About the History of Cars in China
One of the interesting periods of the Chinese automotive development were the 1990s; private car ownership was exploding and there were many companies who jumped into this market to make small family cars.
Continue reading “The Santana-look alike minicars of the 1990s.”
Volkswagen Group China was the official automotive partner of the Beijing Olympic Games. The theme of the cooperation was “Enjoy the Olympic Journey with Volkswagen”.
This partnership was mainly about providing vehicles to the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee: 4.350 Volkswagens, 650 Skodas, and 1.000 Audi-brand cars. Volkswagen Group China reportedly paid US$150 million for the pleasure of providing the vehicles, outbidding Hyundai China.
Continue reading “The Volkswagen Group China And The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games”
The secondhand book and photo website Kongfz.com is a wonderful source of old carbooks and photos. Recently a series of 10 photos of Haiyan minicars made in Shanghai appeared and your author took the chance to buy the photos. Here a preview.
This is a closed version of the Haiyan 730 Second model convertible of 1959. Probably there was only one prototype. Note the small track width of the rear wheels.
Tianjin jeep, ´Qiche he Gonglu´ magazine 1951-10.
More photos of the 1951 jeep.
Today, we take a deep dive into China’s obsession with long-wheelbase variants of existing cars. Get some beer and chips because this will be a long (L) story. To be clear, his story is about LWB versions of existing cars developed for the Chinese car market. It is impossible to include every L car, for example, Audi has made 3 generations of the A6 L. So I have tried to limit myself to the most important vehicles. It is not about other China-only cars that happen to have a long wheelbase too and happen to have an L in their name, like the Audi A7L or the Ford Edge L. Chinese manufacturers sometimes use L-naming for luxury variants of cars, without any changes to the wheelbase. These cars are excluded from this article as well.
After his stay in the USA, Tang Jinsheng came back in 1992 and planned to restart the Zhonghua project, after the Guangdong failure.
These are the first two prototypes of the later Zhonghua plastic cars. The six young people on the roof prove the strength of the car.
Continue reading “About the early developments of the Zhonghua plastic cars.”
During my recent China travel, friends notified me of their new founds of the wonderful past of the Chinese automobile. Here are some, gathered by on Wechat. (a国 车志a)
Shanghai SH760A with the direction indicators within the grille line.
It looks like the man at the two different photos is the same person. So maybe there is only one car.
Continue reading ““New” old photos of the first generation of Chinese cars.”
One of the intriguing projects is the Hongqi CA770 hearse, made in 1977.
It was the late Hongqi designer Lv Yanbin who made these drawings of a hearse, based on the Hongqi CA770 Station Wagon.
Th story was that the car was designed in 1977 to remove Mao’s body from the Mao Mausoleum when the Soviet Union was going to attack Beijing. The car would have been stored underneath the Mausoleum, in a part of the so-called Beijing Underground City.
The Jinggangshan (the two-door prototype) from Beijing and the Dongfeng CA71 from FAW (First Auto Works) were made in 1958. Both prototypes are still existing.
This is the car which is generally regarded as the first Dongfeng CA71, and by official sources, also the first Chinese car.
Before, the car was stored in the FAW Warehouse, later the car was exhibited in the FAW Cultural Pavilion. Now you can find the car at the Museum of the Communist Party.
Continue reading “Jinggangshan and Dongfeng. Which one where?”