uneasy feeling extends to all military vehicles. Wartime vehicles even those used by “the good guys” have a much, much bloodier history than any Soviet state car.
Yes, the ZIS‑115 in the Riga museum is really only missing the cannon – it is already half a tank.
The ultimate website on Soviet state limousines — ZIS‑110, ZIS‑110B, ZIS‑115, ZIL‑111, ZIL‑114 and the Tschaika GAZ‑13 including original factory manuals: http://www.Guscha.de
I’m a huge fan of articles like this. Part of what got me reading jalopnik in high school ~’07-‘08 were articles about eastern block cars.
Beachbumberry, in that case you might want to get your chips ready. How about a ZIL‑111 on Washington’s roads?
I’m sure someone has mentioned already but there was a kgb spec Lada Niva that had a 140hp Wankel rotary in it. I genuinely cannot think of a less reliable vehicle but damn if that’s not a cool car.
The ZiL documentary sort of reminds me of that “Trouble at the Top” feature on the new ownership team at Reliant in the mid 1990s. Ex-Jaguar exec bought the company out of bankruptcy and got production going again in a corner of a sprawling and dilapidated factory, building a few dozen cars per week in a plant sized for ca. 15,000 a year, resorting to doing by hand certain tasks previously done by machine.It all had the feel of a couple of friends breaking into an abandoned car factory and trying to screw together a few examples out of spare parts before the security guards caught them or something
Kamaz ruled the Dakar !!!
Hongqi is also an interesting one. FAW sub brand for official state vehicles. Now sold to the public and even has mini buses under its name plate. MSS use them along with Exeed VX and various other Chery and FAW vehicles.
FAWs first state vehicle was a gaz 21 Volga with a merc engine still under dongfeng while BAW was building gas 21 Volgas for all the other party people.
BAW now makes a wide range of vehicles including panda cars and mini vans along with the Beijing jeep essentially that has some dna from gaz and uaz military vehicles. They have a history with jeep though amc and Chrysler.
Well, I know what I’m watching tonight! I’m glad someone else gets that strange vaguely uncomfortable feeling looking at certain cars as well. Every time I’ve seen a Chaika I’ve always felt a little uncomfy, but the weirdest I’ve had was seeing American cop cars at the NEC Motor Show in England. That instant feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach still happens even though your eyeballs register the car in a completely different context. It really is a bizarre feeling.
Goldeneye should be the Volga pop cultural touchpoint for me, but I keep going to the chase from Bourne Supremacy, with the taxi taking an obscene amount of abuse (bonus points for the also sinister W124 FSB cars and Karl Urban’s G-wagon).
It was kind of interesting during the US’ “war on drugs” in the 80s and 90s. For a time, all law enforcement special packages were required to meet the same EPA fuel economy and emissions standards, plus Federal highway safety regulations, as regular production models. Sort of a homolgation requirement that happened because Federal oversight had called foul on “police specials” and other packages that weren’t compliant with newer regulations.
It led to various named performance model variants and unnamed options-list packages that could turn a common sedan into a spicier parts-bin copy of the police packages, just with a more mainstream interior, or an interior with a center console and separated front seats instead of the police version which just dropped the center console in favor of the upfitters’ versions. Otherwise, the engine and suspension options were the same as what went into the police versions, and often included the heavier-duty alternators and engine cooling systems as well. Wheels and tires on consumer versions were often nicer.
That’s partly how we got to the Impala SS and other large performance sedan packages.
Interestingly, the Chevy Cosica’s LTZ and Z52 packages might have made their way into existence partially due to this. There were thousands of regular Corsicas in the GSA fleet starting when the model first came out. When I worked in Indianapolis, there was always a sage-green Corsica parked next to the other obvious Federal law-enforcement cars near the court building. It had red/blue lights behind the grille, sat on regular steel wheels with sized-up tires that brought the total tire/wheel size to similar to the LTZ’s tires and wheels (though they didn’t look to have as wide a tread area) and the car sat slightly lower like the LTZ models, yet the factory trim and badging was plain-Jane base level.
Honestly, Chevy’s market for spicy sedans was probably fairly small and difficult to justify to upper management. Producing special-purpose versions under the then-current regulations would have been a reasonable excuse to make them available as sportier packages for buyers who did want something different.
Now, while I can establish that law enforcement did use undercover Corsicas, since I’ve seen one, I don’t think they were necessarily poplar — not because they under-performed, but because they were compact inside, and a bit tight and uncomfortable for wearing anything other than a shoulder holster or other holster setups desigend for concealment. I worked for an armored car company at the time, and daily-drove my Z52 to work every day in uniform, with a full gunbelt. The nicely bolstered seat wasn’t designed with that in mind. On the other hand, I serviced ATM machines after-hours, and went out in plain clothes with my firearm concealed, and it was far more comfortable in the car. The dashboard and center console also would have never lent themselves to radio and siren control stacks; the most you could have done was tuck a small panel away between the console and the passenger seat, or alongside as I set up my carphone of the era. So I’d say that it was useful almost exclusively as an undercover vehicle.
“Otherwise, the engine and suspension options were the same as what went into the police versions, and often included the heavier-duty alternators and engine cooling systems as well. Wheels and tires on consumer versions were often nicer.”
It’s got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it’s got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It’s a model made before catalytic converters so it’ll run good on regular gas. What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?
The vast majority of people who ask me about my Ural have Eastern European accents. While some seem delighted to see it, others not so much.
That documentary is something else! Thanks for the recommendation!
No problem! The subtitles seem particularly good too.
My ex’ father was born and raised in Croatia- he did not like my Lada one little bit
Yugoslavs didn’t have to like Ladas, they had a full blown car industry which gave them access to stuff that was leaps and bounds ahead.
While the Yugo (Zastava) is the symbol of Yugoslavia’s car production, they always had real (Italian) Fiat models assembled locally, they had the TAS factory in Bosnia & Herzegovina which was assembling Golf 2s, they had locally assembled Renault 9 and 11s, Opel Omegas – you name it.
They were also not a member of the COMECON, and had zero obligation to stick to Socialist production, like the “real” Iron Curtain countries did.
Yugoslavia was a thing completely aside of the others, they didn’t call themselves non-aligned for nothing.
There are a few North Korean copies of the Baby Benz, the Pyongyang 4.10 the Kaengsaeng 88, and the Paektusan.
and come on, an article on old state cars and no mention of the HM Ambassador? That was the Prime Minister of India’s official car for DECADES before it was replaced with a 7er sometime in the 2000s. their current state car is either a Maybach S Class (locally assembled there since 2014ish) or a Range Rover (closest thing to an Indian luxury car)
I’ve always been a little surprised the government didn’t switch the PM’s car to the Hindustan Contessa or the Standard 2000 when those were available.
the Standard 2000 was an inefficient underpowered dog by all accounts, a proper sheep in a wolf’s clothing
the contessa, though… that was decent, especially the ones with the Isuzu turbodiesel from what I’ve heard. I think those were reserved for the president, though I could be wrong
unfortunately, I am far too young to have experienced them in their prime
I always thought the Indian Prime Minister walked everywhere. Barefoot. /s
hey, that’s marginally better than thinking he’d be on a palanquin pulled by elephants lmfao
The North Korean W201s are really interesting and I haven’t yet found out how many they made, if they made them there. This blog posts sheds a little light to the matter and it also shows a dark red one, which is likely a legit Mercedes. https://koryogroup.com/blog/north-korean-mercedes-myth-or-reality
I’d live to resto-mod an HM Ambassador! Maybe powered by a Jag XK inline 6.
hah, there’s 2 restomod ambies running around with SR20s from an S13 Silvia (one of them makes 500 hp). they happen to have very similar wheelbases so you could swap the body of an amby onto a S13 drivetrain
“If you were to try t replicate it all with a mockumentary”
“And at completion, defeat is grasped from the hands of victory, just like so many times in the history of Mother Russia. There are also some killer lines in the documentary, and I’m not going to spoil them all for you”
Many years ago I stumbled across a documentary about the Lake Baikal region. It was similarly mockumentary in feel, mostly from the brutal honesty of the narrator. I think it was made in 2002 so the region was still reeling from poverty and was desperate for tourism. My favorite line was when they were showing the local drunks and bragging “we don’t have as many drunks as is typical for a Russian city of our size!”. What made it clear it was not a mockumentary was when they were puttering around the lake on a boat and the captain decided it was time for a swim. He jumped into the water into a particularly cold spot and died of a heart attack.
Borat Builds A Car.
“My daughter, you like? She operates a forge and makes axles. Very hot.”
Any woman who can operate a forge gets my interest.
Don’t forget the Czech Tatras that were occasionally described as the resistance’s secret weapon as Nazi SS officers would take the big, powerful sedans through the countryside at inadvisable speeds, lift in turns and, not yet having learned the lesson Porsche drivers would take to heart, fly off the road ass first.
“ ZIL and its GAZ equivalent, the Chaika commanded enough power to have specific lanes on the main Moscow streets dedicated to them, for unimpeded shortcuts through traffic.”
I assure you it wasn’t the marque which exercised that type of privilege.
It was the guy in the back seat.
Such is Authoritarianism.
Is that so much worse than shutting down the entire road with a motorcade? Or three in the case of decoys?
Dedicated lanes seems better to me – especially considering that at the time the roads in Moscow were relatively deserted because the common Comrade couldn’t afford a car anyway.
There was apparently enough Muscovite traffic that TPTB needed those dedicated lanes.
On the flip side one might ask why there were traffic issues at all when there were plenty of street cars, subways, trains and busses for the public to get around.
You’re right that the privilege came from the person in the back seat, not from the car itself.
But it’s also worth noting that permanently reserved or physically separated government routes weren’t unique to Moscow. Several Western capitals – Paris, Washington D.C., London, The Hague – have long used dedicated or restricted corridors for official transport as well, sometimes with their own access roads or tunnels.
The Soviet cars became visually iconic because they were so closely associated with that system, but the basic idea of ensuring unobstructed movement for state traffic existed in many places.
And to be fair: even the separated routes in those Western capitals tend to look a bit more exclusive when a Soviet ZIL or Chaika happens to glide along them. Here sits the U.S. Secretary of State in a ZIL‑114.
Canada typically uses one of the Big Three’s cars, since a lot of them were built here.
Consequently, our state cars look pretty much identical to the US ones. Minus The Beast, as the US is pretty unique compared to the world when it comes to transporting their head of state in moving bunkers, be it by land, sea, or air.
“…KGB have better cars, you know…”
“…Ah, but they don’t always take you where you want to go, do they?…”
Gorky Park – still the best
That was my first thought this morning
I dig that Volga wagon.
Me, too, comrade.
I didn’t live the Brazilian junta dictatorship worst years, but I still heard stories of the unmarked Police Veraneios (a local version of a C10 panel van) that would snatch people suspected of subversive behaviour. There were two recent movies about this period (“I’m still here” and “The secret agent”) that probably cover this, but I haven’t watched the yet (the world is too depressing already, so I prefer some escapism).
As for official state cars, IIRC all presidents since 1952 use the same old Rolls Royce car for some reason – a shame given the odd balls we had there in the 70’s 🙂
They use the Rolls Royce only on parades, in the daily operations they use more mundane cars.
For a while, the president were driven in a Ford Fusion, then 2024 was a BYD Tan that was replaced by a Blazer EV last year.
You are right! To be honest I forgot the president had to move around outside of parades 🙂
Yes, they have to spend taxpayer’s money in every possible way.
Although I barely remember the Veraneio years, I do remember the time when SP state police used GM Blazers. They were not unmarked, but not least feared by some people I knew at that time.
The Brazilian police has a way to make us fear even unassuming VW Gols (which is what they used back in RJ).
“I still heard stories of the unmarked Police Veraneios (a local version of a C10 panel van) that would snatch people suspected of subversive behaviour.”
That happens here too.
I like that old Rolls Royce. Any idea what the story is behind what appears to be a ’68 Cadillac that showed up behind the Rolls when Dilma Rousseff was sworn in? You can see it in this NBC news-story image: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna40869732
Good eye and good question. I have no idea, and to be honest, never noticed it. Could not find anything related to it either.
Crown Vics have largely become more of a “Hell Yeah, Brother” thing thanks to amateur stock car racing and Cleetus. On the other hand, I still get just slightly uneasy around even civilian black Ford Explorers. I imagine given the current administration’s antics regarding immigration, that uneasiness will be much more like the Volga for many people.
I get wary around any car that could be a cop car—Explorers, Durangos, Tahoes, Chargers, decreasingly so Crown Vics and Tauruses. Especially if they have flat black, white, silver, or dark blue paint, and double especially if they have black steelies. Can’t trust one of those cars until I can see if it has steelies or not.
Around here Chargers and especially Tahoes are rare, and even rarer unmarked. Never seen a police Durango. The Vic has completely disappeared and many are in the Cleetus Crowd hands, Tauruses occasionally still show up, but, again, never unmarked anymore. The Explorers are everywhere. I usually have to see the plates and also make sure there’s no lights before I relax. But there’s an Explorer ST around here that until it passes me gets me every time
Lots of shiny black Durangos w/ matte-black “Police” decals hereabouts in Central VA.
On the first gen Explorers, the lack of roof rails was the sure sign. All civilian Explorers came with roof rails, none of the police ones did.
The police ones are not even Explorers, technically, they are “Police Interceptor Utility” oficially.
Some police depts would have the occasional base stock Explorer as unmarked vehicle – those would come with roof rails. Still recognizable by the orange running lights on base trim.
Nowadays, stock Explorers have versions without roof rails, so it’s more difficult.
Yes I like looking inside the front grill for lights.
Police Durangos are somewhat common where I am. Explorers are by far the most common, but Chargers, Tauruses, and Durangos are not uncommon. I normally see Tahoes as more of a highway patrol vehicle, but occasionally unmarked with those triangle black steelies that give them away as police vehicles.
The weirdest state patrol cars around here – and I think a few are still in use – are the Chevy Caprice. No, not that one, the Holden-built, mideast market models GM sold to law enforcement for awhile. The Illinois State Police bought a whole bunch in the late ’00s or early ’10s. Most Troopers now drive Explorers but you’ll occasionally still see one of those law enforcement unicorns on patrol.
I haven’t seen one of those Holden Caprices in a couple years on official police duty. Where I am, they’ve mostly reached Crown Vic status as privately owned beaters, but nowhere near as common
The vehicles in Central Oregon are a mix, some Durangos, a few Explorers and a lot of F150 and Ram 1500 pickups. Plus the state police still use Chargers
A small rural town around here has a bunch of Lightnings – pretty progressive for a former logging town it seems to me.
I always breathe a sigh of relief when I see the ST badge
You could buy an Explorer yourself and scare the others 🙂