Wearing a helmet painted in his country's colors and with Russia written on the visor, Vladimir Putin is said to have reached speeds of up to 240 km/h (150 mph), showing that he is a man of many talents.

The PM's interest towards the sport is also due to the fact that Russia's bid to hold an F1 event after the Sochi Olympics in 2014 was successful as the deal was signed less than a month ago.

By Csaba Daradics

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Saakyan, who reportedly won the in-house design contest for what would have been the next ZiL, says he tried to incorporate a few basic ideals when designing the new ZiL. These include keeping the car modern, safe (it has no back window for would-be assassins to target), comfortable, and to the point. The designer did away with other baubles as well, cleaning up the newly-creased edges.

As for the possibility of ZiL's return to the forefront of Russian politicians' transportation, might I remind you of "supercar" manufacturer Marussia? Clearly anything's possible in the former Soviet Union these days. According to presidential property department head Vladimir Kozhin, "There is a presidential order to explore this..We are currently discussing [the ZiL limousine] with factories."

Obviously this rendering is just the start. Should the ZiL make a return to duty, a concept could be showing up any time and would likely be powered by something in the "V8s and above" category. I imagine President Medvedev would rather enjoy his Mercedes-fighting Russian flagship sooner than later.

By Phil Alex

Via: Cardesign

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