During my studies of all the small cars of the 1990’s, those made outside the regular car producing industry, I encountered this car on the web: the Whale JZK1010S.
Let’s start with the Whale.
In 1995 I met a car with the same logo:
In my book I credit this car to the Wei’er series of the People’s Liberation Army no. 5720 Factory in Wuhu city, Anhui province.
I described the history of the PLA5720 Factory and the Wei’er earlier.
The sedan was named Wei’er WHJ6440. Wei’er was converted to Whale in English.
There was also a Wei’er pickup, named Wei’er WHJ1010.
Going back to the start: the name on the mystery car was Whale JZK1010S.
JZK1010S is the designation of a range of cars made by the Jiaozhuo Bus Works in Meng county, Henan province. These were named Changjian (Large Sword).
Between 1990 and 1996 Jiaozhuo Bus produced about 10.000 cars, quite a lot for a small factory. They made many different models.
Some comparisons: first the rear lights.
The third side window.
Conclusion: we have here a car with two identities:
* The name Whale (and the logo) suggests a car made by the PLA 5720 Works in Wuhu, Anhui.
* The designation JZK1010S belongs to the cars made by the Jiaozhuo Bus Works, Meng county, Henan.
* The side window configuration resembles one of the models made by the Jiaozhuo Bus Works.
And, to end with a nice street scene: (note the Polonez to the left)
Of course, our famous last question: Can You help me??
And, because I cannot stop, here another one:
Could it be some sort of collaboration as with QCJ7090 that was designed and produced by Zhonghua? Thats my only guess…
JFK, it is possible, I don’t know.
It is also possible that the owner stuck the Whale logo on it himself.
i’m starting to think the changjian cars look a bit like volkswagen santana.
in the previous article anda’er the unknown car is a changjian as said by frankyabss before and i think these cars aren’t related because at the time the vw santana was the most popular taxi and i think small car brands would try to make copies of it.
well，In the mid-1990s, Santana was not yet widely used as a taxi…At that time, taxis were mostly manufactured by local car companies…for example，at that time, Sichuan usually used Suzuki Alto as a taxi.
but the cars do look a bit like alto, doesn’t it? and I bet xiali was used as taxi too.
yeah，that’s right.Xiali was widely used as a taxi in various parts of the country in the 1990s, with varying numbers in different regions.
The doors look similar to a FSO
This is the photo of JZK6420 that I have collected. It looks very similar to the car Erik filmed in Urumqi—But it has a new wheel hub and a completely different grille.
This is the photo I collected about Jiaozuo Bus Factory.In this picture, there are some car models that have appeared in the article—but please pay attention to the two cars in the middle，The car on the right is very similar to WHJ6440.The car on the left is likely a police car, but its appearance seems completely different from all other Changjian cars.
Thanks for all your contributions. As I have written in my article: They made many different models. A quick count in my files shows 11 (!!) different sedan models which are for certain made by Jiaozhuo. I have a lot of them published in my book.
About FSO doors: there is a slight resemblance, but they are definitely different.