We tend to animate a variety of objects and ascribe to them human feelings and emotions. This is especially often the case with cars. If you follow the described practice, then the Soviet truck ZIL 164 can be described as a modest, trouble-free worker. He was most often in the shadow of his predecessors, the more famous models - "ZiS 150", "ZiS 5". Nevertheless, for quite some time he worked at numerous enterprises of the national economy.
If you trace the history of "ZIL 164", then you can start from the pre-war era. At the end of 1930, on the eve of World War II, a new car was prepared to replace the
ZIS 5 truck then manufactured, which received the ZIS 15 index. The war did not allow to bring this project to life in time, and only after its end, at the end of 1947, a new car, called the ZIL 150, began to be mass-produced. During its production, continuous modernization was carried out, in 1957 the modernized machine received the ZIL 164 index and was produced under it until 1964.
In terms of its capabilities, it was a transitional model from the outdated ZIL 150 to the new one, which was just getting ready for the development of the ZIL 130. Even on mass production
samples of trucks sometimes put nodes (for inspection and break-in) from the new model. Nevertheless, some backwardness in no way affected the demand for one hundred and sixty-fourth. ZIL cars have been the main working vehicles for many years both in any car fleet and in the Soviet Army.
The technical characteristics of ZIL are quite worthy of respect (for that period of time): the carrying capacity was four thousand kilograms, the gasoline engine was a six-cylinder, one hundred horsepower. An advantage can be considered the ability to tow a trailer with an allowable weight of four thousand two hundred kilograms. The car was not fleeting, its maximum speed was seventy kilometers per hour, but by modern standards it had a decent appetite - 36 liters / 100 km.
Not only ZIL onboard was in demand, but also its components and the car itself without a body. One hundred and sixty-fourth were produced both in the version of the
truck tractor, and as various specialized vehicles - tankers, vans,
cranes, fire engines, dump trucks, etc. At the Kutaisi
automobile plant on the basis of ZiL, they produced their cars, first they were dump trucks with a tipping side, and then a truck tractor. With great success, individual parts and components of the machine were used in the production of buses.
However, with the development of the ZIL 130 design and the readiness of the conveyor for the launch of the new model, production volumes began to drop one hundred and sixty-fourth, and then in December 1964 it was completely discontinued. Despite the rather limited production period, cars of this series were distinguished by decent reliability and deserved the best rating. Separate instances have survived to this day in fully operational condition.
Although the ZIL 164 car did not leave an impressive mark in the history of the country, the fate of this truck did not go unnoticed in its development. He worked in a variety of areas - from north to south and from east to west, he took a different look - a truck, a dump truck, a van, a tractor, a tanker, etc. An inconspicuous, but extremely saturated and filled with constant labor, fate fell to this car.