Which brings us back to this beautiful blue example sitting inside one of Shanghai’s Citroen dealerships. Visible from the street, it occupied a prime corner of the showroom floor, and had several gawkers the day I was there. A display screen gave information and videos on the history of the car, but I was too busy inspecting every square inch of the car to pay much attention.
Many times now I have mentioned in this blog the lack of old cars in Shanghai. There just doesn’t seem to be the same degree of nostalgia for old cars that exists in many other parts of the world. There is no shortage of shiny modern sports cars and SUVs all over Shanghai, but seeing a classic car is rare. So when I do see one, it catches my attention. Luckily, the most recent one was a true collectible, and worthy of close inspection. The Citroen CX was a revolutionary luxury car that was the follow-up to the legendary Citroen DS. The DS became known as the ‘Presidential’ car in France, and its long, low, design with exaggerated curves and intricate detailing is known the world over. It was a hard car to follow, and the CX had its work cut out for it, but it managed to carve a well-deserved place in the automotive history books with its own unique and imposing design. Both the DS and the CX (along with the smaller CX little brother, the GS) featured revolutionary hydraulic systems that could be used to raise and lower the car. In low position the car was a smooth cruiser that soaked up bumps and rough pavement like nothing else. In middle position getting in and out was easier, and the car was suited to rainy and snowy roads. In high position, the car could be driven through muddy fields and over potholes and sidewalks and deep snowdrifts if need be. It really was a versatile system, and had a load-leveling feature that kept the rear end at the same height as the front, no matter what the load. This high-tech (for the day!) hydraulic circuit was also responsible for the braking and power steering systems, courtesy of the famous green ‘LHM’ mineral-oil fluid running through its veins. A massive leak or hydraulic pump failure meant your car was disabled, but thankfully, the hydraulics in the Citroen CX proved to be rugged and reliable. Which brings us back to this beautiful blue example sitting inside one of Shanghai’s Citroen dealerships. Visible from the street, it occupied a prime corner of the showroom floor, and had several gawkers the day I was there. A display screen gave information and videos on the history of the car, but I was too busy inspecting every square inch of the car to pay much attention. There may not be many cars like this roaming the streets and roads and highways of China, but I am glad that there is at least one pristine example on display as a testament to the history of the automobile. China’s car culture is young, but I hope that they can discover and enjoy classic cars like this beautiful Citroen CX! Sometimes being out of your element is a good thing.
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On a recent trip to the water-town of Suzhou, west of Shanghai, I was browsing through a small antique shop. There were tons of old books and magazines and posters, most on the subject of China and Chairman Mao, still a very popular figure here. Stores like these are very common in touristy areas, and it can be hard to be sure that an article truly is old, as there are some very convincing fakes. I was out the door and heading down the street when a small blue book caught my eye on a table in front of the shop. I’m glad I stopped to take a look. The book was a pocket-sized guide entitled ‘Truck Data Book for Chevrolet Salesmen’! A peek inside showed that it was printed in 1937, and was the Chevrolet salesman’s handy pocket guide when listing specifications and details to prospective customers of their 1938 truck lineup. The book has a very thorough listing of the features, specifications and dimensions of the Chevrolet truck lineup from that year. There were open bed, bare chassis, and panel-side versions. There were multiple engine options depending on the intended use. Even details like tire sizes and load ratings were included: if it could be measured, dimensioned, or explained, it was done so in this book! The handbook itself was in relatively good shape, considering it was printed 77 years ago, and somehow found its way halfway around the world, from the US to China. Think about it: as the ink was drying and the pages were being bound, the Second World War had not yet started! Interestingly, the pages were attached with a crimped steel binding! I had never seen anything like this, and while it had rusted and discoloured some of the pages, that just adds to the authenticity in my eyes. I’m assuming the typical Chevrolet truck buyer at the time was male, because the guide makes clear reference to the potential buyer as a ‘He’. Sorry ladies, apparently you had better things to do back in the day then drop down to your local Chevy dealer to discuss heavy-duty diaphragm spring clutches and combined torque and Hotchkiss drive! Even more interesting was the ‘Weights and Measures’ section. The Chevrolet team had gone to the trouble of compiling what they stated was the most comprehensive listing anywhere of standard weights and measures. Want to know how heavy a live hog is? Ever ask yourself just how much a bushel of peaches might weigh? Curious about the weight of a 50-gallon barrel of molasses? Well I can tell you: 675 pounds! This handy book is the equivalent of a modern day automotive manufacturer's website and Google all rolled into one! There are also some very specific instructions included in the book, my favourite being the following (in reference to proposing the Economy Model engine): In this day and age, where we can find everything we want to know at the click of a mouse, and most car dealerships have lost their personalised attention to each customer’s needs, it is refreshing and entertaining to stumble across a gem like this. I asked how much the store owner wanted for the book and he said 10 RMB, which is the equivalent of a little more than one dollar. Without hesitating I took it, not because I suspect it has any significant monetary value, but because I think that it is a wonderful collectible for an automotive fan like myself. If ever any of you find yourselves on a TV show contest like “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and are asked the size and weight of a small vegetable crate of radishes (with tops!), use your ‘Call A Friend’ option wisely and give me a ring!
Take a look through my past two years of blog entries and you’ll see how many different cars I have professed my love to. I’m quite a fickle car fan, as one week I’ll be fawning over one old car, to have forgotten it the following week, having moved on to the next piece of strange old eye candy. How many times have I said “I want to buy this car!” only to completely forget the car as soon as it’s out of sight? Two summers ago I blogged about three old gems I discovered, abandoned in a rickety old shed in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the south of France. As you are all faithful, reliable readers, I’m sure you recall, but here is the link to refresh your memories: True to form, I fell in love, took pictures, blogged about these cars, and then completely forgot them. Until yesterday. It would seem that a year and a half of wind and rain did not erase my number, because yesterday I received an exciting message on my phone! The caller, a gentleman with a fantastic southern France accent, started out by explaining that I might find his message strange, then continued to explain that he had come across my number scribbled in the dirt on his Ford Consul. The shed was in danger of falling down, and had to be taken down for safety reasons, so he had pulled out the cars and noticed the note I had left. Curious if the number was still active and if I was still interested, he called to tell me the car in fact WAS for sale! As you can imagine, it was quite the automotive blast from the past. As I mentioned when I first wrote about these three cars, it was the Ford that caught my attention the most, with its reverse-angle rear window making it stand out. Already feeling guilty about trespassing, I didn’t poke around too long, but enough to see that the car was in pretty rough shape. I didn’t check out under the car, but it certainly can’t be in very good shape after sitting in an open shed for years. Obviously I called the owner back. He was very friendly and amused at my message, and not at all upset that I shouldn’t have been nosing around his old cars. He no longer had the time or desire to restore these cars, so they would be sold off to interested collectors. I’m not sure if it was because he saw my genuine interest in the Consul, or because it really isn’t worth much, but he was asking a very reasonable amount for the car, a token sum, really. The problem? As difficult as it would have been to haul the car the nearly 1000 kilometers North to where I was living in France at the time from the town of Ginals, where the car was, trying to get it here to China might be even trickier. So it seems like I won’t be able to respond to this call to action. But then, a light came on! If we had been touring the area two summers ago, it was because friends had invited us to visit their summer house nearby. An imposing property with 200 year old house and barns, one could surely find a spare corner of the barn to park a sad, abandoned Ford Consul looking for a bit of shelter? Let’s just say that discussions are ongoing. How unreasonable is buying an old car that I have neither the talent nor tools to restore? Pretty unreasonable. And storing it 1000 kms from my house in France? Downright foolish. All this while living an additional 10,000 kms away in China? I’d have to be crazy…
Which is why, for those of you that know me, this is totally possible! I hope to soon be able to tell you more about the Ford Consul! Stay tuned! Word travels fast around the office. I showed a few coworkers pictures of a fantastic oldish car I saw just a block from work, and the next day people were coming up to me asking if I had bought some ratty old beater! Perhaps something was lost in translation; I was simply expressing my love for the Haima HMC6470, a car that is, I have to admit, about as stunning visually as its name might suggest. When I showed them pictures they were all very relieved that I had not purchased it; a few were horrified that I would even consider such a thing. It's not good to make broad generalisations, but in my limited experience, Chinese people don't like old cars. I'm sure some car fans could appreciate a true old classic, but none of the people I have met can understand my attraction to this sort of car. To be sure, many of my North American and European friends don't like these old beaters, but can at least understand how someone might find them entertaining. But not the Chinese. A coworker explained it in some detail; he said that even a decade ago it would have been out of the question for many people to ever think of owning a car. They were simply too expensive, and reserved for officials and rich people. The incredible rate of economic growth, coupled with the increased availability of cars (from cheap entry-level Chinese brands to luxurious and exotic European models) make automobile ownership accessible to a whole new social class of people. And these people seem to figure that if they can buy a car, they may as well buy a nice one! It really is a status symbol; much more than in the Western world, so it's inconceivable to drive around in a ratty, 20-year old relic. As far as status symbols, I will concede that the HMC6470 isn't all that impressive. The brand Haima sprung up in 1992 in a partnership between the government of Hainan Province in southern China and Mazda, the Japanese automaker. This car is actually the 929 from Mazda, built in a Haima factory, with a few different badges slapped on. Haima failed to truly catch on in the 1990s, and while they still use some Mazda platforms and engines today, Mazda's shares were bought out in 2006 by the Chinese manufacturer FAW. Haima continues today selling affordable compact cars. If I ever manage to figure out a way to buy and store an old car like this here, it will take some convincing to get my friends and coworkers to understand the appeal. But that's part of the fun, and I make it my personal mission to introduce the anti-status automotive trend in China! Stay tuned, I might start a big fad, and you can all say that you knew me before I was famous... who knows, maybe I will end up being the status symbol in this story!
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AuthorWelcome! My name is Paul, and I am an old-fashioned, low-pressure, low-buck car fan with lots of automotive stories to tell! Archives
February 2020
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