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??
Close up of the Beijing long wheelbase limousine, painting Jörg-Peter Rabe.
In November 1990, Geng Zhaojie (FAW) and Dr. Hahn (VW) signed a contract for a joint venture, producing 150.000 cars: the Volkswagen Golf A2 (hatchback) and Jetta A2 (sedan).
FAW-VW (First Auto Works-Volkswagen) Golf A2, pre-series ckd-made with test license plate ‘Jilin 99 Test 0085’. Front page magazine Qiche Jishu (Automobile Technology) 1991/1.
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Kaite Auto, a brand owned by a company called Beijing Fengtai Auto Refit Factory, based in Fengtai District in the Chinese capital Beijing. In the 1990’s, Kaite Auto made a series of pickup trucks, SUVs, and minivans.
When China’s Nanjing Auto bought the name and assets of the MG brand in 2005, the deal included the MG TF roadster and the IP for the MG TF GT coupe. Nanjing Auto eventually produced a few thousand TF’s in China, but sadly the TF GT didn’t fare so well.
In the 1950s and 1960s there was a strong relationship between Czecho-Slovakia and China. Skoda trucks, buses and cars, and Tatra trucks were exported to China to help the development of the country.
In 1954 Simca bought Ford France, the factory and her products. Ford produced since a couple of months a new Vedette and this car became the Simca Vedette. This car was very important for China, as it was the example for China’s officially first motor car, the Dongfeng CA71.
Test drive: the Dongfeng CA71 in front, the Simca Vedette behind. FAW factory photo.
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.
Factory photo of a proposed successor of the Shanghai Sedan, photo sold at Kongfz. Car registration 08-02384.
A yellow Landwind X9 in beautiful Liping, Guizhou Province
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.