Shanghai SH760

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Shanghai
Shanghai SH760B
Shanghai SH760B
Feng Huang
SH760
SH7221
Production period: 1958-1991
Class : upper middle class
Body versions : limousine
Engines: Otto engine :
2.2 liters (67 hp)
Length: 4780 mm
Width: 1775 mm
Height: 1585 mm
Wheelbase : 2830 mm
Empty weight : 1440 kg

The Shanghai SH760 (initially: Feng Huang or Fenghuang , German: Phönix) is a sedan from the former Chinese car manufacturer Shanghai Auto Works , which was produced from 1958 to 1991. The upper middle class car changed technically and stylistically only slightly over the years. The Shanghai, of which approximately 80,000 copies were made in over 30 years, was the most widespread civil passenger car in China in the second half of the 20th century. Shanghai developed a number of special versions and successor models; but none of them reached series production.

History of origin

In the first few years of its existence, vehicle requirements in the People's Republic of China were mainly covered by imports from the Soviet Union . From 1953 onwards, several plants were opened in China that produced commercial vehicles, especially heavy trucks. These were usually license productions or replicas of Soviet constructions. 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 constructions were created in 1958 in three plants: Beijing Automobile Works (BAW), based in the capital, constructed the 4.1-meter-long Jinggangshan sedan with an air-cooled rear-engine engine , which was later replaced by the Dongfanghong replica of the Volga BJ760 was superseded, FAW in Manchuria developed the Dongfeng CA71 , and Shanghai Auto Works constructed a four-door notchback sedan called Feng Huang. After around 100 copies of the individual models were created in the following two years, only the Feng Huang was taken over into series production in the mid-range segment from 1960.

The production of Feng Huang reached four-digit numbers annually in the mid-1960s. In 1964 the name Feng Huang was given up; the vehicle was now called Shanghai 760. From 1984, Shanghai Auto Works cooperated with Volkswagen . In the course of this collaboration, the SH760 was slightly revised technically and stylistically. The car received some components from the China-made VW Santana and was now called Shanghai SH7221 . In 1991, the company stopped producing the Shanghai in favor of the Santana.

Since the late 1960s, Shanghai built several prototypes for possible successors to the SH760. This included the Shanghai SH771 , the body of which was based on the Mercedes "Stroke Eight" .

Model description

As usual with the Chinese automobiles of its era, the Feng Huang or Shanghai SH750 was not an in-house development. Instead, the Chinese engineers copied foreign designs of Soviet and Western origin.

Technology and design: inspired by Mercedes and Plymouth

Shanghai SH760 in the version manufactured until 1974

The Feng Huang and Shanghai SH760 were four-door, five-seat sedans with a notchback body. According to the unanimous representation in the automotive literature, the overall concept of the cars was based on the Mercedes-Benz W 180 (so-called pontoon Mercedes). The wheelbase and other dimensions of both cars are the same except for a few centimeters, and the shapes of the roof line and the door cutouts are also almost identical. Like the Mercedes, the Feng Huang / Shanghai also has a strong profile in the area of ​​the rear fenders. there were only deviations at the front. The original version of the Feng Huang was modeled on the American Plymouth models from 1955. Particularly noticeable was the radiator opening with a “heavy chrome ornament” in front of which two chrome-plated brackets were interlaced.

Technically, the Feng Huang and SH760 also adopted the concept of the pontoon Mercedes. A 2.2-liter in-line six-cylinder engine installed at the front served as the drive. The engine, which bore the factory designation Jinfeng 685 , was a replica of the Mercedes-Benz M 180 . The dimensions of the engine block as well as the bore and stroke were almost identical. In the valve control ( OHV in the Chinese car, OHC in the Mercedes), however, the two designs differed. The specified output was 90 PS (66 KW). The power was transmitted to the rear wheels via a manual four-speed gearbox.

Drum brakes were used at the front and rear .

Shanghai SH760A and SH760B

Shanghai SH760B (1986 model)

In 1968 and 1974 the SH760 was technically and stylistically revised in smaller steps. In the course of the changes in 1974, the front section lost the chrome bars, and a grid-shaped chrome grille was installed instead. The front headlights, which were still embedded in extensions of the fenders, were now rectangular instead of round. The rear section has been slightly extended. Instead of the small rear lights integrated into the rear fenders, the car now had horizontal rear lights that framed the license plate.

With regard to the question of the extent to which the revisions from 1968 and 1974 were reflected in the model names, the information in the literature is not uniform. It is often assumed that the modifications made in 1968 led to the Shanghai SH760A and that the name was changed to SH760B following the stylistic revision in 1974. Another source is of the opinion that the SH760A series also included the changes made in 1974 and was not replaced by a version SH760B until 1980. In the German-language car catalogs, on the other hand, the version produced from 1974 was almost consistently listed as the Shanghai SH760A, although it was also referred to as the Shanghai SH760C in individual editions.

Shanghai SH7221

Shanghai SH7721

The Shanghai SH7221 was a stylistically revised version of the SH760B, which was introduced after the start of the cooperation between Shanghai Auto Works and Volkswagen. Production started in 1987. The SH7221 did not replace the SH760B; rather, both versions were produced in parallel until 1991.

The SH7221 took over some of the details of the Volkswagen Santana, which had been produced in the same plant since 1984 as Shanghai's own sedan. The Santana components of the SH7221 included the wheels, the plastic-coated bumpers and the wide, vertical taillights that protruded into the side of the fenders. However, there were no technical changes. In particular, the VW engines were not used in the SH7221.

variants

Shanghai Cabriolet

On the basis of the Shanghai limousine, some special bodies were created that were not produced in large series. These included:

  • a four-door representation cabriolet with doors opening in opposite directions, of which four or five copies were made in 1970 and which was used in a number of parades. The body had no stylistic resemblance to the regular SH760 sedan.
  • a four-seat pickup truck with three doors (one on the driver's side, two on the passenger's side).
  • a five-door station wagon.

production

The Shanghai limousine was largely handcrafted. Series production began in 1960, but initially only reached a small extent. From 1964 four-digit annual production figures were achieved. Since then, an average of 5000 vehicles have been built per year; Shanghai achieved the highest value with over 6000 vehicles in 1984. A total of almost 80,000 copies of the model were built.

literature

  • George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1
  • Garnet Kasperk: Internationalization of Chinese Automobile Companies , Lulu.com, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4478-3954-5 .
  • Maurice A. Kelly: Russian Motor Vehicles: Soviet Limousines 1930-2003 , Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84584-300-7

Web links

Commons : Shanghai SH760  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Maurice A. Kelly: Russian Motor Vehicles: Soviet Limousines 1930-2003 , Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84584-300-7 , p. 93.
  2. ↑ Maurice A. Kelly: Russian Motor Vehicles: Soviet Limousines 1930-2003 , Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84584-300-7 , p. 75.
  3. ↑ The Dongfanghong BJ760 was produced at the same time; However, in ten years only between 106 and 230 vehicles were produced by him.
  4. ↑ Auto Catalog No. 25 (1981/82), p. 63.
  5. ^ A b Halwart Schrader, Harald Linz: The Great Automobile Encyclopedia , BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich, Vienna, Zurich, 1985, ISBN 3-405-12974-5 , p. 298.
  6. ↑ a b c Thomas Hanna: The China Benz. Article on the Shanghai SH760 on the website www.mercedes-ponton.de ( memento of the original from September 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on June 15, 2016) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mercedes-ponton.de
  7. ↑ George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 529 and 1439-1440.
  8. ↑ Illustration of a Shanghai SH760 of the first series on the website www.360carmuseum.com (accessed on June 15, 2016).
  9. ↑ a b Tycho de Feijter: The Shanghai SH7221 at the Dalian Classic Car Museum in China. www.carnewschina.com, August 12, 2014, accessed June 15, 2016 .
  10. ↑ a b c Auto Catalog No. 22 (1978/79), p. 144.
  11. ↑ Tycho de Feijter: Sanhe Classic Car Museum: Shanghai SH760A. www.carnewschina.com, August 22, 2012, accessed February 7, 2018 .
  12. ↑ a b Auto catalog No. 35 (1991/92), p. 89.
  13. ↑ Technical data of the SH7221 on the website http://auta5p.eu/ (accessed on June 15, 2016).