Writing for China Car History is sometimes dull, and sometimes exciting. This is such an exciting moment! My Chinese car friend Robert from Poland, who I know for 20 years, has sent me yesterday some pages of a Chinese language magazine called Auto News, edition late 2000. The writer describes the mini-auto’s made by the Qinghua University in 1958-1961. I have written about these cars in China Car History in December 2018.
The mini’s shown in this article are all the same as in my article.
Except… except for one. This car is named Qinghua number 7, has the registration 01-06768. Photo has been taken in Beijing at Tian’anmen, in the background the site of the Forbidden City. And a Skoda bus.
As you can see, this is a Daf copy!! The first Daf 600 was shown to the public at the Amsterdam Auto Show (RAI) in 1958. Going there with my father, I remember as young boy that it was so crowded with all these grownups wanting to see this little miracle (a mass produced small car with automatic gearbox, what an innovation!) that I haven’t seen much.
The students and teachers of the Automotive Department of Qinghua University must have had access to an original Daf. Qinghua had a big interest in the gear-less drive (the Variomatic) and used it for the other Qinghua mini-auto’s.
Between the original Daf and the Qinghua copy are a lot of differences: the Qinghua is much smaller and has a shorter wheelbase, the hood is higher, the wheel cutouts in the mudguards are different, and a lot of minor details.
Most of the cars designed and made by the Qinghua University were just exercises for the students, and it looks like that this also applies to the Daf copy. Remember from my article that Qinghua also made a Trabant copy.
When writing the other article about mini-cars, those made in Shanghai, reader Ming linked me in his comments to the football film 球迷 || Fans (1962) – YouTube. A lot of cars in this movie, including surprisingly a real Daf.
As always I will emphasize how much we writers of China Car History depend on your input. Of course we can continuously draw from our archives, but you can give the refreshing input like readers Robert and Ming!
Please keep sending us whatever you want to share with us!
Daf sold its car production to Volvo in 1975. They continued to produce trucks. Some trucks were sold to China, not many.
And I end with this endless interest in Daf products.
YAY A NEW ARTICLE!
That’s extraordinary.