The Russian President Car
It looks as if a Chrysler 300 had assembly-line sex with a Rolls-Royce. Or at least that's how one colleague described the winning design of a Russian presidential limousine concept car unveiled a few days ago.
It's a beauty. Why President Vladimir Putin hasn't immediately ordered production to begin, we'll never know. So far, there's been no comment from the Kremlin about the muscular model.
Putin had previously announced his desire to replace the current Mercedes and BMW sedans used by top Kremlin officials with a fleet of new Russian-made limousines manufactured by the venerable Russian truck and heavy equipment company ZiL.
As the website Worldcarfans.com noted at the time:
...A problem immediately occurs as ZiL has not made a passenger vehicle for approximately eight years (they only make trucks) and they don't have any modern armored vehicle know-how.
A rather pedestrian-looking ZiL-4112P 7.7-liter six-speed prototype -- described as "not trying to be overly beautiful or pleasing to everyone" -- was reportedly rejected by the Russian government, according to the websiteCarscoops:
Citing a Kremlin source, Russia's Izvestia reported that Putin was "unhappy" with the result, though ZiL's acting CEO, Sergei Sokolov, denied the report, saying the president has not seen the car yet. Russian officials neither denied or confirmed the report. The other two Russian carmakers vying for the prestigious contract are Marussia Motors and GAZ.
"The Moscow Times" quoted "Izvestia" as saying that Putin tested the ZiL and said it needed a few unnamed "adjustments." That sounds to us like a Russian euphemism for "back to the drawing board."
Taking the road less traveled, Marussia Motors decided to partner with the Russian website Cardesign and host a competition. More than 100 ideas for a presidential limo were submitted. The winning design -- a real stunner -- was submitted by Yaroslav Yakovlev and Bernd Weel.
