Dongfeng CA71

Dongfeng
	Dongfeng CA71 (Replica)
CA71
Production period:	1958
Class :	Middle class
Body versions :	limousine
Engines:	Otto engine : ; 1.9 liters (70 hp)
Length:
Width:
Height:
Wheelbase :	2690 mm
Empty weight :	1230 kg

The Dongfeng CA71 (also: Dong Feng CA71 , abbreviation : 東風 / 东风 / " Ostwind CA71 ") is a mid-range sedan made by the Chinese automobile manufacturer First Automotive Works (FAW). The company produced the vehicles in small numbers in 1958 and sold them under the Dongfeng brand . It is considered to be the first passenger car to be made entirely in China.

History of origin

The Dongfeng CA71 was developed by the Changchun ( Manchurian ) based company (FAW), which was founded in 1953 with technical and financial support from the Soviet Union . At first, FAW mainly produced commercial vehicles, especially heavy trucks based on the Soviet model. In 1958, the Great Leap Forward campaign began in China , one of the goals of which was to catch up with China's lagging behind the western industrialized countries. The effects of this initiative were also felt in the automotive sector: from 1958 onwards, several Chinese plants began to design passenger cars for civil use.

For the mid-range segment, three different designs were created this year in three plants: Beijing Automobile Works (BAW), based in the capital, designed the 4.1-meter-long Jinggangshan sedan with an air-cooled rear engine , and Shanghai Auto Works developed the later as Shanghai SH760 designated Fenghuang , at FAW Dongfeng CA71 went into production, as well as the Fenghuang had a front engine.

The Dongfeng CA71 was repeatedly used for propaganda purposes, including driving party chairman Mao Zedong into a Dongfeng for filming. Regardless of this, only about 30 copies of the Dongfeng CA71 were made. At that time, Hongqi was mainly involved in the development of the CA72 representative limousine , which was manufactured in small series from 1959, and did not invest anything in the further development of the smaller Dongfeng. The mid-range segment was instead filled by the Fenghuang and later by the Shanghai SH760, which was the only one of the 1958 designed cars to be produced in large numbers in the following years.

Model description

Stylistic role model: Simca Vedette

As usual with the Chinese automobiles of this era, the Dongfeng CA71 was not developed in-house. Instead, the Chinese engineers copied foreign designs.

In the case of the Dongfeng CA71, the few available publications assume that its chassis was modeled on that of the so-called pontoon Mercedes ; The same applies to the four-cylinder in-line engine, the displacement of which is usually specified as 1.9 liters. The power is said to have been 70 hp, the top speed was 130 km / h. The body is based on the French Simca Vedette sedan . In details, however, the designers cited traditional Chinese motifs: A golden dragon was used as the hood ornament, and the design of the rear lights took up elements of a Chinese lantern - as with the Hongqi CA72.

production

The first prototype of the Dongfeng CA71 was completed on May 12, 1958. Various test drives followed well into the summer. The company built a few more vehicles until the end of 1958. All of them were handcrafted. As is usual with prototypes, the sheet metal parts were also driven by hand in order to save the construction of tools for deep drawing .

literature

Beijing Automobile Museum (Ed.): Red Flag. 60 years of Chinese Automobile History. Brochure for the exhibition in the Cité de l'Automobile, Schlumpf Collection, Mulhouse (November 6, 2014 to March 30, 2015).
George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 .
Maurice A. Kelly: Russian Motor Vehicles: Soviet Limousines 1930-2003 , Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2011, ISBN 9781845843007 .
Roger Gloor: All Cars of the 1950s - 1945–1960 . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, 1st edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-613-02808-1 , p. 377.

Web links

Commons : Dongfeng CA71 - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

The Dongfeng CA71 on the website autocade.net (English).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Beijing Automobile Museum (ed.): Red Flag. 60 years of Chinese Automobile History. Brochure for the exhibition in the Cité de l'Automobile, Schlumpf Collection, Mulhouse (November 6, 2014 to March 30, 2015), p. 17.
↑ Maurice A. Kelly: Russian Motor Vehicles: Soviet Limousines 1930-2003 , Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2011, ISBN 9781845843007 , p. 75.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Description of the Dongfeng CA71 on the autocade.net website (accessed on June 14, 2016).
^ Maurice A. Kelly: Russian Motor Vehicles: Soviet Limousines 1930-2003 , Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2011, ISBN 9781845843007 , p. 93.
↑ Beijing Automobile Museum (ed.): Red Flag. 60 years of Chinese Automobile History. Brochure for the exhibition in the Cité de l'Automobile, Schlumpf Collection, Mulhouse (November 6, 2014 to March 30, 2015), p. 8 f.

[Schlumpf_17-1] Beijing Automobile Museum (ed.): Red Flag. 60 years of Chinese Automobile History. Brochure for the exhibition in the Cité de l'Automobile, Schlumpf Collection, Mulhouse (November 6, 2014 to March 30, 2015), p. 17.

[Kelly_75-2] Maurice A. Kelly: Russian Motor Vehicles: Soviet Limousines 1930-2003 , Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2011, ISBN 9781845843007 , p. 75.

[Autocade-3] Description of the Dongfeng CA71 on the autocade.net website (accessed on June 14, 2016).

[Kelly_93-4] Maurice A. Kelly: Russian Motor Vehicles: Soviet Limousines 1930-2003 , Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2011, ISBN 9781845843007 , p. 93.

[Schlumpf_8-5] Beijing Automobile Museum (ed.): Red Flag. 60 years of Chinese Automobile History. Brochure for the exhibition in the Cité de l'Automobile, Schlumpf Collection, Mulhouse (November 6, 2014 to March 30, 2015), p. 8 f.