There is a place where classic chinese cars can live forever – where that might be you ask? Videogames! Today we will look into some of the games that feature classic chinese vehicles.
Category: Shanghai (SAIC)
A bit more about the Shanghai 58 Jeep prototype.
After leaving the factory the prototype of the Shanghai 58 was tested in September 1957 on the Lingyan Mountain in Suzhou.
Continue reading “A bit more about the Shanghai 58 Jeep prototype.”
Replacement of the Shanghai Saloon.
Just before the beginning of the Cultural Revolution (1966), Shanghai Auto started to work on a replacement for the SH760 Sedan. The prototypes were bigger than the SH760.
MPV’s made in Shanghai long ago.
Long before the popularity of mpv’s, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation made prototypes of mpv’s.
China Concept Cars: The 1999 Patac Qilin
Today in China Concept Cars the Patac Qilin, an attractive compact passenger car that debuted on the June 1999 Shanghai Auto Show
The Qilin was an interesting vehicle, a five-door hatchback with a slightly higher ground clearance than normal. Gray panels made it look a lot like the later ‘cross’ vehicles, which became very popular in China in the early 00’s. So Patac was far ahead of time! Continue reading “China Concept Cars: The 1999 Patac Qilin”
Jeeps made before the production of the BJ212.
The most important Chinese cross-country vehicle is the Beijing BJ212. Developed in the early 1960s, in production since 1965. Yes, still in production!! The introduction was during the mass-movement Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, chairman Mao using it to inspect the Red guards.
Continue reading “Jeeps made before the production of the BJ212.”
Minicars from Shanghai.
Not only Beijing made minicars in the late 1950s (see our entry “Minicars made by the Qinghua University in Beijing.“), also Shanghai did an effort to replace the pedicab and the rickshaw by small motorized vehicles. There was one big difference: in Beijing it was the Qinghua University which was behind all these efforts, in Shanghai it were several small workshops. It is possible that some factories were differently named in press releases, and that these products were in fact from the same manufacturer. But that is difficult to find out after 60 years. Here we give you the factory names as found in books and newspapers.
The Shanghai Station Wagons
Station wagons and China have a funny relationship. The old adage of Chinese people preferring cars to have a proper boot could not be more correct, but tastes are changing. Nowadays station wagons are slowly becoming more and more popular and Chinese manufacturers are starting to cash in, though they won’t fully commit and most of the time will sell a lifted version and call it a “Cross” or something like that (looking at you Skoda). But back in the day there were numerous station wagons on sale in China, not counting those weird SUV station wagon hybrids of the 1980’s. Cars like the Buick Sail and Fiat Palio wagon sold reasonably well in China, and let’s not forget the likes of the Haima and Yunbao wagons. Sadly these larger wagons never did as well as their smaller brethren and indeed the same must be said about the Shanghai wagons, which did even worse. So join me as we learn about the Shanghai wagons and the many companies that made them.
The Shanghai Pickup Trucks
Welcome to the second article on the Shanghai brand. In the previous article I introduced you to the saloon cars and took you through the development of those models. In this article I will cover all the pickup truck models produced under the Shanghai brand, starting with the reasoning behind creating these models and going on through the development stages to the models that went on sale.
The Shanghai Saloons
The Shanghai brand is one that has always fascinated me. Growing up in Shanghai certainly helped fuel my curiosity but I was never really able to understand the evolution of the brand and when different models were sold, particularly in later years. Searching online I also found that an accurate account of the development of the brand is hard to find, even finding accurate production dates for the models in one place is a challenge. So I decided to create my own articles on the Shanghai brand, starting with the saloon cars and in future articles focusing on the pickup and station wagon variants. Many thanks to Erik for his help with this series of articles.