1958 HONGQI CA770, THE FIRST NATIONAL CHINA CAR

Author : Youkonton Ratarasarn

The National Car referred to the car that is 100% produced in China. The National Car of China was initiated from a National Development Plan for the first 5 years in 1950-1955. China set a scheme to produce its own car and had every part made in the country. In 1956, busses were firstly created and later on, they began to create saloon car and met with a success in 1958. The Honqgi (�red flag� in Chinese) model CA770 was a mixture between cars of the free world and cars of the communist which are the United State�s Chrysler Imperial and Soviet�s ZIL car

�CA770� was mode�s name of �Red Flag�. The meanings are as follows:
�C� refers to China
�A� refers to FAW (First Automobile Works). It was the name of the factory of the car.
The first �7� is a code number of the car.
The Second �7� means 7 seats
�0� is a kind of car (Limo)

CA700 used eight pistons engine sized 5700CC in order to have a 220 horse powers by using automatic gear of two speeds. The weight of the car was 2.5 tons. This model had been used as an official car for the leader of China and for many leaders of foreign countries who came to visit China.


In 1965 The Prime Minister of China, Joe En Lai denied the request of President Nixon who would bring his own car during his first visit China. He told Nixon not to worry. He welcomed Nixon with the best car in the world that built by China itself. It was this Hongqi CA770.

The President Mow Ze Tung, the leader during that period had used this model as his positional car, including welcoming various leaders such as Stalin of Soviet. This car was used by the leader of China for a long time since 1958-1983. The last Honqgi CA770 was produced in 1983. The latest model of Honqgi was Model Besturn. The current leader of China, Hong Gin Tow uses armored Audi A8 as his official car.

Now, it better to mentioned this die-cast car. It was die-casting Hongqi CA770. It was bought from China during my trip to film a documentation for the United Nation. During the days I traveled many places for footages. At dusk I went out and have a walk to find this die-cast. This was 5-6 years ago. I had a look nearly every store in Beijing. It was scarce to get one. Language was one of the problem. The seller did not understand English and I did not know any Chinese. I intended that die-cast I would buy must be Chinese brand that made in China and the real car must also be Chinese car. However, this die-cast car appeared to have a brand of French named Kader Precistion Model. The real car was certainly Chinese. It was the only die-cast car I felt good with its �Made in China�.
This die-cast car has a scale of 1:24 The length is 24.5cm. The Kader Precistion Model, USA had a permission from First Automobile Works which was a producer of Hongqi CA770 in 1997.

It is a black car. The bonnet can be opened to see the engine inside. The tail bonnet can be opened. There is a spare tire with battery in it. Four doors can be opened and shut. The seats and spare seat at the back are foldaway. All seats are covered with real velvet. The steering wheel has a system to operate the wheels to turn the car. Underneath, there are details of understructure such as leaf spring, shock absorber and exhausted pipe, etc.

The details of the die-cast car is very good. Even so, the rear mirror has a thin black curtain as a partition. Especially if we compare with the technical output of the last 10 years, this die-cast car is incredible. Lastly, I would like to repeat that it is the only Made-in-China die-cast car I feel good with.