China Concept Cars: The Story Of The Hongqi C601 Sedan

Today in China Concept Cars: the Hongqi C601 sedan. In the early 2000s, Hongqi was looking for a new mid-size luxury sedan. To get there, they developed four concept cars under the C601 code name. These were:

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China Concept Cars: The Hongqi HQ3/Shengshi Extended Limousines & Inspection Car

Today in China China Concept Cars: three concepts based on the Hongqi HQ3  and Hongqi Shengshi sedan: a bulletproof extended limousine, an extended version, and an open-top inspection car.

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Classic chinese cars in videogames

There is a place where classic chinese cars can live forever – where that might be you ask? Videogames! Today we will look into some of the games that feature classic chinese vehicles.


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FAW-Volkswagen Golf A2, the car that never came.

In November 1990, Geng Zhaojie (FAW) and Dr. Hahn (VW) signed a contract for a joint venture, producing 150.000 cars: the Volkswagen Golf A2 (hatchback) and Jetta A2 (sedan).

FAW-VW (First Auto Works-Volkswagen) Golf A2, pre-series ckd-made with test license plate ‘Jilin 99 Test 0085’. Front page magazine Qiche Jishu (Automobile Technology) 1991/1.

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The Simca Vedette and China.

In 1954 Simca bought Ford France, the factory and her products. Ford produced since a couple of months a new Vedette and this car became the Simca Vedette. This car was very important for China, as it was the example for China’s officially first motor car, the Dongfeng CA71.

Test drive: the Dongfeng CA71 in front, the Simca Vedette behind. FAW factory photo.

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A Hongqi for the common people.

After their life times efforts to make cars for the leaders, mr. Hua Fulin and two other FAW senior researchers and engineers decided to develop a real “people’s car”. The project was named “Sankoule”(literally “Three Mouths”) the name revers to the then standard Chinese family with two parents and one child.

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The pseudo-Hongqi from Xi’an.

When  travelling in Xi’an in 1984 I noticed, in front of the fire station in the centre of the city, a strange car, registered 24-05900. Or truck? The front looked like a Hongqi, the wheels were as big as truck wheels. And the wheelbase was very short in regard to the length.

Fire truck in Xi’an, 1984.

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The Hongqi CA770 Station Wagons From China

Many  versions (like parade cars, smaller versions, lwb etc.) are based on the ‘da Hongqi’, the basic CA770 Red Flag limousine. They were made by the  FAW factory itself or by local car refit shops.

The ‘engineering vehicle’.

I will show you here four different ‘station wagons’. Well, in fact they are a so-called ‘engineering vehicle’, an ambulance, station wagon and a hearse.

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The story of Thunder Sky (Part 2)

This is part 2 of the story of Thunder Sky and their experimental electric vehicles, part 1 can be found here. In my last article I introduced Thunder Sky and gave you an overview of their early history as well as details on their vehicles prior to 2007. In this article I will introduce you to the cars they made after 2007 and also go into detail on their interesting relationships with companies such as FAW, Krystal and MVP RV’s. I won’t go into detail on some of Thunder Sky’s other ventures but it would be an understatement to say that they’ve been involved in just about everything! Winston Chung has been recognized for his work by the United Nations and Thunder Sky donated 10 million dollars to University of California Riverside to establish a research center named ‘Winston Chung Global Energy Center’, produced LiYPO4 battery packs (using 1000AH battery cells) and also helped install the batteries in buildings. All very cool stuff but not really car related and so I won’t be covering it all in my article because it doesn’t really relate to vehicles. For more details please search on Thunder Sky’s website www.thundersky-winston.com.

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The right-hand drive Hongqi CA770C

Hongqi CA770C

In 1987, the Shenzhen sub-factory of First Auto Works (FAW) produced a single right-hand drive Hongqi CA770G called the CA770C. FAW had a desire to enter markets outside China and the CA770C was created to explore the possibilities of export to right-hand drive markets including neighbouring Hong Kong.

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