Красный Путиловец Л-1
Krasny Putilovets L-1 (Leningrad-1) is a Soviet experimental passenger car, produced in 1933 in a series of 6 copies at the Krasny Putilovets plant (now: Kirov plant) in Leningrad. Predecessor and, to a certain extent, prototype of the later ZiS-101 car.
At the beginning of the thirties of the 20th century, the USSR had already solved the problem of organizing full-cycle production in creating its own middle-class passenger car – it was the GAZ-A, mastered at the Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) Automobile Plant. Attempts were also made to launch the production of a small class car (NAMI-1). Meanwhile, along with this, there was, although small in volume, an urgent need for a “heavy type” car, with a strong chassis, a spacious body, a powerful engine, allowing high speeds on highways and providing the traction reserve necessary for driving in heavy conditions. road conditions, and a large power reserve, allowing long trips. Moreover, this type of car was considered by many experts to be the most suitable for domestic road and operating conditions, subject to ensuring the proper level of strength, maintainability and cross-country ability. Such vehicles were used as representative and service vehicles in state and party bodies, as staff vehicles in the Red Army, and ambulances were manufactured on their chassis.
Satisfying the need for such cars was carried out by purchasing foreign models from brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Steyr, Buick, Packard and Lincoln, the acquisition, maintenance and repair of which were very expensive for the Soviet state.
At this time, production of the obsolete Fordson tractor was curtailed at the Leningrad Krasny Putilovets plant, which freed up significant production space. Technical director of the plant M.L. Ter-Asaturov with the support of a group of technical specialists and the director of the enterprise K.M. Otsa proposed to begin production of a high-class passenger car in the vacated areas. The most preferred prototype was the American Buick model of 1932 in the Buick 32-90 version with a 7-passenger Sedan body (“32” – 1932 model year, “90” – a series of models, Series 90, as well as the model itself), which according to By American standards, it belonged to the upper-middle class (above most brands, but below such as Cadillac or Packard) and combined a high technical level with an acceptable degree of adaptation to Soviet road and operating conditions.
The initiative was supported by VATO (All-Union Automotive and Tractor Association – the predecessor of the People’s Commissariat of the Automotive Industry) and the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry, which was directly subordinate to Krasny Putilovets. The official task involved the production of a pilot batch of “Soviet Buicks,” as the car was quite openly called in the press, by May 1, 1933.
The final selection of the prototype and preparation of production documentation were carried out with the help of the LenGiproVATO Institute and personally one of its founders, Professor L.V. Klimenko. For this purpose, two Buicks were purchased from the USA, one of which was intended for taking drawings of all the parts and selecting the materials necessary for their manufacture. For the purpose of developing a luxury passenger car, the Avtokrasnoputilproekt group was created in October 1932, which included specialists from Krasny Putilovets and LenGiproVATO.
The development of the “Soviet Buick” took place with great difficulties – suffice it to say that even a diaphragm fuel pump in those years was a complex and unusual product for Soviet industry (for the same GAZ-A, fuel came from the gas tank by gravity). Buick, on the other hand, was a car with a complex and progressive design for its time, containing an abundance of automation and a variety of servos. For example, it had a very advanced overhead valve (OHV) engine for its time, very complex dual carburetors with automatic air supply control, a semi-automatic clutch controlled by vacuum in the engine intake manifold, a thermostat that automatically opened and closed the radiator shutters located on the sides hood, adjusting the stiffness of lever shock absorbers from the driver’s seat depending on the number of passengers and the quality of the road surface.
The assembly of the first machines began in March 1933; all their parts were manufactured by Soviet enterprises. The first chassis was delivered on April 24, and six fully assembled cars, branded L-1, were ready for the May Day demonstration. On May 19, they took part in a test run to Moscow and back, combined with a “bride show” of cars by the head of the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry G.K. Ordzhonikidze, who was generally pleased with the new product and immediately set the plant the task of producing a series of 2 thousand cars next year. The administration of Krasny Putilovets also counted on receiving a large order for the production of L-1, they even named production volumes – about 20 thousand vehicles per year after the full deployment of production. However, in the end, work on cars at Krasny Putilovets was unexpectedly curtailed.
In the mileage report, there is no information about car breakdowns and the disruption to the schedule caused by them, and all publications in the press of those years note, on the contrary, the high reliability of the cars and the absence of breakdowns during the mileage. Moreover, subsequently the same cars were actively used as usual and did not cause any complaints. The version linking the refusal of mass production of the L-1 with the order of the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry on the development of production of T-28 tanks at the plant is also untenable: in fact, the tank program at Krasny Putilovets has been implemented since 1932, and tank production was carried out in separate production areas, without affecting those allocated for the automobile project.
Assembly: Red Putilov plant (Kirov plant, USSR)
Year of production: 1933
Production: 6 units
Length: 5300 mm
Width: 1890 mm
Height: 1860 mm
Engine: 8 cylinders; 5641 cc
Power: 105 HP
Max speed: 115 km/h
Weight: 2300 kg
World cars museum (Moscow, Russia)
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