Originally, our presidents did not have armored cars, President Masaryk even drove a Tatra 80 convertible. Even President Beneš had an armored special Praga Golden , after the war he replaced it with an ordinary Daimler limousine. But in that one, the first workers' president, Klement Gottwald , was afraid.
A new car had to be built for those of us who were more equal. The car was named VOS (Government Armored/Personal Special) and police general Josef Pavel supervised its development. Neither Praga nor Tatra refused to develop a similar car, so the attention turned to tank and truck designer (for example Skoda 706 R ) Oldřich Meduna . He was the first to choose an engine – a six-cylinder Praga 5.2 with an output of 88 kW. The ladder frame of the car was produced in Škodovce, which is why the car also got the name of this car company. The body, in turn, was created in Vysoké Mýto . However, the overall assembly took place in Kosmonosy .
Originally, the remains of war armor were to be used, but it did not meet the safety requirements. The new armor was produced in Poldi Kladno and the car had a double layer with mesh in the middle. The window glasses also had several layers, their total thickness was 52 millimeters. The wheelbase had to be changed immediately, specifically it was lengthened by 100 millimeters. It is said that Comrade Gottwald didn't extend her rear end through the car door. I don't know what the truth is, but given the body proportions of the person in question, it is certainly possible to believe it. The suspension was also softer at the request of a woman politician, but this time the pregnant wife of Rudolf Slánský complained.
The interior was very luxuriously furnished. For example, the feather insert in the seats was supplemented with felt and feathers. Each car had one or more luxurious furs for passengers to throw over their knees on cold days. Gottwald even had three of these bedspreads in his car. But the luxuriously equipped armored cars were very heavy, so the components of the car suffered a lot. Tires from Mitas often did not last and burst. It even happened to Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky while driving and his car crashed. Brake linings were imported from Holland, because they were not produced in Czechoslovakia strong enough. The maximum speed was limited to 80 km/h. Nevertheless, Skoda VOS was successfully exported to Italy , Poland and China . Of course, only to the right comrades. But it was soon displaced by Soviet ZIS and ZIL cars. A few specimens have been preserved in museums, but most of them are now probably irretrievably lost.
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