Almost two years ago, a film was released dedicated to the famous actor, poet, singer, legend of the Brezhnev times Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky - “Vysotsky. Thank you for being alive". During the filming of this film, a 1974 Mercedes car was used, which is an exact copy of Vladimir Vysotsky's blue Mercedes.
The morning of the first day of 1980 dawned cloudy and foggy. The gray-blue Mercedes was racing along the deserted Leninsky Prospekt. There was not a soul on the road or on the sidewalks - the citizens of the Soviet Union, having finished watching “The Blue Light” and having laughed a lot at the monologues performed by Raikin and Khazanov, finally fell asleep. Only a lonely empty trolleybus, which, despite New Year's morning, was strictly on schedule, began to pull away from the stop. In honor of the holiday, the driver even decided not to flash his left sidelight - there was no one on the road anyway. He didn’t even have time to notice the gray-blue Mercedes, and when he heard a blow to the left side, he was sincerely surprised: “Where did this diplomat come from?!”
However, the foreign car did not belong to a diplomat at all - the numbers on it were ordinary, black - 92-99 MMB. Under this number, a Mercedes-Benz 380 car with engine and chassis number 11028-10023792 was registered in the traffic police of the Krasnopresnensky district of the capital on July 8, 1976. The owner of this car was the Taganka Theater actor Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky.
The gray-blue Mercedes was not the only car of Vladimir Vysotsky, but he became the hero of the film. To achieve complete historical accuracy, the filmmakers found archival documents and found the PTS of Vysotsky’s car. Having found out his individual number, they turned to a Mercedes dealer for used cars and ordered exactly the same car. Then the paintwork was restored. When preparing the car for filming, materials from the archives of the Vysotsky Museum were used: photographs, testimonies of friends. In the game Mercedes, everything is the same as in the authentic one, even the radio is exactly the same as Vysotsky’s; Vladimir Semenovich almost always turned it on while driving. The cassettes contained his songs, recordings of performances, and along the way he rehearsed with a tape recorder.
Vladimir Vysotsky was one of the first in the USSR to buy this Mercedes in its original metallic blue color. Unfortunately, traces of Vladimir Semenovich’s car were lost somewhere in Georgia back in 1989. But the filmmakers provided everyone with an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with an exact copy of this car, putting it on public display in the Moscow Oktyabr cinema. We also took advantage of this opportunity. Vysotsky was known not only for his creativity, but also for his special love for good cars and fast driving. He was one of the few who could afford foreign-made cars in the 1970-1980s. And these were not just cars, but the best in their classes Mercedes and BMW.
But still, the first car that Vladimir Vysotsky purchased in 1967 with his own funds was a Volga GAZ-21, which was destroyed quite soon. In 1971, Vysotsky became one of the first lucky ones who managed to buy a new product of the Soviet automobile industry - a gray VAZ-2101 car with a license plate 16-55 MKL. This was a representative of the first pilot batch. Even the word “Zhiguli” had not yet been applied to it, but they simply called it “Russian Fiat”. The fate of this car is sad: on July 31, 1971, after a football match, Vysotsky argued with a neighbor-fan, the owner of exactly the same Zhiguli, only green, which of them would be the first to turn away, moving towards each other head-on. The owner of the green Zhiguli turned out to be no less gambling than Vysotsky himself, and both cars crashed into pieces. After restoration, the Zhiguli was deregistered on October 11 of the same year and sold to someone.
Vysotsky’s first foreign car was a Renault 16TS, which Marina Vladi brought from France. This six-year-old car cost 3,300 francs when sold, which was 500 rubles in Soviet money. Vysotsky had an accident with it literally on the very first day, driving into a stationary bus. The accident was not serious and the car was still able to be repaired, although in those days it was not easy to find spare parts for a foreign car. At this point, Renault Vysotsky and Vladi planned to take a trip to Paris, but a car with Parisian license plates could not travel more than 100 kilometers outside of Moscow. Friends helped make a special pass and in 1973, Vysotsky and Marina Vladi finally made this car trip. Upon arrival in France, Marina Vladi published an ad in Paris-Match magazine: “Marina Vladi is selling a car... Inquiries by phone...”, after which the car was sold.
Literally a year later, Vladimir Vysotsky went on tour to Germany and brought from there two BMW 2500v SST: one in metallic color and the other in cream. Only one car was registered with the traffic police, since the second one was reported stolen. Vysotsky drove both cars, simply changing the numbers from one to the other. In the end, one car was arrested by Interpol, and Vysotsky went to France with the second, where he successfully sold it.
Finally, a 1974 Mercedes (Mercedes 450 W116) - a luxurious four-door sedan, Vysotsky bought in Munich in 1976 It was a car in metallic blue, a rare color for Europe. Marina Vladi and his foreign friends helped Vysotsky buy the car of his dreams. The singer had to spend all the money raised from the sale of the BMW to buy it, and also add several fees for concerts. To clear Mercedes through customs, Vysotsky gave several free concerts in front of Soviet customs officers. In gratitude, he was allowed to pay customs duties for the car in installments.
It was this car that more than once baffled State Traffic Inspectorate employees. In Moscow they knew well that Brezhnev had a couple of Mercedes, in which the Secretary General dashingly moved around the capital. Therefore, when they saw Vysotsky’s blue Mercedes, the guards stood at attention. The Mercedes 450 W116 that Vysotsky owned belonged to the Merc family of S-class cars, which first appeared in 1972. The 1972 Mercedes W116 had the world's first ABS system, hydropneumatic suspension, and a three-speed automatic transmission. This model range, produced until 1980, mainly consisted of the 350SE/SEL and 450SE/SEL eights. There was also a short-wheelbase 300SD diesel model (for the North American market), and the flagship was the 450SEL 6.9 with a huge 6.9-liter V-8.
All models were equipped with disc brakes on all wheels. The body structure was reinforced with numerous steel cross and diagonal braces. The crumple zones at the front and rear have become more energy-intensive. Therefore, these cars have become one of the safest in the world. The shape of the hood was such that all the dirt that flew off it practically did not fall on the front glass. There were also windshield wipers specially designed for these models, which cleaned a much larger area of the windshield.
The W116 interior was upholstered in fabric, and in the most expensive AMG trim levels, leather. The Mercedes 450SEL 6.9 AMG featured a lower front and rear bumper, aerodynamic side skirts, and wheels that were offered to the buyer in 3 sizes - 215/60R15 7J, 225/50VR16 8J and 235/45ZR17 8J. Chrome was missing. The suspension was one centimeter lower and stiffer. Engine power was 380 hp. Well, why not a blue dream?
In 1974, the Mercedes 450SE received the Car of the Year award. Production of the Mercedes S-Class in the W116 body was discontinued in September 1980. In total, over 473 thousand of these cars were created. The owner of one of them was Vladimir Vysotsky.
But the happiness did not last long, and Vysotsky’s car was overtaken by an accident. The sedan was wrecked on January 1, 1980. Losing control, Vysotsky crashed into a tram at high speed. This car was soon repaired and subsequently sold. It is interesting that all of Vysotsky’s cars were destined for the same fate - almost all of them were smashed to smithereens. Those who personally knew Vysotsky recall that Vladimir Semenovich drove terribly - he did not drive less than 200 km/h.
a At the end of 1979, while on tour in Germany, Vysotsky will buy his last Mercedes - a sports two-seater coupe Mercedes 350 SLC in yellow-brown color. This car had a 3.5-liter eight-cylinder engine with an injector that produced 202 hp. at 5800 rpm. The torque was 29 kilograms. With such power, the coupe with a three-speed automatic transmission could reach a speed of 200 km/h. Vysotsky did not reach Moscow in it: on the Moscow-Brest highway, which is being built for the Olympics, just outside Minsk, at maximum speed, he lost control and flew into a ditch. This Mercedes was restored after the actor’s death, but no one took it from the car service center.
