Dear Readers,

Busy the times have been. Time so for a short holiday in the city of Weihai in Shandong Province, I will be back on Sep 13. Beihai has a lot of beaches and cold beers, hoi! I will of course keep my eyes open for strange vehicles, on the pic a Hafei Mianbaoche that I just found on a Weihai second-hand car website. It ran 100.000km and costs only 2 yuan, guess that is a mistake but maybe it is not, Weihai ain’t Beijing indeed.

Greetings and hope to see y’all back soon.

Tycho

My good cousin HdF, who also lives in Beijing, found a very interesting vehicle on the streets. It is a Xiaoshuidi electric vehicle, Xiaoshuidi (小水滴) meaning ‘Small Waterdrop’. The vehicle saw the light in 2009 and was then called 小雨滴, Xiaoyudi, meaning ‘Small Raindrop’. Not sure why they changed the name, maybe Raindrop was already taken by another factory.

The vehicle cost around 5000 yuan and has a top speed of 35km/h.

The car can seat one and maybe a baby in the back, steering in de motorcycle way. Early prototype didn’t have lights yet.

This one has, it is the small thingy sticking out from the front, it has mirrors too.

This is another model from the same factory, also called Xiaoshuidi, with a different construction of the roof, the bubble moves back in one piece, car seems sligtly bigger as well.

For the wrting of this article I now saw about 30 pictures of Xiaoshuidi’s and not a single pair looked completely the same. This could be a good thing, meaning the factory is very much into innovation and experiment, but indeed it could be a bad thing too… Machine on last pic by far the most cool Xiaoshuidi, with a blacked out roof for greater visibility.

So. My cousin saw one and I have seen one at a show in Beijing, that makes only two. Why didn’t the Xiaoshuidi became a success? I guess it must be the weather, looking at the name and design the vehicle is clearly designed with a big rainstorm in mind, but it almost never rains in this town.

Maybe better luck down south…

Seen close to my office in Beijing, a Dongfeng-Citroën c-Elysée with a Jaguar statue on la bonnet. The Citroën c-Elysée is based on the Dongfeng-Citroën Fukang which is based on the Citroën ZX. The Fukang and c-Elysée are both still in production in China, they come though, without the Jag.

This is the old c-Elysée, Jaguar makes it look more expensive.

The new 2010 car.

VIP-badge with a Caddilac-logo-look-alike.

It also has ‘Xsara’ written on the back. That is another Citroën. The Xsara was the sucessor of the ZX in Europe. The Xsara was made in China too, by Dongfeng-Citroën, alongside the Fukang and c-Elysée. The Xsara however never became a success in China and production stopped. The good old Fukang and c-Elysée so outlived their sucessor.

Dongfeng-Citroën Xsara. The official name of the joint venture is Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile, they make Peugeots as well.

At a local autoshow in Beijing I found this beautiful Hongqi CA770, it was made in 1978 and has a V8 engine. The owner told me it was undergoing restauration and worked all fine. He took the car to the show to “educate” youngsters about China’s rich automotive history. Hongqi is a brand from First Auto Works (FAW) from the city of Changchun in northern Jilin province.

The massive machine is almost 6 meters long and 1.80 wide. Hongqi’s were made for the government but many are now in private hands. Prices have gone sky high, a good example cost at least 100.000 dollar.

V8 looked a bit dusty but the owner told me it ran like a “baby rabbit”, those run well indeed.

Dash a mix of wood and cheap looking plastics, chrome is fake. Clock in the middle of the dash is missing.

Gearlever at the wheel.

96071 kilometers, it can do many a more. Below Tiananmen gate at Tiananmen square.

Very comfortable sofa in the back.

Owner promised to contact me when the restauration was finished, later more…

A hard working man from the city of Chengdu made himself his dreamcar: a Chang’an-Suzuki Alto 4-door convertible. The engine is modified too, the man claims it can now accelerate faster than “a BMW”.

Mitsubishi windowsticker makes car even more fast. The man spend two years building his machine, total cost 20.000 yuan, not much for a true one and only.

Chang’an-Suzuki made the Alto up until only two years ago. Car on pic a factory-sold sports version with roofrack, spoilers, big foglights and a fake vent on the bonnet. Price was 40.000 yuan, sadly the old Alto has now been replaced by a new Alto, a much more boring car.

Dear Readers,

Its a hot summer in Beijing so I’ll go on holiday to the Netherlands for one week to cool down, with Heineken, windmills and a billion tulips. This site will not be updated until July 2nd, except when FAW finally brings this one to the market. Guess they won’t so see you all early next month.

Greetings,

Tycho

(on the picture a Chang’an-Suzuki Alto with some changes)

This Beijing police officer must have a heart of stone. A parking ticket for a beautiful girl and her beautiful Ferrari. Nobody indeed, is above the law…

Found this in an article about limosines for marriage. Between the obvious Benzes and Audis this Buick Regal limosine. The Regal is made in China by SAIC-GM, this is the previous model, it is now replaced by a rebadged Opel Insigina. The limo is at least 1.5 meter longer, the conversion likely done in China. A beauty for a marriage indeed.

Volkswagen’s China headquarters is just one corner away from the mighty TheTycho.com skyscrapers. Volkswagen’s place has a small showroom that doubles as a coffee shop where all men are welcome. Sometimes a Lamborghini can be seen inside, this time I found the LP 670-4 Super Veloce, number 298 out of 350.

The car is gone now, likely to the Lamborghini-dealer or to a happy customer, but today I found an even rarer Lambo in the coffee shop. More on that one soon.