Today we will take a brief look at the small car brand from Nanjing called Yuandong, which dissapeared almost as quickly as it appeared.
The Yuandong was a brand of company called Far East Automotive Technology Development (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. and built by Nanjing Shenghe General Machinery Co., Ltd.
The factory has mostly specialised in building various trailers and generators.
This is not what we are here for today though…
In 2001 at the Shanghai car show, the Far East Auto has shown off its first car – concept called Baby (娃娃). Weirdly enough, it did have regular steel wheels on one side, and on the other one alloys.
As far as i know the car had no protection against bad weather, there arent any attaching points at the frame of the windshield. Maybe thats why the interior looks so cheap, nothing would get ruined by rain.
Luckilly, some specs are known: Dimensions were 3450x1450x1350 mm, with wheelbase 2040 mm. There were two engine options: JL462Q3 4-cylinder with 797cc displacement. Some sources say it had 35 hp, others 39 hp, Yuandong claimed 90 km/h top speed.
Second option was slightly larger JL465Q5 with its 970cc, I found a figure that claims 49 hp. Top speed was apparently 100 km/h. It is not known which engine was in the car that was shown. With the claimed fuel consumption of 5.2 liters, the 36 liter fuel tank was good for doing almost 700 kilometers in one go.
The car was announced for the price of 50 000 yuan, but did not end up being produced.
Another roadster has been also shown off at the 2001 Shanghai car show. Its name – Gentleman (绅士)
Unlike the red Baby, some sources claim that the car entered production. We know of two cars, red and yellow, from the promotional pictures, courtesy of Erik van Ingen Schenau’s archive. What we dont know is any sort of technical specifications or price.
Erik has visited the 2002 Beijing car show, where Far East Auto has set up a small booth.
The Baby with its odd wheels setup was present once again, but also a new, more “adult” car was announced – the Beauty (家人).
This time, you wouldnt have to worry about the weather, although we newer saw it closed, the car got a proper folding roof.
The car was more grown up in all aspects – dimensions were 3750x1600x1350 mm, and wheelbase 2290 mm
Engine got bigger aswell, this time a 4 cylinder JL474Q with 1310cc of displacement. Power is again a bit unclear, i have seen sources say both 80 or 85 horsepower. It was enough to get the car going at 140 km/h
Announced price was 90 000 yuan. And after that, silence. The website went down in 2005, and nothing was ever heard of Yuandong cars again…
I want to say big thanks to Erik van Ingen Schenau, who provided me with alot of pictures and data about this forgotten piece of chinese automotive history. Without him this article would not be possible to do.
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