Wikipedia defines a ‘muscle car’ as such:
Muscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. The term principally refers to American, Australian and to a lesser extent South African models from the late 1960s and early 1970s and generally describes a 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size car with a large, powerful V8 engine and special trim, intended for maximum torque on the street or in drag racing competition.
We’re not sure what kind of motors BAW plans to put in these concept cars (that should see limited production in 2010), but we hope they’re big stinkin’ V8 engines! Although in todays energy conserving climate, we could see them downgraded to something more energy efficient, possibly even hybrid drivetrains.
BAW 700R
The Geely GT wasnt the only roadster out to steal the show, the Beijing Auto Works 700R looks pretty mean!
BAW 800:
The 800 is a full sized luxury car.
The 700 is the sedan version of the 700R roadster (above)
Its good to see that independent Chinese manufacturers have the capacity to create some beautiful concepts, either working in partnership with foreign design houses, or sourcing in-house talent to make the cars for them. Self developed cars from China seem to improving with every year, if the above BAW ‘muscle cars’ get put into production, then the Chinese car industry is most definitely heading in the right direction.
BAW gets a thumbs up from China Car Times.
those pattern designs at the front and the back really remind me of those design in the ancient chinese architecture especially those wooden window frames. do you have any bigger clearer pictures for 700r ?
Thanks for the excellent coverage. It seems like autoblog left out the 700 sedan and the 800. Very nice! I like the italicized Chinese characters for badging.
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I just read in wikipedia that BAW builds various daimler-benz vehicles (before that got broken up), including the Merc C-class and E-class. That’s intriguing, I wonder if Merc managed to let BAW use any old chassis lying around like how they put the 300C and Charger on the old E-class chassis! That would be amazing…
> I wonder if Merc managed to let BAW use any old chassis lying around like how they put the 300C and Charger on the old E-class chassis! That would be amazing…
Beijing 700 and 800 ride on Hyundai EF Sonata chassis.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200704/200704230016.html
Hyundai Joint Venture in China Building New Sedan
Beijing Hyundai Motor, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor and the Beijing Automotive Industry in China, said it plans to independently build a new mid-size sedan to be released in China in 2010.
The project will be developed at Beijing Automotive’s new R&D center which is under construction and should be done in May 2008. A Chinese engineer formerly with GM in the U.S. was appointed by Beijing Automotive as the head of the new R&D center.
Beijing Hyundai said Sunday that more than 500 Chinese engineers will be hired for the R&D center by 2010 when the new vehicle is set to be finished. Some core technologies and components from Hyundai Motor will be used in the new sedan.
Noh Jae-man, the president of Beijing Hyundai Motor, announced at the Shanghai Motorshow on Friday that Hyundai Motor is planning to license the EF Sonata’s platform, engine, and transmission technology to Beijing Hyundai for the project.
“Although the new car will be based on licensed technology and components, it can still be seen as an independent Chinese vehicle since Chinese engineers are developing it and Beijing Hyundai Motor is the main body driving the development,” a Hyundai Motor official said.
Beijing Hyundai expects to produce 30,000 to 40,000 units of the new automobile in its first year, a number similar to the 37,117 EF Sonatas that Hyundai Motor sold in China last year.
With the introduction of the new sedan, competition for Hyundai Motor in China is inevitable. Beijing Hyundai sold a total of 290,011 cars in China last year, including 169,716 Avante XD and 42,174 Accent vehicles.
“Production of the EF Sonata in China will be suspended before Beijing Hyundai releases its independent model based on the EF Sonata,” the Hyundai Motor official said. “The company will begin brand differentiation strategies by strengthening production of the new NF Sonata and other market strategies.”
Bah, then I guess it’s nothing to be excited about. More garbage that looks good.
Actually, I notice that’s for Beijing Hyundai JV which apparently is different from the Beijing Chrysler JV. can anyone clarify the difference/relation in the two? Did the BAW/Chrysler relation dissolve after DCX broke up, or what?
And lastly, the Sonata is a mid-sized sedan, which seems to fit the description of the 700, but what about the 800? It would seem odd to release two cars on the same platform, and I doubt Hyundai would let anyone use their flagship Genesis chassis. I hope they source one from a better company anyways.
> Bah, then I guess it’s nothing to be excited about. More garbage that looks good.
Exactly. Hyundai doesn’t want Chinese to have the latest tech and plans to keep a generational gap between itself and Beijing Automotive
http://www.hyundai-blog.com/index.php/2010-hyundai-sonata-yf-spy-shots/
Hyundai YF Sonata undergoing testing. Launching next-year(Two full generations after Beijing EF700)
> Did the BAW/Chrysler relation dissolve after DCX broke up, or what?
Beijing’ JV with Daimler went nowhere. Newly independent Chrysler is working with Chery.
Daimler historically mistrusted Chinese. For example, Ssangyong had no problem licensing Mercedes chassis and powertrain when it was Korean owned, but found that Daimler was no longer willing to cooperate once SAIC took it over.
Accordingly, Beijing’s main technology source is Hyundai, and Beijing’s self-brand vehicles are based on Hyundai designs.
If that were the case, why is Mercedes providing Ssangyong with an 8 speed auto and V8 engine if they mistrusted the now Chinese owned Ssangyong?
These don’t look bad. I kinda get a Lexus vibe from the sedans, but they look pretty good.
Keeping my fingers crossed someone in China actually produces one of the many concept roadsters we’ve been seeing!
Just curious, how do you access Wikipedia? The only way I’ve found to access it is through either VPN or through a remote system outside of China…
Beijing Car manufactorer has really made some stunning conceptcar’s, they look awesome!!!! The Chinese are indeed going in the right direction with their designs, if they will go on that way they will conquer the world car market. These cars are beautifull…..congratulations BAW
WOW just wow, for the first time in my life I feel attracted to Chinese cars ! Ok they’re just concept, the 700R concept has styling elements from the Lexus LF-A roadster and the 800 share a strikling ressemblance with the back doors of a Lexus LS460 but when it comes to the 700 sedan, BAW amazes me a lot ! And you know why ? Because it looks like a lot what a next-generation Lexus GS could look like, it has so many of the first Toyota Aristo’s styling references (the BRilliance BS6 has also some but copycat ones). The funny thing is Lexus has not released yet a concept of their next GS. BAW WOW WOW, certainly a name to to remember !
“WOW”, I agree Caroline, that the concept cars being displayed by Chinese manufacturers at this year’s show are really eye-appealing. But most of them are not made by in-house designers, and so are unlikely to ever appear on the road.
China Car Times can you give us the story behind it all? Which design houses turned out these beauties? Were they Italian, Japanese, Korean or even Chinese perhaps?
> Which design houses turned out these beauties? Were they Italian, Japanese, Korean or even Chinese perhaps?
It’s fairly easy to tell which ones are designed by foreign studios on contract and which ones are designed in China.
- The ones resembling foreign concepts are almost certainly foreign designed on contract.
- The quirky looking ones are probably designed in house.
Even if they not not made in house, they still have a chance to make it on the road, example is the italian designed Chery S18, will soon be on the road.
ye ash please write something about the CH design scorpio supercar concept and the Chang’an Roadster concept with its new engine.
I just have the feelings that Chery Faira YY will be the first one to hit the roads.
and it doesn’t matter if it is in house design or not, as long as it is a chinese branded car and not copy of something else then it’s ok.
> and it doesn’t matter if it is in house design or not, as long as it is a chinese branded car and not copy of something else then it’s ok.
This is very much true. Copying somebody else’s design is totally unacceptable, but paying foreign studios and engineering consulting firms to design your car is a perfectly acceptable practice.
The only problem with this “paying off foreigners to design Chinese brand car” is that it’s expensive and only a few companies can afford to do it.
Comments closed pending clean up.