Before the Great Patriotic War, our auto industry made very few buses.
In 1938, the plant in Stalin began production of the ZIS-16, one of the most beautiful Soviet cars of that period.
But under a beautiful body, far from the most modern components and assemblies were hidden.
ZIS-16 – a city bus with a length of 8523 mm – replaced the clearly outdated ZIS-8. Basically, the ZIS‑16 has grown significantly compared to its predecessor: 4970 mm versus 4420 mm. Track ZIS-16 – 1545 mm front and 1710 mm rear – was slightly more than the ZIS-8 and its prototype truck ZIS-5 (1530 mm / 1675 mm). The empty weight of the bus has been increased from 4200 kg to 5100 kg.
The ZIS-16 frame is a derivative of the frame used on the ZIS-5 truck, but is noticeably reinforced. And the ZIS-5 frame, in turn, comes from the American Autocar CA truck of the late 1920s, which the USSR bought a license.
How the American Autocar turned into the Soviet ZIS-5 is described in this publication.
The predecessor of the ZIS-16 – the ZIS-8 bus, with a front completely repeating the ZIS-5, and in fact – an American model of the late 1920s -, of course, looked much more archaic.
ZIS-16 retained the braking system of its predecessors – the ZIS-5 truck and the ZIS-8 bus. Drum brakes were mechanically actuated.
The style of the ZIS‑16 was reminiscent of the American International 1937. The cars of this company from the late 1930s generally had a great influence on the Moscow models. Until the post-war mass car ZIS‑150.
Structurally, the body of the ZIS‑16 is typical of its time and most European counterparts: a wooden frame encased in steel plates. In the United States, GM began producing buses with an all-metal body in 1940. The Soviet analogue of the ZIS-154 with an all-metal body appeared immediately after the war.
In another face
AKZ-3 – repaired after the war ZIS-16 with a front end from the ZIS-150.
ZIS-16, of course, was a compromise design, assembled from what little the factory had on hand.
Only 3250 buses were made in total. But some of them had quite a long life.
The same plant in Aremkuz overhauled cars after the war, installed the plumage of Dodge trucks, and then the ZIS-150. About fifty such machines under the name AKZ-3 were created for work in Moscow.
- The pedigree of LiAZ 677 is here.
- “Drive” can be read in Telegram.
Photo: from the archive “Behind the wheel”
This bus was made from what little the pre-war domestic car industry had.
The most beautiful of the early Soviet: the history of the ZIS-16