The armored limousine custom-built for Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was stolen in January 2020. The heist took place when six bandits broke into a Moscow car collectors’ garage. A video recorded them taking the nearly 10,000-pound car.
Built in the late 1940s, the ZIS-115, as it was called, could withstand gunshots from less than a foot away. The car was also designed so that hand grenades, placed directly under the car would have little or no impact.
Stalin used the car daily to get to and from offices in Moscow. For security reasons, different routes were selected, and the same path would never be repeated for at least two days. Additionally, he was known to swap cars midway along the drive, sometimes taking another limousine or using a less impressive vehicle.
As to power, the car had a six-cylinder engine, which was totally inefficient for powering such a heavy car. But the engine did the best it could, even getting as much as eight miles to the gallon
going downhill
.
As to why it was stolen?
The car is now valued at $2.8 million. It was recovered days after the theft, found in another collectors garage.
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