Notes from China

[Split_Pin]

This is brilliant, especially as Street View doesn't cover China, at least not the parts I've tried.

 

You didn't see any Roewe 750s did you? I bought a 1/18 one direct from SAIC and they sent me a very sturdy metal Volkswagen Key fob along with it - Bizarre!

[garethj]

Unfortunately I didn't have much time for car spotting as all day was spent in the factory and it was very dark by the time I got back to the hotel.  There were plenty of cars to spot while going from the hotel to the factory but I hate looking like a tourist taking pictures of stuff.

[Adrian_pt]

Amazing. I'd be tempted to say a Western embassy car, although there's a very Chinese looking dude driving (in the standard blue jacket).

What's the white saloon going the other way do you reckon? Mid 80s Nissan Laurel?

 

I also think I spy a Mitsubishi L200 just coming into shot, brown with a beige coach line as well - snazzy.

 

Plate is private citizen - diplomatic plates were different.

 

There's a couple of Shanghais in existence still.

 

The website carnewschina.com has a bewildering array of stuff related to China's automotive history - including real oddities like Mercedes W123 pickups...

[angle]

This is brilliant, especially as Street View doesn't cover China, at least not the parts I've tried.

You didn't see any Roewe 750s did you? I bought a 1/18 one direct from SAIC and they sent me a very sturdy metal Volkswagen Key fob along with it - Bizarre!

Here you go, have one from Shanghai from last year - the only one I saw in a month:

 

 

As has been said above, the Chinese love a Buick which is apparently because the pre-Mao emperors drove them in the 30s, so they have status. The Excelle earlier in the thread is a rebadged Astra and they have a load of other Vauxhalls out there. They've started shipping Chinese built Buicks back to the States and I'm really looking forward to the day Trump finds out and his head explodes.

[Adrian_pt]

Here's some more from 80s China - mainly from 1983. FSOs were very popular - they were even assembled over there. Dacias and AROs were also there in some quantities. The Honda in the first picture is diplomatic, as is the Renault 18.

[lisbon_road]

In that '83 shot, you've got one of the old shape Shanghai Mercedes 190 cars.  That's impressive, I don't think that there were ever many of them and it must have been a good age even then.  Have to do some research.

 

I saw one once when I was there is 91-2.  Doubt that there are any now.

[Split_Pin]

Here you go, have one from Shanghai from last year - the only one I saw in a month:

 

 

.

Mega, same colour and wheels as my 1/18 example 😀

[ChinaTom]

Loved those pics from '83. Prior to the Meganes coming to China about 15 years ago, the only old Renault I ever saw was the rusting hulk of a 4CV in some undergrowth on the Vietnamese border (would have been a MongCai taxi I guess). There were still a few Dacias knocking about when I got there in the late 90's, and plenty of those Shanghai Moskvies, but the Chengdu Itals and Liuzhou Visas were more common.  I have been trying to find a great pic of a HongQi limo from the 80's used as a wedding car in in the Southwest city of Kunming (I posted it on here before, but I think it was lost in a previous purge), but I just can't find it now. I know there is a photo of a Chinese built Datsun 140J in my storage lock-up, and will scan it and post it eventually. But I did find these though:

 

[KruJoe]

Yo Tom, you've posted this pic before I remember, but I couldn't work it out.

 

 

I thought it looked like an early Justy,

 

 

...but a bit of digging suggests it's the last of the Subaru Rex family, which evolved to become the first Justy.

 

 

Top spottage, my friend. Top spottage.

[ChinaTom]

You're right, it is based on a Rex, but is a YunQue (Yewn Chwer). It was built by the same factory that built many of the MIG21's used by the military. I don't know if that is a good thing or not!! Not much has come out of GuiZhou province (MaoTai and Little Panda fags being the notable exceptions), but I think this is one of its finest moments!

 

The best spot for me is the second pic (dodgy scan from a pic taken with a dodgy Chinese camera and developed in a dodgy streetside shack). It is not the Xi'An Cherokee, or an early Pajero; it is a pre-production mash-up for what became the Wuhan 2030X, but whilst this has the UAZ body, the chassis and powertrain were either the early FuQi jeep*, or the BJ2032 Jeep*. I once saw one with a BJ2032 chassis and a 1.0 engine from a XiaLi (Charade). Obviously, the prop shaft was missing...

 

I can almost guarantee that these old 80's home-made lash-ups are all long long gone, and there is precious little info on the web (even the Chinese sites don't take interest) so it is great to have some photographic evidence.

 

* there is one of each parked in the car park on Adrian_PT's 5th pic. Blue is FuQi, darker is BJ

 

The more I look at those 80's pics, the more it reminds me of modern day PyongYang!

[KruJoe]

Have you been to PyongYang, Tom?

 

Are you allowed to share any pictures with us?

 

Edit:

I just found this thread from when the internet was still young:

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/6802-north-korean-cars/page-1

[ChinaTom]

No, in the 6 and a half years since that thread, I didn't get to DPRK. My experience of that place since then has been limited to my plane landing at Beijing just behind the Koryo TU204, and queuing up at immigration behind its passengers who would stand in total silence, in a totally straight line, and most would diligently refuse to meet your stare if you were to look at them. That, and regularly eating at the North Korean restaurant in Haidian, Beijing. Food was absolutely dreadful, but the regular customers were hilarious. Lots of covert skulduggery, frequent requests for me to be removed from the restaurant, and the best game ever - try to make a North Korean waitress smile. In about 40 visits, we managed it nearly 5 times!!