Paul’s reminiscence about The East Glows from the People’s Republic of China has inspired me to do similar Maoist-style self-criticism and come forth with an untold story about Chinese cars. In my case, it involves a car book and models from the two competing Chinas: the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China (also known as ROC or Taiwan).
The book was the World Car Catalogue for 1969, an international mishmash “Published Annually By The Automobile Club of Italy” with contributors from Italy, the United States, Western Europe, South America, and Japan, and published in the United States by Herald Books in rather jumbled British English. This large volume came into my possession through events similar to those surrounding Paul’s acquisition of his automotive encyclopedias.
It covered what appears to be every car manufacturer on earth in 1969, from Abarth to ZAZ, and from Argentina to the USSR (Zimbabwe was still Rhodesia, and Zambia had no automobile industry, then or now). The sole automakers in the two Chinas, Hongki in the People’s Republic of China and YLN in Taiwan, were not especially unusual in a volume that included DINARG in Argentina and Syrena in Poland. The profiles of each model have exactly two photographs each and no prose describing the car, but each features a wealth of technical data that makes detailed objective comparisons possible.
Comparing the Hongki and YLN 801A is not really fair, since they were intended for entirely different users (high Chinese Communist officials and upper middle class individuals in Taiwan, respectively) and competed in entirely different size classes, but is revealing nonetheless. The Hongki, first produced in 1958, is a massive 225.59 inches in length with a wheelbase of 133.86 inches, comparable in size to a contemporary Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham.
With a separate ladder frame, wishbones and coil springs in front, a live axle with leaf springs in the rear, and an overhead valve V-8 with automatic transmission, it would be familiar to Detroit engineers of the 1950s. Its 345 cubic inch V-8 produced a claimed 210 hp at 4,400 rpm and 312 lb-ft of torque at 3,000 rpm, transmitting it through a two speed automatic, and giving a claimed maximum speed of 180 kph (111.9 mph). In all respects, it appears to be a Chinese knockoff of a 1950s American sedan.
The YLN 801A, on the other hand, represents 1960s Japanese engineering and design. Yue Loong Motor Company (rebranded Yulon in 1992) began during the 1950s by license producing Willys Jeeps, and then began producing Nissan passenger cars under license in 1960, a relationship that has lasted into the 21st Century. The YLN 801A was a Nissan Cedric with a slight facelift featuring distinct pods for its quad round headlights and a different grille, but otherwise essentially unchanged.
It shared the Cedric’s unit body, wishbones and coil springs in front and live axle with leaf springs in the rear, and Pininfarina styling aft of the front clip. The main mechanical difference was substituting an overhead valve 2.0 liter inline four for the Cedric’s more advanced overhead cam inline six, the engine that would go on to power the 240Z. With 99 horsepower at 5,000 rpm, 123 lb-ft of torque at 3,600 rpm from its 2.0 liter four, and a three speed manual column shift, maximum speed was only 87 mph.
In the Hongki, we have a car that was an obsolete dinosaur by 1969 yet remained in production until 1981, much like other Communist regime VIP cars like the original Chaika. In the YLN, we have a modern car in 1969 that would be replaced by a succession of new designs from Nissan from the 1970s through the 2000s. Today, Hongki continues to exist as a producer of large sedans based on foreign designs–now the Toyota Crown — while YLN/Yulon produces a wide range of vehicles domestically in Taiwan and has branched out into producing cars in China. So with the benefit of hindsight, YLN wins the automotive battle between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China, as decisively as the People’s Republic of China won the civil war in the 1940s.
Related Reading:
Auto-Biography: In Search of .. The East Glows — And Actual Chinese Curbside Classics
Cohort Classic: GAZ 13 Chaika – Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery
That is a battle inevitably won by the side that lives by what it can EARN making cars that sell, as opposed to the one that lives on Government dole.
I’d prefer the YLN car over the Hong Qi.
Get back, Hongqi cat.
I have tried and failed to respond with a pun so exquisitely awful as this one. A toast to the victor! 🙂
When I read the name Hongqi, my mind pronounces it in the voice of George Jefferson. Really!
Interesting. Don’t think I heard of either of them. I know I hadn’t back then despite several stops in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Hong Qi was probably manufactured only for the P.R.C. but not for R.O.C. (Taiwan) or H.K.
Not that these two cars ever competed against each other, or at least were designed to do so. Just as PRC and ROC… different weight classes. The only fair way to compare them is to see how well did they fulfill their intended roles. I’d say both were equally successful cars from this perspective: the one sold on the global market had a long and successful market career, the one used by the government officials was deemed fit for this purpose for several decades, which indicates that it did what it was expected to do and did it well enough.
I rather like the Hongki.
I like them both. Two different cars, two different concepts and two different markets, but perfectly attuned for that. In the U.S., these would co-exist in a Walmart parking lot.
I love the description of how you acquired your primary source as similar to Paul’s circumstances …very well put. I must confess, in my youth, I had a similar opportunity with an Automobile Encyclopedia from the local library. Instead, I used a tape recorder to dictate the entries, stats, and descriptions of vehicles I was interested in at the time (Bugatti Royale, Lamborghini Countach etc…)
That had been the way of how I discovered the Fiat 130 4 door sedan and the Daewoo Royale series…and Hong Qi, Zil, Chaika, etc. among lots of other cars of course… From the car almancs in the university library of ours.
The Taiwanese car looks like what it is: two different cars (front half and back half) combined. The Communist cars look like products designed/styled?….for folks who have no use for beautiful, personal goods.
You can almost imagine the folks selling the Communist car laughing at the idea that their products are not attractive to potential customers.
What I wouldn’t give to have a ‘ Hong Qui ‘ badge to put on one of my vehicles here in South Central Los Angeles ~ I know the local gear heads would have gales of laughter….
-Nate
This Hong Qi’s body had been derived from the Soviet Gaz Volga M21… The front end styling was kept through the Lincoln Town Car Limousine alike Hongqi CA 7465 C8 until the Hong Qi L5… Check: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/01/panther-love-in-china-red-flag%E2%80%99s-lincoln-years/
Hmm… are you sure about the GAZ connection? It always seemed to me like a home-grown design.
The factory that built Hongqi limos was initially set up to produce ZIL trucks. The Hongqi CA72 (the initial 1958 model) really seems a lot bigger than the Volga M21. The GAZ 13 Chaika might be like a better candidate. But at that point in time, Sino-Soviet relations were such that I doubt the Chinese would have made their prestige models from KGB-mobiles such as the M21 or the Chaika.
The V8 and 2-speed automatic have to be derived from the ZIL-111, right? That makes the most sense given the timeline.
Maybe you mean elements of the front end styling, but the Hong Qi is vastly larger than the Volga M21. My understanding is that it was developed with a lot of reverse-engineering; either a big Russian ZIL or I’ve heard some say a 1955-1956 Chrysler. Undoubtedly they took some big car apart to figure out how to build it (by hand). The ZIL seems most likely.
That CA7465 is…something. The front-end styling of the 60’s Red Flag on a 1990’s Town Car limousine? Wow.
I would rather like one of those Audi 100-based parade cars though (linked in the article).
Nice piece Robert. My earliest World Cars in 1970 and it doesn’t give each model its own page. Out of interest, how many pages is yours (1970 is 434pp)
I’m also very interested in where you got the specific information about Pininfarina’s input to this model Cedric re: front clip?
I thought from the text that he meant YLN had added their own front clip to the otherwise Pininfarina-designed Cedric 130 body.
Headlight/grille details maybe, but the clip looks the same as the 130. This info is at odds with what I know, but my article was surmising based on the PF sketch I found in the absence of hard facts about the specific contributions to the final production model. I’m hoping Robert might have found some new or previously hidden info.
Looks like the same front clip the NZ ‘130’ series Cedrics got from 65-68, as per this ’66 that was for sale here last year:
Actually, I just checked my English-language ’68 Datsun 2400 wagon (aka export-market Cedric) brochure, and as well as what appears to be the same front clip, it also has the same grille and badge:
Maybe Robert was thinking of the facelift 130 front end?
Yep. I’m wondering that. I’m still hoping he has some juicy new info though.
I assume the way these books were compiled was to contact each manufacturer — or, in countries that had them, the national auto manufacturers’ association — for specifications and prices, which is why you get the oil capacity of the differential, but not much editorial matter. Nonetheless a daunting and worthy endeavor.
I’ve been wondering if anyone took up anything similar after the Italian Auto Club stopped putting these out. As far as I can determine, the 1985 edition was the last one. Has anyone done anything similar since?
Automobile Year still publishes, but it doesn’t cover every model. Auto Universum/Parade out of Switzerland is the only other one I can think of. Dunno when that ceased publication.
Edit: I’ve also got a Quattroroute-associated compendium called ‘Tutte le auto del mondo 72/73’ (all the cars in the world…) pub by Editoriale Domus out of Milan
I have 16 of these World Car books, 63-65, 71-82 and ’85 (pictured below, pleae excuse the atrocious wallpaper behind them). They’re pure gold for specification history and historical photos of obscure makes and models.
You’ll probably be aware of the UK’s The Daily Express World Car Guide, which was available annually from 1954-2006, as well as the competing Daily Mail guide (I’m unsure on the years of the Daily Mail, I have issues from 1964-93). These were large-format magazine-style annuals, focussed on the UK market but usually including a variety of other makes and models.
There was a similar Polish publication “Samochody Świata Katalog’ (“World of Cars”) published, I think, since the early 1990s. They put out a 2006-7 English language ‘Worldwide Car Catalogue’ that was intriguing in that it includes details and many photos of all the weird and wonderful obscure worldwide manufacturers – especially the myriad Chinese manufacturers.
There doesn’t seem to be anything similar available nowadays sadly. The closest I can think of are the Car & Driver guides, and even those were withdrawn from the NZ market last year. Blame the internet I guess. As a kid visiting my grandparents in the 1980s, I loved nothing better than pulling out their collection of Daily Express/Mail car guides and poring over them; it’s kind of sad kids don’t get to experience that nowadays.
Yes, I plan to break into your home at some stage.
Another interesting one I’ve got is called Auto 1953, pub Alfieri editore out of Venice. Specification-based info, but not as comprehensive as World Cars. Its a smaller format with fewer manufacturers although it does include rarities such as the Nardi
Bring gloves as my home includes a very large guard cat with sharp claws, currently asleep uh recharging his fierceness on the recliner. It also includes my very own curbside classic, newly bought last weekend and coming soon to these hallowed pages! Only hint: it’s one of only 234 of its model left worldwide.
Congrats! Can’t wait for the story. C’mon… just one more hint?
The make is very popular in Australia and New Zealand, and has been for decades, but this specific model and its range were only available in NZ. 😉
Pyeonghwa-zunma!
Yes! It’s the Super-Double-Triple-Mega-Master-Cruiser-Ace Paul Newman Sports Limited Offroad Quintuple-Cam V23-Happy-Kitty Special. Sort of like a lesser version of the fabled Aussie Bistango. 😉
Ah yes. I believe you could also get a Polariser with this variant. Looking forward bigtime to your writeup, Scott.
I have heard of the Daily Express guides, although I have a feeling coming up with them in the U.S. would be a headache. The public library has a bunch of World Cars — not all of them, but perhaps two-thirds — although unfortunately what they actually have on the shelf and what is in the computer as being part of their collection isn’t the same. (The books are all marked as reference, which means they can’t be checked out, but I suspect some of them may have made unauthorized exits.)
I only have two of these volumes, but it would certainly be helpful for me to have more if not all of them. Alas, to the extent I’ve had money in recent memory, I’ve invested it in other automotive books, many of them the Brooklands reprint volumes, which are more useful in some respects, if necessarily less broad.
I wish I had volumes and volumes of books just like this in an underground bunker beneath my house with detailed information on every car ever built in it. Or just on my computer, either way… although the bunker sounds cooler. Just the facts, ma’am.
I like the Hongqi limo, but I liked that The East Glows name so much better. Great title for a nuclear disaster/horror movie! The YLN/Cedric with the headlamp pods is just the right amount of funky, too.
Here’s the first Chinese car I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes (not including NEVs like the ZAP) – a BYD e6 on American soil. This company made a lot of noise a few years ago and had plans to sell several different models here, but apparently got cold feet and scaled back their operations considerably. The e6 is an EV and listed on the EPA website as having a 122-mile range (and a fairly poor 62 MPGe). Wikipedia mentions that BYD (“Build Your Dreams”) decided to limit their sales to fleet operators, selling this single model at $52k a piece, all of which made me seriously doubt any of them ever having made it into the country… but lo and behold, here’s one out and about working as a car service vehicle in the Bronx!
Wow…I’m surprised they actually spent the money to get it federalized! You’d think there’d have been more news of The First Chinese Car Sold In America…
BYD sounds too much like BYOD. Or BVD.
During the Zhou Dynasty, the King You kept a hooker named Bao Si – alleged to be the most beautiful woman in all of Chinese history – who was also famously a sour puss. The King took it upon himself as a personal challenge to find some way to get her to crack a smile, but conventional methods would not bear any fruit. Finally, he resolved to try a distinctly radical approach – he would have the warning beacons signaling enemy attack lit and summon the surrounding armies to defend his palace; at which point he would then point and laugh, having “punk’d” them. This method worked fantastically and Bao Si rolled around on the palace floor cackling her beautiful fool head off at the absurd display. The king subsequently had his current wife fired and married Bao Si, after which this same exercise was repeated again and again, much to their amusement.
But the armies eventually tired of the game, and when the deposed Queen’s father teamed up with a band of tribal warriors who claimed ancestry from a type of mystic white dog, a legitimate attack was mounted on the palace and the King’s defenders refused to show. As you can imagine, it didn’t end well!
This is obviously the Chinese parallel to the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” story (and should also be considered a parallel to the American vernacular “can’t turn a ho into a housewife”) and I believe that’s what happened with BYD.
They were making claims to the American press that cars like this would be ready for sale in the U.S. “within months” back in 2008-2009, and at a much lower price. Years went by and we got nothing, but they stuck to the same story. When the cars actually did debut here, it hardly registered as newsworthy, especially because they ended up way over their target price and by that time cheaper, more proven EVs had already been on the market for awhile. Lots of people seem to think that the whole BYD automotive operation is something of a vaporware scam designed solely to drive up stock prices.
But it is kind of a shame – the first real Chinese car sold here, even in a limited capacity, is still a historic moment. Plus, aside from the speculation, it looks like an intriguing car in many ways. The range alone makes it notable, as it beats all except the Tesla Model S from the current crop.
Here’s a better picture of one in California:
Mahindra played the same game at about the same time, promising to bring their diesel compact PU to the US and departing under a cloud of lawsuits from their stiffed would be dealers.
Well, looks like someone likes Acura’s “bottle opener” grille.
It’s b-aaa-ck! Last year First Auto Works announced a new series of V8 and V12 retro recreations of the Hon-qui to tempt nostalgic (or nationalistic) Party members and billionaires. I’ve usually seen Hon-qui translated as Red Flag.
Uh, YLNs were really rebadged Nissans… they were actually reliable, so don’t give China THAT much credit on making a decent car. LMAO
I love the World Car Book series… we have the 1968-1985 years in my local library.
In the 1985 one, I like the U11 Maxima and B11 Sentra versions of the YLNs.
Other than these Nissan YLNs… the average Chinese built car is pure rubbish.