Start with what the ZIS-110 is: a 4-door Sedan (automobile) / saloon (ZIS-110) / 4-door convertible (ZIS-110B) / 4-door ambulance (ZIS-110S) with 6.0L ZIS-110 I8, built from 1946 to 1961, in a decade split by war, when civilian production stopped and restarted. What it meant takes a little longer.
The story
The ZIS-110 is a Soviet limousine produced by ZIS from 1946 to 1958. The ZIS-110 was developed from the reverse engineering of a 1942 Packard Super Eight during 1944. The first five prototypes were completed by August 1945. It was powered by a 6-litre, straight 8-cylinder engine, producing 140 hp (104 kW) and giving a top speed of over 140 km/h (87 mph). It was made in both sedan and convertible versions. The ZIS was rumored to use machinery from the Packard 180 assembly line which was sent to the USSR after American production ended.
However, according to The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company, there is no evidence whatsoever in the Packard archives of such a transfer. The top commissars, including Joseph Stalin, owned several Packards and wanted their first effort at a luxury car to be based on what is arguably one of the top cars of the 1940s. These cars were often given away as gifts to foreign communist leaders such as Chinese leader Mao Zedong and North Korean premier Kim Il-sung. After Stalin, the ZIL-110B cabriolet was used as a parade car for Nikita Khrushchev and this model was also given to Enver Hoxha, the lifelong president of Albania. Ho Chi Minh, the first president of North Vietnam, also received one (most likely from the Soviet Union), which can be seen on display on the grounds of his former residence in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. Production ended in 1958, with total of 2,089 cars made.
What is underneath
The engine is 6.0L ZIS-110 I8. On the scales it comes to 2575 kg. Drive goes through a 3-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 3760 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the ZiL line-up the ZIS-110 has a clear place: it replaced the ZIS-101; it handed the line to the ZIL-111; the factory was Moscow (Likhachov Plant), Soviet Union. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Porsche 356, the Citroën 2CV, the Chevrolet Bel Air. Nearby in the ZiL catalogue sit the 9P138 Grad-1 and the AMO-2.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the ZIS-110 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.