ZIL-4421SE: the rise and fall of the plant's sports star

Many readers associate car racing with powerful Formula I cars making dizzying turns, sometimes fatal for their pilots. But racing is no less popular trucks – more precisely, tractor units. Competitions under the name FIA ​​European Truck Racing Championship have been held since 1985.


In the USSR, they decided that they should participate in prestigious races. For this purpose, ZiL specially manufactured three trucks under the index 1989S in 4421. Officially, they were considered serial vehicles, but in reality they were "finished" manually.

About construction

Externally cars looked like their standard "brothers" ZiL-4421 - ordinary tractor units. Initially, the sports version was equipped with an Eaton transmission (five gears), a Raba rear axle and a KAMAZ-740 engine, which developed 300 "horses".


However, a test run in the 1990 season showed that there was clearly not enough power. Therefore, they decided to install American Cummins L10, which produced a solid 600 hp.


Later, another upgrade took place: by 1993, the racing ZIL acquired a more powerful, 900 hp, Caterpillar 3176 engine. The gearbox was also replaced with a ZF 5HP-600.

"Export" for Chris Hodge

We are talking about an English racer who liked the ZiL for some reason. He decided to buy it (first rented it) from the factory to participate in races. The management met him halfway and sold Hodge one of the three cars, though without the power unit and gearbox. The Briton installed his own engine and Allison NT-754 gearbox. As well as a Rockwell rear axle and a Ford Cargo front axle. In the end, all that was left from the ZiL was the frame and cabin, although later they replaced it too. The Englishman called the modernized car "Nikita" - with the stress on the last syllable, of course.

Conclusions and results for ZIL

The 1991-92 seasons did not bring victories to our racers. Preparing for the next competitions, the designers seriously modified the truck, as we wrote above, installed a different engine, which was moved back, a gearbox. They chose a different rear axle - Rockwell S-160. And the electronics were replaced with Lucas Electronics. The car was thoroughly, down to the last bolt, rebuilt: they even assigned an additional letter - now it became ZIL-4421SE. And this bore fruit.

1993 Season

The famous Soviet and Russian racer A. Markin was at the wheel. As a result, the team took third place in Group A at the competition. No one expected such success: it would be like a provincial city club suddenly winning UEFA. However, the first alarm signals related to the lack of finances at the plant began to appear even then.


For example, in one of the competitions, Markin’s car was not allowed to participate in the second race because of worn tires: there was nothing to replace them with.


After 1994, the Russian team no longer performed: the capital's enterprise had no money to support it.

How Hodge continued the ZiL sports business

By the 1995 season, the Englishman had reconstructed the truck: the frame and (partially) the cabin panels were all that was left of the Moscow truck. Which, by the way, suddenly began to fold back... Caterpillar became interested in Hodge's achievements, providing the driver with money to participate in further competitions.


The driver was now Finn Harri Luostarinen (Hodge himself formed and managed the entire team). In 1996, the car was equipped with a C12 engine, which developed an incredible 1200 horsepower. By this time, the cabin had been completely replaced with a more spacious Sisu SR340 model. And in 1997, Luostarinen became the race champion, beating such famous rivals as Mercedes and Man.