About the History of Cars in China
Already nearly 1 1/2 year ago I wrote about a possible existence of long wheelbase version of the 1958 Beijing limousine.
I ended the story with: “What we need is a good and convincing picture of the 1*06228 in its long wheelbase version. Who is going to deliver that picture??
Continue reading “A beautiful drawing of the long wheelbase Beijing limousine.”
Landwind has always been a minor Chinese car brand, yet it is also a brand that quite some car enthusiasts will have heard of. Outside China, the Landwind X7, a copy of the Range Rover Evoque, received widespread media coverage across the world. However, one decade in advance an older SUV made headlines in Europe for being one of the first Chinese carmakers to enter the European market, and for a disastrous result in a slightly fishy crash test by European national consumer motoring associations. This article will cover the eventful history of the debut model by Landwind: the X9/X6-series.
Continue reading “Crashed Export Dreams: The History of the Landwind X6 and X9”
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Jinma Auto / Soar, famous for their gigantic Rolls-Royce ‘wedding cars’. But there was more, much more!
Jinma (金马) means Golden Horse. The brand was owned by a company called Qingdao Shengma Classic Car Co., Ltd. (青岛圣马老爷车有限公司). The designation was QJM. In 2001, the company changed its name to Qingdao Suo’er Automobile Co., Ltd. (青岛索尔汽车有限公司). This was abbreviated to Soar Automobile (索尔汽车), and that is the name they are best known for. That same year, the Jinma brand name was replaced with the Soar name.
According the official website of Yema , www.yemaauto.cn, Yema was founded in 1988. That is not correct.
Chengdu Light Auto Refit Works made Yema suv’s already in the early 1980s. In 1988 this factory merged with three other factories to start the Chengdu Light Vehicle General Works. Tycho has written about this and more. Continue reading “The Complete Story of the Austin Maestro in China (part 2: Yema)”
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Hainan Haisheng Auto, a brand based in the great city of Haikou in sunny Hainan province. They used the English brand name Hiseng, without the ‘H’. From the late 1990’s to the mid 2000’s they made a series of pickup trucks, legally-licensed Mitsubishi Pajero’s, semi-legal Suzuki Vitara’s, and much more.
Continue reading “Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot: Haisheng Auto”
After my post “Our draftsmen” Jörg-Peter Rabe made on my request several car paintings. Each of them are beauties! I show them here.
Rabe started, as you remember, with the Xianjin 71-5 of 1958. Here is a second drawing of the car.
Continue reading “The beautiful paintings of Jörg-Peter Rabe.”
This story starts in the Great Britain, a car named Austin Maestro was made from 1983-1994. About 605.000 were made.
Continue reading “The complete story of the Austin Maestro in China (Part 1, Etsong)”
With the start of the joint venture with Jeep, a possibility showed up to use the modern 2.5-litre engine of the Cherokee in the BJ212.
During our research we unearth a lot of old car photos of bad quality, or photos that give us only some details of the cars we introduce to you.
We get help from friends. They make drawings to enhanse the photos. Sometimes we ask them, sometimes they volunteer.
I want to thank them. To honour them, we give you an overview of these draftsmen.
This is the most ugly station wagon I know. Yes, as automotive historians it is not expected from us to give our private opinion about the design of a car. But the EQ6400PL, well have a look for yourself.
Continue reading “The Dongfeng EQ6400PL Baolai Xideng station wagon.”