Some cars leave a paper trail; the ZIL-PKU-1 left a name, a year — 1965 — and a place in ZiL's list. What follows is what can be said with a source behind it. ZiL Design Office (B. A. Grachev) drew it.
The story
The ZIL-PKU-1 (ru: ЗИЛ ПКУ-1), also known as ZIL-PTKS-1, was a soviet Airoll combining pneumatic tires and continuous tracks, creating an all-terrain amphibious vehicle with the aim of traversing difficult terrain, as well as achieving great buoyancy. The first prototype was developed in 1965 by the ZiL Design Office under the direction of B. A. Grachev.
Its place in the line
Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Nissan Silvia, the Ford Bronco, the Ford Transit — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the ZiL catalogue sit the 9P138 Grad-1 and the AMO-2.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the ZIL-PKU-1 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.