A beautiful Geely Meirenbao sporty car in central Beijing in the late summer of 2012. At the time, the Meirenbao was still a common sight in the Chinese capital. It was painted bright red and fitted with big ‘and shiny after-market alloy wheels.
Note the pretty Dongfeng-Citroen Fukang taxi in the background.
The Geely Meirenbao (美人豹, Beauty Leopard) was launched in 2004, it is often called “China’s first sports car”. The Meirenbao was born when many Chinese car makers developed sporty cars to support their brands. Geely was still a very small car maker in 2004, so the Meirenbao was a big bet.
Note the pretty Dongfeng-Nissan Paladin in the background.
These license plate frames were super popular in the 2000s. They were sold at dealers and car repair shops. This Meirenbao has Chevrolet-branded frames. Not sure why. Geely-branded frames were readily available. Perhaps the owner thought Chevrolet was a cool brand, with the Corvette and all.
The logo is nice and very shiny. It shows a leopard’s head with a crown, MyBo is an anglicised abbreviation for Meirenbao.
The design was nice, especially given that this was Geely’s very first sporty car. It was original too, probably inspired by the Hyundai Coupe and the Toyota Celica. The owner of this car went for darkened windows that contrast nicely with the red body. But the eye-catchers are the shiny six-spoke alloy wheels, fitted in extra large and wide tires that barely fit in the arches. The wheels do the Meiranbao a lot of good, it looks a lot racier like this.
All the early Meirenbao cars had a somewhat odd ‘Fashion’ badge on the front fenders in a handwritten style.
The rear spoiler, the light units, and the exhaust pipe tip were factory standard. The Meirenbao was available with two engines: a 1.3 with 86 hp and 110 Nm (top speed 170, 0-100 in 12.6s), and a 1.5 with 94 hp and 128 Nm (175 km/h, 0-100 in 12s). Both engines were mated to a 5-speed manual, sending horses to the front wheels.
The Meirenbao badge on the back, in the same handwritten style as the Fashion badge on the fender.
In 2006, the Meirenbao received a facelift, and it was renamed Meirenbao Leading. In 2007, Geely unveiled a wild Meirenbao II concept car as a possible successor. Sadly, that didn’t happen, and in 2009 the Meirenbao was succeeded by the Geely China Dragon, which was a Meirenbao with new body panels. But the first Meirenbao, I believe, was the best!