Let’s go back in time to 2003 when I visited the Changchun Auto Show in the great city of Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province. Changchun is also the hometown of First Auto Works (FAW) and its iconic Hongqi brand. So there was plenty of Hongqi to see. In the first photo a perfect Hongqi Qijian CA7460 on the parking lot, with a flag pole on the fender.
The Hongqi Qijian CA7460 was manufactured from 1998 until 2005. It was based on the third-generation Lincoln Town Car. Hongqi (红旗) means Red Flag. Qijian (旗舰) means Flagship.
Under a deal between FAW and Ford, Lincoln provided near-finished Town Cars to Hongqi. The Chinese added a new grille, new badges, and of course the ‘red flag’ hood ornament. The engine was the same as in the Town Car: a 4.6 liter V8 with 210hp (158kw) and 392nm. The top speed was 185 kilometers per hour.
When new, the CA7460 was priced at 690.000 yuan. That was a lot of money in those days, and sales to the private market were very slow. Most of the CA7460s were sold directly to the government.
One of the big debuts of the 2003 Changchun Auto Show was the Hongqi Qijian CA7460 L2, a stretched limousine version of the CA7460. The enormous car stood on a rotating platform, accompanied by a very distracting lady in black and some red. The hall was packed with folks and kids and military guys. At the time, the launch of a new Hongqi was still a big thing. Nowadays Hongqi launches a new car every week, so that’s the new normal. But in 2003 and around, they launched a new car like once every two years.
Hongqi made three different stretched limousine versions. The L2 was the longest of the lot. It was extended by 1.35 meters and equipped with a fridge, wine bar, TV set, computer, and of course a state-of-the-art onboard telephone system. The L2 stood pretty on the platform, painted in a dark shade of black with loads of shiny chrome.
Elsewhere in the Hongqi booth, I got distracted once more. The lady stands beside a Hongqi CA7202E3 Century Star sedan. The Century Star was made from 2000 until 2005 and based on the Audi 100, which was made by the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture, also in Changchun.
This little fellow probably owns a Hongqi now.
The Century Star had a Nissan VG20 V6 under the hood, with an output of 125 hp and 167 Nm, good for a 175km/h top speed and a 0-100 in 13.5 seconds. FAW bought the rights for this engine from Nissan, and it was used to power many of the Audi-based Hongqis.
Hongqi has also rolled out a few classics for the show. This blue machine is a CA7220 A9EL2 open-top inspection car, one of the many inspection cars that Hongqi created over the years. The CA7220 A9EL2 was based on the Hongqi CA7220 sedan, which was in turn based on the Audi 100. It was extended in the middle by 23 centimeters. The roof was cut-off but it had a basic convertible roof. The A9EL2 was rather sporty for its kid, with a body kit and five-spoke alloy wheels. It could be ordered in black, white, blue, and even in red.
This is a very special car. It is a prototype of the Hongqi CA774, which was designed to replace the Honqi CA770. Hongqi made five (or six, really) prototypes of the CA774, all with slightly different designs, and I have seen four of those: the one on show, one in the Dalian Classic Car Museum (now in the Beijing Classic Car Museum), one at the Hongqi Museum, and one at the Tsinghua University in Beijing. The prototypes were produced between 1973 and 1979:
Prototype 1: 1973.
Prototype 2: 1974.
Prototype 3: 1974.
Prototype 4: 1975 (x2).
Prototype 5: 1979.
Sadly, due to financial and political reasons, the CA774 never saw production.
The car in the background is a so-called ‘classic wedding car’, a new vehicle dressed like an old-timer. These were mainly used during weddings and other miserable occasions. I didn’t take any more pictures of it but I saw a similar car in Beijing some years later. It looks like an old Rolls-Royce.
And finally, an incredibly pretty Hongqi CA72 sedan. The CA72 was a state limousine, produced from 1959 until 1965. It is a rare car, with only 198 vehicles produced. Styling was heavily inspired by American sedans of the time, with a whiff of Russian influence. Lots of chrome, large windows, and whitewall tires. Under the hood sits a 5.6 liter V8 with 217 horsepower. The CA72 was a six-seat car with 3-seat benches at the front and in the back. The car on show was perfectly restored, and complete with two flagpoles carrying the Chinese flag. More on my 2003 Changchun adventures in a later post.