Here we have a red ‘n pretty Daewoo Racer STi, seen at a temple complex in Beijing in 2020. The good Daewoo was sadly in a pretty bad shape and seemed abandoned.
This is Chinese license plate royalty! Blue 京A plates are rare, blue 京A·0 plates are ultra rare. The plates means that this Daewoo was one of the earliest privately-registered cars in Beijing.
The Racer, also known as ‘Le Mans’, was based on the German Opel Kadett E (1984-1991). Daewoo bought the rights to the platform from Opel in 1985. The Koreans added new headlights, new grille, new rear lights, new badges and that was about it.
The Daewoo Racer was made in South Korea from 1986 until 1994 when it was replaced by the Daewoo Cielo, which was basically a facelifted Racer. The Racer came in various trim levels depending on market, including Racer GTi, GLi, GLXi, ETi, and STi like we have here.
Power came from a 1.5 liter petrol engine with 75 hp, mated to a five-speed manual. Top speed was 156 km/h and 0-100 was gone in 12.5 seconds.
The Daewoo Racer arrived in small numbers in China in period. These were official sales but it was a very slim operation without any real dealerships. Most cars were sold on markets alongside offerings from other brands.
These are inspection and insurance stickers. Until the early 00’s it was obligatory to have stickers going back five years on your window, which led to this kind of colorful palettes. The earliest sticker on the Racer’s windshield dated from 2000.
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I am interested in buying a headlight pair of this model