Searching for the Minsheng truck!

During long years, I am on my quest for finding more details of the Minsheng truck. Strangely the trucks is also well known under the name Zhongshan.

In 1931, China unveiled its first truck, named Zhongshan or Minsheng 75.

First this misunderstanding: the first Chinese truck is more and more confused with another truck. Many websites use the next photo calling this truck the Minsheng or Zhongshan:

But that is another truck!! That is the first Chinese DIESEL truck, a one-off made by a mr. Zhi Bingyuan.

One of the reasons why this confusion arose is the lack of good pictures of the Minsheng on the internet. With this article I hope to make a contribution to solve this problem.

Already in de the 1970s it was my friend Bill Emery who sent me an article about the existence of a Chinese truck project in the early 1930s. It was a page from the “Automotive Industries” of August 1931.

The picture showed a chassis, seen from the side.

Since the start of the internet, newspaper clippings and pictures showed up.

So I decided to go to Chinese libraries, to read 1929-1931 newspapers, in Beijing, Shanghai, Changchun and Shenyang.

This is a newspaper photo with General Li (Li Yichun) at the steering wheel. General Li was the factory manager of the Liaoning Arsenal, where the truck was made.

The man who initiated the production of trucks at the Arsenal was the local warlord, nicknamed “the Young Marshal”. His real name was Zhang Xueliang. You find him here in the newspapers with the truck.

The next picture is a well known one of the internet,  showing a man standing beside the vehicle. Not confirmed sources say that this mr. H.H. Kung (Kong Xiangxi, Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Republic of China) visiting a show in Shanghai in 1931.

This is the front of the truck, interesting as now we can read the text: “Powerful enough for the worst roads, fast enough for the best.”

Two trucks. The quality of the 1930s newspapers is not what we are used to now. So I am not certain about the man.

And then the last newspaper picture, showing the truck at the same show in Shanghai, 1931.

With this material I wrote an item in my history document: “Made in China, Automobiles made before World War II”.

And yes, miracles exists!! I was not the only one on the western hemisphere who was researching the truck project. I was approached by the daughter and granddaughter of a mr. Daniel Myers. Myers name was already mentioned in the 1931 article in the Automotive Industries. In fact, Myers was the man who was ‘in charge of the work’ developing and producing the truck. The Myers family was an enormous source of information. They had copies of all the letters Daniel Myers wrote during his life in China. And that was a lot. With their material in combination what I had gathered, we three wrote an extensive article for the Society of Automotive Historians, which was published in their magazine Automotive History Review, Number 54, Autumn 2012, you will find it here.
And the Myers family had also some pictures.

One was a superb, three pieces photo showing all the workers presenting the first truck they made.

For us, the most interesting part is de truck in the middle. Together with Myers, clearly visible in his white trousers, without hat, a gentleman at his right hand which we identified as General Li. We have doubts about the others.

The family archives also had another photo. A three-quarter picture of the chassis, of good quality.

With this material, there was enough for a reconstruction. I asked my dear friend Felix Bai, journalist and car designer, to make one. He did, and I was very happy with it.

A next was my friend Pal Negyesi. He told me that he had discovered in the National Archives in Washington D.C., USA, four photos of the Zhongshan 75.  Fantastic find!

And a nice side view:

And then, I asked another dear friend, Chang Bing, a famous Chinese car designer (Hongqi, Beijing Electric, Hozon) to make some construction drawings. I publish them here with pleasure.

First there is series of 12 drawings, in which he started with a bare engine and ended with the complete car. I won’t give you them all, only number one (engine and petrol tank), number 8 (complete chassis) and number 12 (complete truck).

Then he made some 3-D drawings. I will show you two of them.

This is where we are now. We always hope to get comments, reviews , new information from you, reader!
And again, here is the complete story of the truck in the Automotive History Review.

And then this: the Zhongshan /Minsheng on the train from Shenyang (Mukden) to Shanghai. The text reads: “Truck manufactured by the Industrial Works Associated with Liaoning Trench Mortar Arsenal Mukden. (unreadable..) First National Goods Show Conference and Exhibition Shanghai”.