In June 1958 Beijing First Automobile Accessory Works surprised with the introduction of the quite modern Jinggangshan, a Volkswagen Beetle-based rear-engined car.
Deng Xiaoping meets the first Jinggangshan, June 1958. Chinese press photo.
This car was China’s first “people’s car”. After the two-door prototype, a four-door production version was made, in total from 1958 till 1960 146 cars were made.
It seemed that all these cars have been scrapped.
In 1997 I visited the Beijing Auto Works. After informing the staff that I was looking for info of the Jinggangshan, they surprisingly showed me the first prototype. They still had it stored in an empty factory hall.
I made some pictures, outside and inside. I wrote some magazine articles about the car.
After my visit, the car was more or less recuperated. It appeared at several shows in the period 2009-2014. The car is in private hands, a collector in Beijing is the owner.
And now the story is getting weird. At the Exhibition of National Image Design for 70th National Day in China last year September my dear friend Felix Bai met the car again, which looks completely overhauled, beautifully restored.
Felix also made a photo of the inside of the car. When you compare this picture with the 1997 photo I made of the dashbord (here above) , there is a problem: it seems that the dashbord is from a different car.
Except for the wheels, they are clearly different, the outside of the car looks completely the same as the first prototype. But when looking at the dashbord: note the clock is positioned much lower, note that the switches have disappeared, the glovebox changed. It is possible that the dashbord has been remade and restyled, but why?
I asked Felix and he told me: ” I think this Jinggangshan is a replica”.
Ai. At least, when it is a replica, it is a much better copy than the replicas we described before. But I nearly can not believe this.
What can we speculate:
1. there have been two prototypes. Not logic as all the early pictures show the 1958 model. And never seen before a photo of this 2019 model.
2. the 2019 car is in fact the 1958 prototype, beautifully restored with new wheels, steering wheel and dashbord. Possible, but why changing the dashbord?
3. the 2019 car is a replica. In that case it is a wonderful succeeded replica of a quality we haven’t seen yet. Still the question: why changing the wheels, the steering wheel and the dashbord?
Like I have written before, China car history research leaves us with a lot of questions. Yes, we need you! Can you help us to clarify this mystery?
After closing the article I decided to show you again the two dashbords:
The dashboard of the 2019 car seems to come off of a 1950-60’s vw beetle, a right hand drive one for some reason with the speedometer and steering relocated to the left hence the big empty circle on the right. Talk about an awful way to restore something.
Does anyone know if the original 146 production cars built using genuine VW parts, eg were complete Beetles stripped for donor parts, did VW supply kits of parts or were the Beetle parts copied and made in China?
Hello James. It supports Felix’ idea that the 2019 car is a replica. Thanks for the reference to the Beetle dashboard.
Chris: I supposed they copied almost everything, they were officially not allowed to use original parts or original Beetles for parts.
because they don’t care about AUTHENTIC. the owner probably said – oh original is too old. let’s make it fancy, cause i want it to look more beautiful. chinese don’t understand real value of things… and history
Dear Ivan, we talk 1958. Have you seen the Japanese car market in the 1950s (Datsun/Austin, Hino/Renault, Mitsubishi/Jeep etc.)