A Foton SUP Conqueror pickup truck, seen at a dealer car show in Beijing in 2011. The SUP was dressed to the max, with shiny black paint, a matte gray grille, large sporty wheels, blue stripes on the sides, and wide side bars.
The interior was very typical for the time, with lots of beige plastics and faux wood trim. The ‘wooden’ rims of the air vents are especially nice!
Foton uses Transformer imagery on all of their vehicles, with Transformer stickers on doors and fenders.
Foton (福田) is a large commercial-vehicle maker under BAIC. They make heavy trucks, light trucks, buses, vans, SUVs, and pickup trucks.
The Foton SUP debuted in 2003 and has been in production ever since. Over the years it has been updated many times. The car we have here arrived in 2009 and was made until 2014. The SUP Conqueror (萨普征服者) was the top-end version of the SUP. It was loaded with goodies and optimized for off-road performance. At the time, Foton said the chassis was fine-tuned by Lotus.
The engine was a 4JB1T 2.8 liter four-cylinder turbo diesel sourced from Isuzu. Foton claimed the engine was fine-tuned by Mercedes-Benz and Bosh. These claims are all entirely plausible; Lotus Engineering did loads of work in China in the 2000’s, mostly chassis engineering and handling improvement. Foton and Mercedes-Benz has a long-running truck and truck-engine making joint venture, so it seems very well possible that the Germans gave Foton a hand with developing the SUP Conqueror.
Output of the engine was 95 hp and 225 Nm. Transmission was a 5-speed manual, sending horses to the rear wheels. Suspension was heightened for extra ground clearance, and the Conqueror was fitted with 245/75R15 off-road tires. It also had a skid plate at the front and a big extra bumper at the back. In 2009, price for the SUP Conqueror was 99.800 yuan. For comparison, the base model, without the off-road stuff and with a 2.0 71 hp turbo diesel, cost only 59.800 yuan. So you had to pay a lot more for the Conqueror!
SUP 萨普 (Sapu, the Chinese for SUP). The V refers to the fifth generation Foton SUP.
北京· 福田汽车. Beijing Futian Qiche. Beijing Foton Auto. Beijing refers to Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC).
Sadly, because of its high price compared to the standard car, the Foton SUP Conqueror didn’t sell very well, even though it was likely worth the extra money.
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