Presidential cars always make for good diecast subjects. Matchbox have done the Cadillac One. Tomica have given us the Emperor’s Nissan Prince Royal in their Limited Vintage range and the Chinese President’s Hongqi L7 in the basic range. Today I’m going to be looking at a Chinese government car in the form of the Hongqi CA770 from XCartoys. Who better to cover a Chinese car than one of the most popular Chinese brands? And needless to say, I’ll be leaving politics at the door on this post.
The CA770 was produced between 1966 and 1981 and was actually based on a 1950s Chrysler Imperial, with most production versions using the 5.6 litre V8 Chrsyler LA engine. Over 1600 were sold and included armoured, long wheelbase and even pickup variants. The CA770 was the official car of the Chinese Communist Party and could be seen at many state events and parades. One even made its way into Jay Leno’s collection!
The CA770 is modelled in miniature by a couple of Chinese brands, but these can be very hard to obtain for customers outside of China. Recently however, due to the increased popularity of some of these manufacturers, they occasionally appear on Ebay. I managed to snag this one recently, manufactured by the XCartoys brand.
XCartoys I know will be familiar to a few of you. They’ve manufactured a VW Jetta that has been very popular with customisers, and some license built Daihatsus and other Chinese domestic market cars. And they’ve done a rather good job of the CA770.
The overall package is smart, a matt black box with a plastic display case and a rather sharp looking base with engraved information plaque.
The diecast itself is a big thing and has some good details. There’s the bonnet (hood) ornament, modelled on the Chinese flag, the very sharp decals. Seperate piece plastic head and tail lights. Two small corner markers are included in a poly bag for you to fit (needs glue). Then there’s the opening bonnet with a nice representation of that big Chrysler V8 tucked away. I’m rather impressed with it. It’s a decent quality and attractive model that looks great in the Perspex case or loose on your shelf. And to keep the “rolling” collectors happy, it’ll roll with great ease.
There’s some great diecast coming out of China these days, and given the price (£25 to the UK including shipping) this can count itself among the best and most unique I have seen so far. And given XCartoys penchant for doing 1/64 Chinese military and working vehicles, I doubt this will be the last time I feature their work.
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(Find XCartoys on Ebay)