A Hongqi CA770 limousine, refit into an ambulance or at least disguised as an ambulance. There are several versions.
The main differences between the five versions are the number, length and width of the chrome strips above the rear bumper, the different trunk lids, the visible or invisible hinges, the connection between the rear window and the trunk lid.
Hongqi CA770JH 1972
Model 1. The original press photos of 1972 show the Hongqi CA770JH, a Hongqi limousine without rear seats and an enlarged rear entrance. In this way it was easy to transport one patient on a stretcher.
And now the four models that are still around. An important question is whether they are original. I have no idea. Some will be replicas, maybe all.
The next version (2) has an extremely high and small rear window. That makes the stretcher entrance easier. The photos are made around 2004-2006.
A third model. This car is one of Luo Wenyou’s, and exhibited in his museum.
This car has a rally license plate indicating car no. 019. This plate is fixed on the rear bumper, not on the trunk.
The fourth version has a special feature, a red gyrophare (flashing light on the roof).
Sometimes this car uses the temporarily license plate with number 013.
The entrance for the stretcher is very low.
The fifth version has a military license.
The stories.
According the Chinese, it was the Americans who insisted that there would be an ambulance in the Honqgi convoys during the Nixon visit in 1972. The Chinese decided to take an ordinary Hongqi and to facilitate the entrance of a stretcher in the car. In this way the public was not aware of the existence of an ambulance in the convoy.
In 1973, the French president Pompidou visited China. In the convoys, the Chinese took a disguised ambulance with them. Pompidou was a terminal cancer patient. He died a year later.
The four private owners of the disguised Hongqi ambulances all connect their cars to the stories. “My car was the Nixon ambulance“. “My car was the Pompidou ambulance”. Hard proof, sorry, no.
Three years ago I wrote about the real Hongqi ambulance, the CA770W.
