DongFeng to release Hx Knock Off
Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 10:47 am
After the Humvee made its debut in the first Gulf War, China looked at its own poor rag tag fleet of Beijing 2020 Jeeps that were based on World War Two Soviet designs and decided that it need its own fleet of kick ass High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) to deliver its own brand of freedom into which ever country required the PRC’s help and assistance. The government put out a tender for a HMMWV) and two companies replied in earnest, Shenyang Aircraft and Dongfeng Auto. Shengyang Aircraft Company were already making the nations attack, bombing and reconnaissance aircraft as well as various support aircraft so they thought they would be able to design a military SUV quite easily.Dongfeng on the other hand had been making trucks since its inception in the 50′s when it was part of First Automobile Works and was actually called Second Auto Works, Dongfeng won the bid for the HMMWV and called their new vehicle theMeng Shi, here Meng means ferocious and Shi means soldier; quite the name.
Before the Chinese government even put out the tender to Shengyang Aircraft and Dongfeng Auto they talked with GM about the possibility of buying the Humvee from the USA directly, but due to a rather large street party that ended badly in Beijing in 1989, the US Govt was no longer in a postion to sell military products to China. That meant that Dongfeng or Shengyang couldn’t use the original Cummins engine for their own vehicle, unless of course they produced a civillian version which would classify the engines as dual use and perfectly okay to use in military application. However, as soon as you clear one problem, another arrises; the Dongfeng Hummer was just too damned big for Chinese roads and would have to take on yellow license plates indicating it as a truck and thus banned from most city centers during daylight hours – this is a major sales killer especially when you’re major buyers are going to be posers that want to drive straight down Chaoyang Avenue and show off their latest toy. Dongfeng are planning to bring out the below civillian version of the Dongfeng Hummer, the bumpers have been given some major changes and the rough and ready military look has been tonned down a notch which might give the Meng Shi enough leeway to get regular license plates rather than truck ones. The trunk hatch has been given a 60 degree sloping style roof which will cut into the storage space, but lets face it; this thing is bound to be huge anyway.
The Chinese press aren’t yet saying what engines the Meng Shi will be getting, the military version gets a diesel of course but the civ version is likely to get a gasoline engine to get around the pesky emissions limits on diesels Chinese military vehicles are excluded from emissions standards and get away with some very poor emissions.
Here are some sketches of what it might look like...
Before the Chinese government even put out the tender to Shengyang Aircraft and Dongfeng Auto they talked with GM about the possibility of buying the Humvee from the USA directly, but due to a rather large street party that ended badly in Beijing in 1989, the US Govt was no longer in a postion to sell military products to China. That meant that Dongfeng or Shengyang couldn’t use the original Cummins engine for their own vehicle, unless of course they produced a civillian version which would classify the engines as dual use and perfectly okay to use in military application. However, as soon as you clear one problem, another arrises; the Dongfeng Hummer was just too damned big for Chinese roads and would have to take on yellow license plates indicating it as a truck and thus banned from most city centers during daylight hours – this is a major sales killer especially when you’re major buyers are going to be posers that want to drive straight down Chaoyang Avenue and show off their latest toy. Dongfeng are planning to bring out the below civillian version of the Dongfeng Hummer, the bumpers have been given some major changes and the rough and ready military look has been tonned down a notch which might give the Meng Shi enough leeway to get regular license plates rather than truck ones. The trunk hatch has been given a 60 degree sloping style roof which will cut into the storage space, but lets face it; this thing is bound to be huge anyway.
The Chinese press aren’t yet saying what engines the Meng Shi will be getting, the military version gets a diesel of course but the civ version is likely to get a gasoline engine to get around the pesky emissions limits on diesels Chinese military vehicles are excluded from emissions standards and get away with some very poor emissions.
Here are some sketches of what it might look like...