About China's Coolest Cars
A messy and very dusty Lada 2105 sedan, seen in Beijing in 2007. The area where I took the pictures was in 2007 still a sort of wasteland, all the way east of the 4th Ring Road. Much later, in 2014, I came to live in the area, then developed with loads of super new compounds.
This is a personally historical photo because it was the first photo I took with my brand new China-made Nokia telephone, which I got in the great year of 2003. Photo quality was still far worse compared to a real camera, which I always carried with me until 2012, when I deemed the iPhone good enough for street pics.
The picture shows a typical street not far from my home in the Dongzhimen area, with 1970’s 6-floor apartment buildings on the left side. It must have been winter, the trees are leafless and the air looks cold. A woman in a brown jacket tried to ruin my picture but failed.
The Hafei minivan is still clearly visible. It is a standard-roof passenger variant. The blue 京A license plate indicate this is a very early privately owned car. Blue A’s are very rare nowadays but back in 2003 I had no idea about that. May I be able to look into the future in my next Hafei life.
A foreign model with huge tits recommends a C-cup breast augmentation in a taxi in Beijing in 2009, I think it was in a Citroen ZX. The advertisement was on a magazine holder on the back of the driver’s seat. I guess they thought this was a smart advertising strategy as many girls take taxis, without and with their boyfriends.
A pretty pink Bentley Continental GT, seen in May 2011 opposite the Opposite House hotel in the Sanlitun bar area in Beijing. I sat on a terrace across the street and there was a big bright sun, hence the somewhat un-sharp picture. Note the flyer under the door handle, which the driver hadn’t care to take away. As far as I could see the driver was a female, with long black hair and large sunglasses.
Beijing’s famous dust makes classy cars even classier. Case in point: this majestic Bentley Azure Mulliner, seen in 2014 at the Beijing Tuning Tribe. The car was at SCC for maintenance and stood uncovered on a parking lot.
Continue reading “Bentley Azure Mulliner Is Dusty In Beijing”
A gigantic Cadillac Fleetwood stretched limousine, seen on a car market on the South Fourth Ring Road in Beijing in 2007. It was in perfect shape, with flag poles on the bumpers, just missing the hub caps.
The second generation Fleetwood was made from 1993 until 1996, powered by a fat 5.7 liter V8, good for a very decent 260hp and 450nm.
These limousines were actually officially offered by General Motors China in period. Most were sold to high-end hotels and some to the Chinese government. This particular car is a bit more special because of its pretty gray color scheme. All the others were black.
Most of these great American cars eventually ended up at wedding-car companies and such. Today, just a few survive.
Here we have a first generation Ford Ka with black license plates, painted in purple with gray bumpers, sporty five-spoke wheels, a red grille, and with 京A license plates. I saw it on a dreary morning on the road right across the building where I lived at the time, in the Chinese capital Beijing in 2005.
The first generation Ford Ka was made from 1996 until 2008. It was never officially sold in China.
Black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the early 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally, and they were also allowed to import their own cars. When they sold these cars, the license plate would go with it. This only changed in 2016, when a new rule ruled out any continuation of the old 京A license plates.
The 京A Ford Ka became somewhat of a famous car in Beijing later on. I remember seeing it on all sorts of local car websites and such, and it took me a while before I realized I had met it first. Great Ford, and a good Ka.
The Beijing-Jeep joint venture, or fully the Beijing Jeep Corporation (BJC), is best known making the Jeep Cherokee XJ and Jeep Grand Cherokee in China. But this busy joint venture also manufactured the Beijing BJ2020-series, based on the long-running Beijing BJ212-series.
The idea was to use American technology to gradually improve the BJ212/2020. The blue car we have here, which I saw in 2006 in Yunnan Province, is a Beijing-Jeep Beijing 2020 N.
The N model was the second improved variant of the BJ212 made by BJC. It was launched in 1990. Compared to the BJ212, it had better brake ad cooling systems, new mirrors, new lights, and new wheels.
It was powered by the 2.4 liter Beijing 492 QA engine, good for 70 hp and 160 Nm. Transmission was a four-speed manual, four-wheel drive. With that, the 1530 kilo heavy vehicle could reach a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour.
And on that day in 2003, I went to an old housing complex in Beijing. It is very beautiful and fully accessible but tourists have never found out about it, and as far as I know the place still exists. Luckily, I saw some great cars.
Continue reading “A Fiery Red Pontiac Firebird And Some Other Great Cars In Beijing”
A beautiful black Hongqi CA7221 L long-wheelbase limousine, seen in central Beijing in 2010. The Hongqi was in a fine shape, with the original hood ornament and the factory-standard alloys.
Continue reading “The Hongqi CA7221 L Is A Long-wheelbase Chinese-German Limousine”
