A urus Senat exists not only as a presidential limousine and sedan, the approximate market price of which, but also as a convertible. Moreover, the creators of the machine do not intend to limit themselves to using it at the parades on May 9, but plan to establish mass production. I remembered what convertibles I produced Soviet Union and to whom they were intended.

Machines with convertible top at all times, except for the first decades automotive historywere a real status symbol, a sign of wealth and an integral part of a beautiful life. In the old days, convertible cars were on the list of every self-respecting manufacturer, including the mainstream brands on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Even if buyers were not ready to massively buy Chevrolet or Peugeot with a dropping roof, such cars attracted customers to dealerships, from which they already left with the owners of the model, which is simpler and cheaper.

With the introduction of increasingly stringent safety measures, the development and production of convertibles became more and more expensive, so that now such cars have become the prerogative of premium and luxury brands. And it is not surprising that they want to play in Aurus in the meadow Rolls-Royce Dawn, Bentley Continental GTC and Mercedes-Benz S-Class Cabriolet is a position that the new Russian brand claims is obligatory. At the same time, Aurus continues the long tradition of convertibles that existed in the USSR at all times. Only now they were released for completely different purposes.

The bright path of the poor

The first massive Soviet cars were deprived of a hard roof. And the point is not at all the desire of the country's leadership to please the first Soviet motorists with the wind in their hair and a sense of unity with nature, but in the banal economy of steel. Strictly speaking, GAZ-A were not even convertibles, but phaetons, because in addition to the roof, they also did not have side windows. Instead, it was proposed to use fastened pieces of cloth with celluloid windows. Prohibition gangsters loved phaetons for the convenience of shooting on the move, but Soviet workers complained about the cold in the cabin for most of the year. Nevertheless, from 1932 to 1936, 41,917 GAZ-A were manufactured in Gorky and Moscow.

In 1933, a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars was issued, which demanded that all cars be provided with closed bodies, so the next generation of cars from the Gorky GAZ-M1 already had a closed body as the base one. Although they still could not do without a phaeton: the GAZ-11-40 received an open body and a new six-cylinder engine with a capacity of 76 horse power... The car did not wait for serial production (they limited themselves to a small batch of staff all-wheel drive phaetons for the Red Army), which did not prevent the car from becoming perhaps the most famous Soviet convertible.

The fact is that it is in the GAZ-11-40 that the heroine flies over Moscow in the film "The Bright Path". Not as luxurious as the ZIS-110, but still inaccessible, this machine was perfect for the role of the dream transport of a Stakhanovka weaver.

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After the war, cars without a roof were remembered again. And again, not from a good life. Both in Moscow, at the new Plant of Small Cars (ZMA), and at GAZ, they launched the production of sedan-cabriolets (or convertible sedans) - cars that did not have a roof, but the glass frames remained. In such a simple and inexpensive way, it was possible to cope with the shortage of rolled metal. GAZ-M-20 “Pobeda” and Moskvich-400-420A with this body were produced from 1949 to 1953 and 1954, respectively. During this time, 14,222 Pobeda sedan-cabriolets and 17,742 Moskvich were produced.

Unlike the GAZ-11-40, the roofless Pobeda and Moskvich have appeared in the movies more than once, but in the film She Loves You! and both cars lit up at once. A modest zoo worker Konstantin Kanareikin () drives a Moskvich-400-420A, and his beloved Olga () drives a Pobeda sedan-cabriolet of his girlfriend Tamara ().

But neither the role in the movie, nor all the delights of summer operation of convertible sedans could outweigh the cold in the cabin in winter time, therefore, the owners of "Moskvich" and "Victory" by hook or by crook tried to turn them into sedans, welded on a sheet of metal instead of a soft top. As soon as the metal shortage in the country became less acute, both models went to the dustbin of history. However, today it is the sedan-convertibles that are the most valuable collectors' versions of Moskvich and Pobeda.

For fields and astronauts

The real heyday of convertible construction in the USSR came during the reign of Nikita Khrushchev. Both the first mass Soviet limousine ZIS-101 and its heir ZIS-110 had convertible versions, but only six of the first were made, and the 110th phaeton was used in parades and as route taxi in the Black Sea resorts. Fearful of assassination attempts, Stalin preferred the armored Packard, and then the ZIS-115 - a protected modification of the "one hundred and tenth".

But everything changed with the arrival of the new secretary general. Having worked for many years in Ukraine with its mild climate and devoid of Stalin's paranoid inclinations, Khrushchev loved to ride without a top. The roofless ZIS-110V, and then ZIL-111V and 111D, were used by Nikita Sergeevich both during holidays in the resorts of the Crimea and the Caucasus, and during a visit to the southern regions of the USSR, and at solemn meetings of important guests like the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries and astronauts. ZIS engineers even developed the ZIS-110P phaeton with four-wheel driveso that Khrushchev could drive around without a roof on the virgin soil, but the car remained experimental.

In the era of the thaw, the USSR got hold of another luxurious convertible - GAZ-13B "Chaika" - which was released in 1961. Some of the cars were sent to state dachas in the Caucasus, and some served as ceremonial cars in the military districts.

Convertibles in the 1950s were used by many world leaders who were not afraid of attempts. And this was not always done because of the desire of those in power to ride with the breeze and have a good time. Until television came to every home, the convertible was a great opportunity to show the national leader to the people. That all changed on November 22, 1963, when a Lincoln Continental X-100 presidential convertible was killed in Dallas. After that, many world leaders thought about safety, moving from cabriolets to armored limousines. And it's not just about dictators.

However, the Soviet leaders continued to cut across the wide metropolitan avenues in convertibles for several more seasons. In 1963, the Special Purpose Garage (GON) received a new convertible ZIL-111D, made in the style of modern american cars... Khrushchev rode it in the summer of 1964, and Brezhnev, who replaced him in October of the same year, continued to use it. Moreover, ceremonial drive through the city with the roof down was not an exclusively summer practice - convertibles were used when meeting cosmonauts in winter. A lamb hat, a warm overcoat and low speed movement.

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An end to the use of convertibles by the first persons and important guests of the USSR was put by the shots fired on January 22, 1969, when Brezhnev, together with the cosmonauts, and Georgy Beregov entered the Kremlin through the Borovitsky Gate. Despite the fact that Ilyin ended up shooting at the car with the cosmonauts, and not with the secretary general, and 111G limousines were used that day, and not 111D convertibles, the GON decided not to risk it anymore. However, they did without armored vehicles, which again began to be produced at ZIL only in the 1980s.

One day car

However, convertibles did not disappear from the ZIL range, they just now had a single role - to be a ceremonial car. Therefore, in the new generation, the family of executive cars did without a four-door convertible with three rows of seats. Its place was taken by a two-door convertible ZIL-117V, in which the parade commander and the host of the parade had to stand in the place of the front passenger seat. The rear seats were nominal and not used.

From 1972 to 1981, these cars were used for parades in Moscow, and after the appearance of the next generation of ceremonial convertibles ZIL-41044 went to St. Petersburg, where they served until 2009. A year later, ZIL-41044 at the Moscow Victory parades was replaced with black convertibles from the Nizhny Novgorod company Atlant Delta. They were bodies similar to their predecessors, worn on the chassis of American pickup trucks GMC Sierra 1500. The color of the convertibles changed due to the fact that the then Minister of Defense was a civilian man and took the parade in a black suit, and not in a gray marshal's overcoat, as it was in Soviet times.

It is interesting that when the general of the army came to replace Serdyukov, they did not repaint the ZILs. As they did not return the gray color to the Aurus Senat convertibles. However, the correspondence between the color of the car and the color of the clothes of the Minister of Defense disappeared even when the parade was hosted in a black suit in a gray car. The parade convertibles were traditionally produced in triplicate: two for the parade and one for the reserve car.

However, on May 9 and November 7, parades were held not only in Moscow and Leningrad, but also in other cities of the USSR. Usually, there were sent convertibles, which served their purpose in Moscow. So, ZIL-111V were sent to Alma-Ata, and 111D to Kiev. But the problem of outdated externally and technically worn out cars was quite acute, so it was decided to develop a ceremonial convertible at a lower level.

Logically, the choice fell on the GAZ-14 "Chaika" - a representative sedan for regional and republican leaders. However, it was turned into a convertible at a relatively low cost: if the ZIL's wheelbase was shortened and a folding top with a hydraulic drive was developed for it, then for the sake of an open version the Chaika was not shortened, and the roof was not foreseen at all. At the time of parking, they simply pulled up an awning on the car, which protected the interior from the rain.

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Meanwhile, in the front version of the GAZ-14-05, the parade receiving party, according to the old tradition, was located in the rear of the cabin, and not in the place of the right front passenger, as in the last two generations of ZILs. In total, 15 GAZ-14-05 were built: two cars were sent to each of the military districts, and one more car remained in Gorky.

In small towns, the role of ceremonial cars was played by GAZ-69 SUVs, and later UAZ-459, which in the military version did not have a hard roof at all, as well as convertibles produced in small series based on Pobeda and Volga. Moreover, the latter still serve. In Novosibirsk, on their own, they turned into a ceremonial GAZ-24 "Volga" convertible, in Samara and Vladimir - the director's GAZ-3102. And if in the first two cities the cars were painted in gray, traditional for parades, in Vladimir they were left black.

The beastly grin of capitalism

Of course, Soviet engineers dreamed of cars without a roof, because convertibles and roadsters - two-seater open cars - have a low, and therefore a swift silhouette. And we are talking about cars, attributes of a beautiful life. Alas, in the country of workers and peasants there was no place for them, and they never went beyond the experimental departments, but it is impossible not to mention them.

In 1939, a group of young engineers from the ZIS Design Bureau, on their own initiative, developed a luxurious two-seater ZIS-Sport based on the ZIS-101A limousine. The car was made in the freshest style at that time, and the proportions with a long hood and trunk and a short cabin were typical for American sports cars of the 1930s. In an incredible way, ZIS-Sport managed to be included in the list of "Gifts to Motherland" for the 20th anniversary of the Komsomol.

The public debut of the car took place at the XVII Moscow Party Conference. He presented the car to the high authorities personally by the People's Commissar of Medium Machine Building. Stalin liked the car, but soon the war began, and with it the already ghostly chances of ZIS-Sport at least for piece production sunk into oblivion. In 1941, the car was not taken out of the factory during the evacuation of the ZIS to Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Miass and Shadrinsk, and she died during one of the air raids on the city.

Alas, Avtoexport estimated the costs of developing the Tourist even in small-scale production and decided that they could easily do without this beautiful but niche car. And again, cabriolets were forgotten in the USSR for 20 years, until in the early 1980s a family of front-wheel drive cars was introduced into production. Convertibles based on the VAZ-2108 were produced in small series by several European Lada dealers. Sometimes Lada Natasha, Lada Carlotta and Lada Cabrio were even re-exported to the USSR and Russia, but you can still call them Russian convertibles with a stretch.

So it turns out that both in the USSR and in Russia, GAZ-A remains the car without a roof with the largest circulation - the first mass domestic car... And obviously Aurus Senat will not be able to beat his achievements.

The forerunner of the cabriolet is the phaeton - a body in which the side windows are not hidden in the doors, but are fastened separately, or are absent as such. At the very beginning of the existence of the USSR, there were plenty of such cars. Direct heir to the automotive industry Russian Empire - which appeared in 1922, it is also the pre-revolutionary Russo-Balt with an identical digital index - it was a phaeton, moreover, it had four doors. Such a scheme - a removable top and four (not two, which is more usual today) doors - will later become traditional for the Soviet convertible.

The NAMI-1 car, the first copies of which were assembled in 1927, was a two-door, although at the development stage there was also a three-door version - with a pair of doors on the left side. NAMI-1 was compact, combining with itself the ideas of a "cyclecar" (a car-motorcycle) and a full-fledged car.

Except for an idea borrowed from spinal frame, the car was already a completely independent development, including a 2-cylinder engine air cooling... There were a whole bunch of problems with serial assembly, but NAMI-1 was more fortunate than Prombrone, which made only five pieces - from 1927 to 1931 at the Moscow plant No. 4 "Spartak", according to various estimates, from 200 to 500 phaetons NAMI- 1.

The experience of NAMI, despite the advertising of the car, rather ingloriously "bent" partly because, being assembled almost piece by piece, the car was very expensive - 8,000 rubles. And although later the price was reduced to 5,180 rubles, at the same time there was a GAZ-A, which was essentially an "American" Ford-A, and cost only about 2,000 rubles. However, the GAZ-A, the most massive Soviet model of the early 1930s (almost 42,000 cars from 1932 to 1936), had its own problems.

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With this model came the understanding that an open car for Russia is "not ice". More precisely, it is just him, and directly on the faces of those sitting in the cabin.

In 1933, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on providing all models of cars with closed bodies. GAZ-A also had such - GAZ-3 and GAZ-6 (Pioneer and Fordor). The era of carefree youth in the Soviet automobile industry is over.

In an attempt to "take off my hat"

Three years after the aforementioned resolution was issued, it was already clearly noticeable that soviet car industry turned towards the models with a rigid stationary top - the GAZ-M-1, released in 1936, were closed. But at the same time, both plants, Gorky and Moscow, worked on open modifications - even if the phaeton was no longer the main body, from the point of view of design, such an "almost forbidden" body was perhaps more attractive than ever. Alas, the elegant version of the open "emka" obtained by the Gorky residents did not become serial.

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On the ZIS before the war, they tried as many as two options under the general designation ZIS-102 - both with attached side windows and with sliding doors, thus building the first Soviet convertible. Alas, open cars in all versions, including the one that was reworked simultaneously with the main model and equipped with a forced 116-horsepower ZIS-102A engine, made only 20 or 30 pieces.

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The last pre-war splash on the topic of "torn off the cap" was KIM, a car diametrically opposite to the ZIS. The compact KIM-10-50 was promised the laurels of a Soviet car for the people, but even in a closed body they managed to release it quite a bit before the war. The open version of the KIM-10-51 was built in several copies. And after the war, a completely different story began.

The first post-war cars aimed at ordinary citizens were, first assembled in June 1946, and launched in December of the same year.

The fact is that they were also the first Soviet cars with a monocoque body, and this circumstance at times made it difficult to implement an open modification. However, a solution was found: both cars had a version in a convertible body, which, however, retained the door frames and roofs, and with them a fair share of the power structure of the original body.

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It can hardly be called a convertible in the full sense (in fact, in the case of Victory, the body was called "sedan-convertible", and not so long ago), but the feeling open car these machines still gave. And the soft top in this version was put on the roof relatively simply and, which is especially important for our climate, reliably.

Such "partially reckless" copies of Pobeda, which, according to some sources, had their own index GAZ-M-20B, from 1949 to 1953 were made more than 14,000 pieces. In the same year as the Pobeda sedan-cabriolet, the open Moskvich-400-420A started in production and stayed on the MZMA conveyor until 1954 - in total, almost 18,000 of these cars were assembled ... On these two cars, in fact, the history of the mass domestic convertible began and ended.

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Not according to Senka hat

Since then, the niche of open cars in the USSR began a steady drift into the upper class, inaccessible to mere mortals. Moreover, over time, these machines have become one-of-a-kind.

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The 7-seater ZIS-110 limousine, which appeared in production in 1945, was frame-mounted; it was relatively easy to design its open version, especially given the small production series. Yes, yes, this model, one might say, was only pretending to be serial: the base limousines from 1945 to 1961 were produced a little more than 2,000 units, and the account of the ZIS-110B phaetons (1949-1957), most likely, goes to a few or, in extreme case, dozens - however, it looks like a minuscule, if you do not know how things turned out in the future. There was also a ZIS-110V cabriolet, but only in three copies - with an electro-hydraulic roof lifting mechanism and glass that went into the doors along with the frames.

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In the late 1940s, high party officials moved on open ZISs while on vacation in the Crimea, and much later some of these cars ended up serving in taxis in resort cities. In the 1950s, they hosted parades on Red Square; Nikita Khrushchev, whose favorite car was just an open ZIS (one of the photos shows that the secretary general had just a ZIS-110V, with sliding glass-frames), moved in this car around Moscow, drove foreign guests and even performed with it during visits to the province.

And one more car could have an open version - the Gorky one, standing half a step below the ZIS in the Soviet automobile hierarchy and after 1957 renamed GAZ-12. This model in the body of a six-seater sedan was produced from 1949 to 1959 and was relatively mass - produced more than 21,000 copies. Despite the main function in the form of a "personal" of the government nomenclature at the level of a minister or regional committee secretary, ZIM enjoyed success with the establishment - workers in culture, art and science.

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He even appeared in the open sale, in contrast to the "descendants" under the brand name Chaika - however, at a price of 40,000 rubles, which made him inaccessible; people dreamed of saving 9,000 rubles for the Moskvich-400 or, if they were very lucky, 16,000 rubles for the Victory. And the open version, despite the more or less stable "series" of the main model, did not appear in ZIM - an experimental convertible, already photographed for advertising with a big family, never received its own index and remained released in the amount of either two, or three copies.

A little more fortunate was the GAZ-13 Chaika car - about 20 open GAZ-13Bs were assembled, some of them worked in the Union republics - for example, a newsreel captured the young Alla Pugacheva, who is being taken to a concert, presumably in Yerevan, on the open Chaika.

The next Chaika, GAZ-14, also had a version with a lowering top GAZ-14-05, but these were already exclusively ceremonial cars, and only a few of them ... And then there were, in fact, only Zilov's "dicks" - in the sense, convertibles on the basis of ZILs (in 1956, the Stalin plant, ZIS, was renamed the Likhachev plant, ZIL), created to transport members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

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These cars were used for parades and holiday escorts. The first in this series was the ZIL-111V (1960), which echoed in style with the more modest size of the "thirteenth" Seagull. Only true celestials could reach the open ZILs - on April 14, 1961, Yuri Gagarin solemnly arrived from the airport to the Kremlin on the ZIL-111V. These machines were assembled only until 1962, that is, before the "upgrade" of the parent model, and manually, 12-15 pieces per year. This piece assembly has become traditional for all government vehicles.

When, in 1962, the base limousine underwent restyling and an index change from ZIL-111 to ZIL-111G, the question arose about updating the phaeton - despite the lowering windows, open versions of government cars were still named in the old fashioned way. The first "phaeton" with a new exterior design received the index ZIL-111D and was released in early 1963, and a total of eight cars were assembled. But what is there, and only 112 limousines were collected from 1958 to 1967 - compare this with the two thousandth circulation of the ZIS-110, which until recently seemed so small! As if someone decided that big cars, and even more open ones, are no longer needed in this country.

In the era of the early automotive industry, before the transition to a supporting structure, it was profitable to build open versions of cars: a body without a roof was simply cheaper. Therefore, the traditions of the convertible are long-standing - including in the USSR.

Careless pioneers

The forerunner of the convertible is the phaeton - a body in which the side windows are not hidden in the doors, but are fastened separately, or are absent as such. At the very beginning of the existence of the USSR, there were plenty of such cars. The direct heir of the automotive industry of the Russian Empire - the Prombron C24 / 40 car that appeared in 1922, aka the pre-revolutionary Russo-Balt with an identical digital index - was a phaeton, and had four doors. Such a scheme - a removable top and four (not two, which is more usual now) - will later become traditional for the Soviet convertible.

The NAMI-1 car, the first copies of which were assembled in 1927, was a two-door, although at the development stage there was also a three-door version - with a pair of doors on the left side. NAMI-1 was compact, combining with itself the ideas of a "cyclecar" (a car-motorcycle) and a full-fledged car.

Leaving aside the idea of \u200b\u200ba backbone frame borrowed from Tatra, the car was already a completely independent development, including an air-cooled 2-cylinder engine. There were a whole bunch of problems with serial assembly, but NAMI-1 was more fortunate than Prombrone, which made only five pieces - from 1927 to 1931 at the Moscow plant No. 4 "Spartak", according to various estimates, from 200 to 500 phaetons NAMI were produced. 1.

The experience of NAMI, despite the advertising of the car, rather ingloriously "bent" partly because, being assembled almost piece by piece, the car was very expensive - 8,000 rubles. And although later the price was reduced to 5,180 rubles, at the same time there was a GAZ-A, which was essentially an "American" Ford-A, and cost only about 2,000 rubles. However, the GAZ-A, the most massive Soviet model of the early 1930s (almost 42,000 cars from 1932 to 1936), had its own problems.

WITH THIS MODEL, I UNDERSTANDING THAT AN OPEN MACHINE FOR RUSSIA IS “NOT AN ICE”. MORE EXACTLY, JUST HE IS THE MOST, AND DIRECTLY ON THE FACES SITTING IN THE INTERIOR.

In 1933, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on providing all models of cars with closed bodies. GAZ-A also had such - GAZ-3 and GAZ-6 (Pioneer and Fordor). The era of carefree youth in the Soviet automobile industry is over.

In an attempt to "take off my hat"

Three years after the aforementioned decree was issued, it was already clearly noticeable that the Soviet auto industry turned towards models with a rigid stationary top - the GAZ-M-1 and ZIS-101, released in 1936, were closed. But at the same time, both plants, Gorky and Moscow, worked on open modifications - even if the phaeton was no longer the main body, from the point of view of design, such an "almost forbidden" body was perhaps more attractive than ever. Alas, the elegant version of the open "emka" obtained by the Gorky residents never became serial.

On the ZIS before the war, they tried as many as two options under the general designation ZIS-102 - both with attached side windows and with sliding doors, thus building the first Soviet convertible. Alas, open cars in all versions, including the one that was reworked simultaneously with the main model and equipped with a forced 116-horsepower ZIS-102A engine, made only 20 or 30 pieces.

The last pre-war splash on the topic of "torn off the cap" was KIM, a car diametrically opposite to the ZIS. The compact KIM-10-50 was promised the laurels of a Soviet car for the people, but even in a closed body they managed to release it quite a bit before the war. The open version of the KIM-10-51 was built in several copies. And after the war, a completely different story began.

The first post-war cars aimed at ordinary citizens were the GAZ-M-20 Pobeda, first assembled in June 1946, and the Moskvich-400, which was launched in December of the same year.

The fact is that they were also the first Soviet cars with a monocoque body, and this circumstance at times made it difficult to implement an open modification. However, a solution was found: both cars had a version in a convertible body, which, however, retained the door frames and roofs, and with them a fair share of the power structure of the original body.

It can hardly be called a convertible in the full sense (in fact, in the case of Victory, the body was called a “sedan-convertible”, and we even tested one such car not so long ago), but these cars still gave the feeling of an open car. And the soft top in this version could be put on the roof relatively simply and, which is especially important for our climate, reliably.

Such "partially reckless" copies of Pobeda, which, according to some sources, had their own index GAZ-M-20B, from 1949 to 1953 were produced more than 14,000 pieces. In the same year as the Pobeda sedan-cabriolet, the open Moskvich-400-420A started in production and stayed on the MZMA conveyor until 1954 - in total, almost 18,000 of these machines were assembled ... These two machines, in fact, began and ended the history of the mass domestic convertible.

Not according to Senka hat

Since then, the niche of open cars in the USSR began a steady drift into the upper class, inaccessible to mere mortals. Moreover, over time, these machines have become one-of-a-kind.

The 7-seater ZIS-110 limousine, which appeared in production in 1945, was frame-mounted; it was relatively easy to design its open version, especially given the small production series. Yes, yes, this model, one might say, was only pretending to be serial: the base limousines from 1945 to 1961 were produced a little more than 2,000 units, and the account of the ZIS-110B phaetons (1949-1957), most likely, goes to a few or, in extreme case, dozens - however, it looks like a minuscule, if you do not know how things turned out in the future. There was also a ZIS-110V cabriolet, but only in three copies - with an electro-hydraulic roof lifting mechanism and glass that went into the doors along with the frames.

In the late 1940s, high party officials moved on open ZISs while on vacation in the Crimea, and much later some of these cars ended up serving in taxis in resort cities. In the 1950s, they hosted parades on Red Square; Nikita Khrushchev, whose favorite car was just an open ZIS (one of the photos shows that the secretary general had just a ZIS-110V, with sliding glass-frames), moved in this car around Moscow, drove foreign guests and even performed with it during visits to the province.

And another car could have an open version - the Gorky ZIM, which is half a step below the ZIS in the Soviet automobile hierarchy and after 1957 was renamed GAZ-12. This model in the body of a six-seater sedan was produced from 1949 to 1959 and was relatively mass - produced more than 21,000 copies. Despite the main function in the form of a "personal" of the government nomenclature at the level of a minister or a regional committee secretary, ZIM enjoyed success with the establishment - workers in culture, art and science.

He even appeared in the open sale, in contrast to the “descendants” under the brand name Chaika - however, at a price of 40,000 rubles, which made him inaccessible; people dreamed of saving 9,000 rubles for the Moskvich-400 or, if they were very lucky, 16,000 rubles for the Victory. And the open version, despite the more or less stable "series" of the main model, did not appear at ZIM - an experimental convertible, already photographed for advertising with a large family located in the cabin, did not receive its own index and remained released in quantity whether two, or three copies.

A little more fortunate was the GAZ-13 Chaika car - about 20 open GAZ-13Bs were assembled, some of them worked in the Union republics - for example, a newsreel captured the young Alla Pugacheva, who is being taken to a concert, presumably in Yerevan, on the open Chaika.

The next Chaika, GAZ-14, also had a version with a lowering top GAZ-14-05, but these were already exclusively ceremonial cars, and only a few pieces ... And then there were, in fact, only Zilov's "dicks" - in the sense, convertibles on the basis of ZIL (in 1956, the Stalin plant, ZIS, was renamed the Likhachev plant, ZIL), created for the transportation of members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

These cars were used for parades and holiday escorts. The first in this series was the ZIL-111V (1960), which echoed in style with the more modest size of the "thirteenth" Seagull. Only true celestials could reach the open ZILs - on April 14, 1961, Yuri Gagarin solemnly arrived from the airport to the Kremlin on the ZIL-111V. These machines were assembled only until 1962, that is, before the "upgrade" of the parent model, and manually, 12-15 pieces per year. This piece assembly has become traditional for all government vehicles.

When, in 1962, the base limousine underwent restyling and an index change from ZIL-111 to ZIL-111G, the question arose about updating the phaeton - despite the lowering windows, open versions of government cars were still named in the old fashioned way. The first "phaeton" with a new exterior design received the index ZIL-111D and was released in early 1963, and a total of eight cars were assembled. But what is there, and only 112 limousines were collected from 1958 to 1967 - compare this with the two thousandth circulation of the ZIS-110, which until recently seemed so small! As if someone decided that big cars, and even more open ones, are no longer needed in this country.

Actually, a special need for open cars there was no longer at the very top - the successor to the "one hundred and eleventh", ZIL-114, which appeared in 1967, did not have a version with a lifting top at all, the same ZIL-111V and ZIL-111D were used for parades. But in 1971, the ZIL-117 escort sedan appeared - the essence of the shortened ZIL-114 - and on its basis the open versions were built, and for the first time in the history of the Moscow plant, these cars were two-door, not four-door. There were 11 such cars, designated ZIL-117V, they were used at parades in Moscow, and from 1980 until 2008 in Leningrad (St. Petersburg).

Very similar to them, but already built on the basis of the next ZIL-4104 limousine, the ZIL-41044 phaetons took parades in Moscow and even longer - until 2009. The top of these cars automatically folded in 20 seconds, the right seat, due to the specific use of the car, was absent, and a curbstone with a handrail and a microphone unit was installed in the center of the cabin. In total, three such machines were created, the first of which appeared in 1981.

Only for respectable gentlemen

Rewind this article to the beginning or at least the middle. There were no versions of factory cabriolets for GAZ-21 and GAZ-24, on the experimental Moskvich-408 Tourist the topic of open bodies at AZLK was interrupted, they did not create their own version of a convertible, roadster or targa body at VAZ, although they tried several times ...

The topic of open cars in the USSR gradually became more and more caste, isolated ... With the death of ZIL, the pedigree of representative phaetons was interrupted, and even in the modern project of the EMP (formerly "Cortege") an open body does not appear yet - it would be better to deal with what is already there ...

And in the world, the body of a convertible has long been a peculiar feature in model lines most different manufacturers - these are niche models, but they are loved and after them they must turn their heads. The tradition of efficient body reinforcement and design of easily convertible roofs is more than half a century old. In our country, the topic of open cars froze somewhere in the eighties and nineties, remaining the perestroika property of "respectable gentlemen".

Serial "cabriots" domestic production never appeared in post-Soviet Russia. Although attempts were made - and are still being made. Therefore, we will definitely return to the topic of convertibles, as well as roadsters, which were even less lucky in the USSR than convertibles.

The former naive provincial woman, and now a noble weaver and, moreover, the order bearer Tanya, performed by Lyubov Orlova, flies over the new socialist Moscow in the newest Soviet car. Of course in a convertible! The novelty of 1940, the open GAZ-11-40, a modification of the six-cylinder "emka" sedan GAZ-11-73, logically got into the film by Grigory Aleksandrov "The Bright Path". Very few such cars were produced, and the convertible did not become serial at all.

The first soviet cars NAMI-1 and GAZ-A were open, of course, not out of foolish reasons. Such bodies are the simplest and cheapest. But for our climate, of course, not very suitable. New items of 1936 - GAZ-M1 and ZIS-101 were closed and had hard roofs. But the leader proclaimed that life has become better and more fun. And at the base standard cars both factories prepared convertibles. Gorkovsky, we repeat, did not become serial. The ZIS-102 with an inline eight was also made in scanty quantities. After all, the era when Soviet leaders drove in open cars in front of enthusiastic subjects has passed, and new times of the appearance of general secretaries in public did not come until twenty years later. Well, it was just as difficult to imagine, say, a careless cheerful company in a huge and powerful convertible in the USSR, as, for example, the leader of the peoples walking around Moscow.

ZIS-102, according to various estimates, was produced in 20-30 copies. The convertibles had an uprated 116-horsepower engine.

The first Soviet car intended for private traders, the KIM-10, also had an open modification. But very few such machines were produced, probably even fewer than closed ones.

Army off-road vehicles - from GAZ-67B to UAZ-469 - cannot be called convertibles. But immediately after the war in the victorious country, as many as three open cars went into the series. The main one was the ZIS-110B. Photographs have survived, in which even some top leaders (of course, not the highest one) travel in open ZISs even before 1953 on vacation in the Crimea.

Later, the ZISs began to receive parades on Red Square. But in resort towns, seven-seat convertibles even got into taxis! The open ZIS came to the court and the new leader of the country. Now friendly foreign delegations were often met in open cars, and in the provinces Khrushchev sometimes even spoke to the people from ZIS with the roof down.

The tent at the ZIS-110B was lowered and raised manually. There were 110s versions with celluloid side windows and more modern sliding windows for the late 1940s. In pre-war soviet cars there were none, and on western thoroughbred cabriolets, drop glasses have been installed since the mid-1930s. In 1957, even three ZIS-110Vs were made with a hydraulic roof drive, like in American convertibles.

Opened "Pobeda" GAZ-M20 and "Moskvich-400-420A" could be bought by everyone. Moreover, convertibles were even cheaper than standard cars. Unlike the pre-war vehicles, which, I recall, did not have drop windows, Pobeda and Moskvich retained the side pillars and roof frames. This simplified the manufacture of a convertible based on cars with monocoque bodies. Both cars left their mark on Soviet cinema. "Moskvich", for example in the comedy "She Loves You!" with Georgy Vitsin, and the open "Victory" - in the detective "Case No. 306" and in the film "Ivan Brovkin on the virgin soil", where the GAZ-M20 played the role of a wedding car, which was appropriate for itself.

Alas, the short history of serial Soviet convertibles ended there. Neither Pobeda, the second generation GAZ-M20V, nor the 402nd Moskvich had an open version.

IN PARADE FORM

But the country needed ceremonial cars. Therefore, the ZIL-111 and ZIL-111G limousines had open modifications - 111V and 111D, respectively. True, they made such machines in a little over ten copies. In addition to parades, they were used to meet friendly foreign delegations. Open ZILs were also in some socialist countries, where, again, they appeared in public in connection with the visits of the heads of socialist states.

The huge four-door ZIL convertibles were used until the end of the 1970s, since the ZIL-114 no longer had an open modification. But the convertible (the first two-door for the Moscow plant, not counting the non-serial pre-war ZIS-Sport) was made on the basis of the shortened ZIL-117. In addition to the traditional gray parade cars, there were also black ones. It was said that “beloved Leonid Ilyich” himself, a great connoisseur of cars, drove one of them while on vacation in the south. Later versions of ZILs also had a two-door open modification ZIL-41044. The apogee of the convertible industry at the already dying ZIL was the recent cars with a domestic appearance and American filling.

GAZ also made convertibles of a lower rank. True, only three experimental machines were built on the basis of ZIM. Serial production of a large open car based on the GAZ-12 sedan with a monocoque body would be too troublesome. But a small number of GAZ-13B worked, including in the union republics. For history, an episode of Alla Pugacheva's concert filmed on film, which is being taken in the open "Seagull", past the jubilant spectators who filled the union (it seems, Yerevan) stadium, has been preserved for history. Later, fifteen ceremonial "Seagulls" GAZ-14-05 were also built.

Well, for even more provincial parades, army auto repair plants made self-made convertibles based on Pobeda, and then Volga different models, starting from GAZ-21 and ending with GAZ-3110. The latter still appear in public.

"Natasha"

A timid attempt to make an open "Moskvich-408" was made at MZMA after the blue Renault Floride, presented in France to NS Khrushchev, got to the plant. For this model, they even provided various removable hard roofs! They tried, using the connections of one of the factory workers, to show the car to the new leader of the country L.I.Brezhnev. But it did not grow together. Anyway, such a project in the USSR was doomed.

Much later, VAZ made a couple of copies of the VAZ-2108 with a targa body (removable middle of the roof), fashionable at the turn of the 1980s, by designer V. Pashko. But where there ...

But the damned capitalists were offered open versions of our "Samars" and "Nivs"! True, they were no longer made in the USSR. Convertibles based on the VAZ-2121 were built in Germany and France, as well as in Belgium, Holland and even Australia. The VAZ-2108 also had several open variants, including the Natacha version created by the VAZ designer V. Yartsev. During perestroika times, a number of "emigrants" returned to their historical homeland, where these cars aroused increased interest.

One of the foreign convertibles based on the VAZ-2121 named Lada Niva Savanna

Around the same time, home-made convertibles based on Soviet cars began to appear. Among them was ZIM, allegedly miraculously preserved from those three experimental specimens. There were "Volga", "Zhiguli" and, of course, "humpback" "Cossacks". Moreover, some samples were built so talentedly that you involuntarily treat them with warmth. In the end, amateur non-factory convertibles are also a document of the era and our idea of \u200b\u200bwhat Soviet cars we dreamed about could be ...

Lada Samara Natacha designed by V. Yartsev. Such machines were produced by 456 units.

This could be a convertible based on the "Volga" GAZ-21