How a limousine turned into a bus that Khrushchev considered the pride of the USSR

"Youth" is one of the most unusual and beautiful of buses USSR. It was created on the basis of the ZIL-111 limousine, and the history around this process is shrouded in secrets and myths. Some believe that the car was developed by a group of plant employees in secret from the management under threat of dismissal. Others are sure that the management could not help but know about the ongoing design, but turned a blind eye to it. Be that as it may, the advanced bus was given the green light in 1962. It was then that the first tests of the test version took place. The body itself with the front subframe served as a supporting structure. A 6-liter V-shaped engine was responsible for performance. The eight-cylinder unit was only partially similar to the one installed on the 111th model.

The main difference was the cylinder heads. For the "Yunost" they used a cargo version from the ZIL-130. The power of the power plant is 150 hp. The three-ton bus could accelerate to 120 km / h, which at that time was considered a solid result for this class of vehicles. The model was even exhibited at international festivals, where it received a total of 12 awards. It is noteworthy that neither before nor after the release of "Yunost" did the Soviet cars could not beat this result. The car was predicted to be a success, but it turned out to be too expensive to produce. You can find out how the fate of the ZIL-118 "Yunost" turned out and see a restored copy in full running order in the video on the YouTube channel "Ivan Zenkevich PRO cars".