A Chinese car for Chinese New Year – a 1974 Hongqi (pronounced “Hong-Ch’i,” meaning “Red Flag”) CA770. The CA770 replaced the earlier CA72 in the mid-1960s (though it retained much of the older car) and…
Browsing Category World Cars
The Blue Oval’s Supermini: Ford Fiesta Mk1
“Mini cars,” Henry Ford II famously once said, equal “Mini profits.” That was on May 13, 1971 and said in reaction to the early sales success of the Pinto. It came at the end of…
Alpine Fire Brigade: Volkswagen LT 4X4
Hundreds of thousands of VW LT vans were built over the truck’s lengthy lifespan – 1975 to 1996 – but just 1,250 of them were the lifted, go-anywhere 4X4 models. LT stands for “Lasten-Transporter,” loosely…
Jinggangshan: Once Upon a Time in China
In the past 30 years, and in particular the last ten, China’s car industry has grown exponentially. In the mid-1980s China built just a few thousand cars a year – mostly licensed designs – and…