Author | Cheng Zheng
Edit | Ge Bangning
Produced by | Bangning Studio (GBNGZS)
| Editor's note
66 years ago today, on August 1, 1958, the first Hongqi was successfully trial-produced.
This car is a product of the "Great Leap Forward" and the fruit of the labor of the masses. It is based on the 1955 United States Chrysler Imperial C69 model, but has made some creations in the front and rear of the body: the front water tank mask is fan-shaped, the rear tail light is a palace lamp, a red flag logo is added to the front center of the hood, and five small red flags are decorated on each side of the two sides, representing workers, farmers, businessmen, and soldiers. After that, FAW adopted the form of "rushing to the temple fair" for trial production.
The designer of this car is Cheng Zheng, deputy chief engineer of the car institute of the former Automobile Research Institute of FAW, who once wrote in his reminiscences: "The task of doing the red flag went through 33 sleepless days and nights from the mobilization of the factory director on the evening of June 30, 1958 to the noon of August 3, 1958, when the first prototype car drove out of the assembly line. ”
Perhaps it is a memory error, according to FAW's "Auto Worker" report, in order to celebrate the birth of the Hongqi luxury car, FAW held a celebration and naming meeting of 20,000 people in the garden of the Communist Youth League at "7 p.m. on August 2". This is a day short of what Cheng Zheng said.
Cheng Zheng was born in Tianjin in June 1928, and his father died when he was 8 years old. In 1951, he went to Tianjin Auto Parts Factory for an internship under the tutelage of Lu Yanbin (the first section chief of the later automobile design department), during which he tried to produce a small station wagon, which was recorded as the first car in New China by the Soviet encyclopedia. In September 1952, Cheng Zheng graduated from Yen Ching Restaurant University and was assigned to the Automobile Bureau of the First Machine Ministry. In the following three years, he completed professional courses such as automobile design in his spare time.
At the beginning of 1958, Cheng Zheng went to FAW to participate in grassroots training. In June, he joined the design department to participate in the trial production of the Red Flag Conference, and when FAW publicly presented it to the public for comments, his design plan was finally selected. In 1979, he designed models such as the Hongqi CA770D.
In 1990, Cheng Zheng retired and was later hired back to FAW Car Factory to participate in the design of Hongqi CA7560 and Xiaohongqi. In 2002, he was transferred to the product department of FAW Car Company.
Cheng Zheng has been with cars all his life. He has painted hundreds of renderings of cars, and as early as the 1960s, he proposed the concept of a national car. It took 4 months to complete the 220,000-word manuscript of "Automobile Modeling", which included the thinking on the styling design from the first Hongqi car in 1958 to the Hongqi car modification in 1995, which was published by Jilin Science and Technology Publishing House and selected as a textbook by the School of Automotive Engineering of Jilin University of Technology (now Jilin University).
In addition to car design, Cheng Zheng is versatile and proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. Such a person lives a simple life to the extreme: a bicycle has been used for decades, often wearing patched pants and socks. But in public, he wears a suit and tie, which shows a gentlemanly demeanor.
On the afternoon of August 18, 2008, Cheng Zheng was found dead at home at the age of 80. Previously, he was busy with the 2009 National Day 60th Anniversary Red Flag Parade Car Project. It is presumed that he died late at night on the 16th or early morning on the 17th. On his desk, he still has an unfinished manuscript of the review car.
During Cheng Zheng's lifetime, we regret that we were not able to seize the opportunity to complete his oral history. On the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the birth of the first red flag, Bang Ning Studio published his manuscript "The Rise and Fall of the Red Flag" (Cheng Zheng revised it on his sickbed in April 2007) to commemorate this old red flag man worthy of respect.
The picture in this article has been strongly supported by Zhang Xuedong, Pan Cheng, Tang Baoshu and Zhu Zhiqian, and I would like to thank them together.
▲ Unfinished review car manuscripts
"Red Flag" was born in an extraordinary era. The reason why it is extraordinary is that at that time, our country was still in its nascent life, and in the face of the material conditions of poverty and whiteness, we went to create a brilliant cause.
In 1956, the First Automobile Factory (FAW) had just been completed and put into operation, and with the assistance of the Soviet Union, it began to produce Jiefang trucks with a relatively simple structure. For our country, it is already an easy task, but compared with the world automobile industry, it is still in its infancy.
At that time, it was impossible for us, a new socialist country, to receive assistance or cooperation from any industrially developed countries, even if we wanted to get an automobile product and imitate or learn from it as an original. At that time, the world's car technology had reached a fairly modern level, and the technology we could master was very different.
Under these conditions, we have two paths to take: one is to rely on the assistance we have received from the Soviet Union and continue to develop step by step; The second is to take risks and work hard to "jump up" to pick up cutting-edge products in the automobile industry. Years later, we can see that the time for us to develop our own cars did not come naturally. Under the conditions at that time, it would be impossible to do this business without strong and courageous self-confidence.
At the end of 1957, Huang Jing, then head of the Ministry of Machinery, inspected FAW, hoping that FAW would consider the production of off-road trucks and cars as soon as possible. As a result, FAW first designed and trial-produced the "Dongfeng" sedan CA71, and had a certain amount of experience in developing new models on its own, laying the foundation for the next step to climb to a higher goal.
"Dongfeng" came out, and the prototype was sent to Beijing. On the occasion of the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chairman Mao and other central leading comrades tried to sit in a sample car. This is undoubtedly a great encouragement and promotion for FAW.
In this context, the youth league members of the FAW Design Office sent a big-character poster to the party committee of the factory, asking them to design their own cars in advance. The FAW Party Committee accepted the young people's statement without hesitation.
Out of concern for our self-reliance in developing high-end cars, the First Machinery Department, the Automobile Bureau, and fraternal units did not approve of us taking risks, and advocated that it would be better to be cautious, and some Soviet experts even thought that we were "messing around." At the meeting, there were only two votes in favor of our idea, one from the head of the Beijing Automobile Factory and one from Song Jingying, a professor at Tsinghua University.
But FAW decided to go its own way.
The task of doing the "Red Flag" went through 33 sleepless days and nights from the mobilization of the factory director on the evening of June 30, 1958 to the noon of August 3, 1958, when the first prototype car drove out of the assembly line.
After the design was chosen, the work on the full-scale clay model of the sculpture adopted a conventional-breaking approach – the mass movement crowd tactic. It took less than a week to complete the 3-month workload.
Perhaps now someone wants to say that this practice is unscientific and does not deserve to be recognized. We narrate these examples, not to generalize these methods of work, but to understand the thinking that underpins them.
At that time, the mass line method was adopted in all aspects of work, but later there were many criticisms about this, which was regarded as "formalism," "unscientific," and "nonsense." However, under the current conditions, the trial production work was not only completed in this way, but also within a time limit that was difficult for the predecessors to do. The fundamental significance of this lies in the fact that we have made a breakthrough in practical work.
In the state of the process technology, the prototype of the V8 engine encountered unimaginable difficulties. In order to cast a qualified V8 engine block, only 3 qualified products can be selected out of 100 castings for machining. I don't know how many difficulties we went through, but the V8 engine was successfully trial-produced.
There is an old photo of Sun Yijun, the director of the casting workshop, at the sand turning site, analyzing and studying the cylinder block castings with workers to find solutions. This kind of scene is a rare phenomenon in today's factories, and it expresses the dynamics of people's thinking at that time.
Let's take a look at the working thinking at that time from the following examples.
Why did you choose the following rendering from more than a dozen styling schemes? This scheme is not based on excellent painting skills, but based on the original intention of the modeling, which is to "go your own way", and never follow the fashion and fashion.
The only design reference we had at the time was United States Chrysler's Imperial sedan. Compared with the red flag renderings, it can be seen that there is no plagiarism between the two.
"Go your own way" is not simply decided from technology, aesthetics, or other factors, but based on national self-esteem. We must abandon backward, short-sighted, and narrow-minded national egoism, and respect our own opinions after prudently determining our own views in light of the actual situation, which is the basis of our self-confidence.
More than half a century later, there is a view that many technical problems cannot be solved by ourselves alone, and that it is "natural" to follow the path that foreigners have blazed. This kind of thinking is completely antithetical to our own thinking of developing red flags.
According to the original plan, the Hongqi prototype should be completed on August 1.
On the morning of August 1, the platform outside the factory has been set up, and the colorful flags are colorful, but when starting the car, it was suddenly found that the automatic transmission could not be put into gear, and repeated tests were still ineffective. The leaders of the FAW Party Committee decided: If it is not completed, it will not be rewarded, and continue to work hard to solve the problem until it succeeds.
After another 3 days and 3 nights of hard work, the first red flag finally drove out of the factory. The first Hongqi prototype did not have an official product number.
▲The first Hongqi prototype car does not have an official product number
After the completion of the prototype, in order to preliminarily verify the performance of the car, the factory organized several different vehicles to participate in the test run and conduct road tests on the highway to Dalian.
After the successful trial production of the first Hongqi prototype, what should I do next? Rather than being complacent, we believe that there is still a long way to go before we can achieve real success. There is no other choice but to continue to struggle.
Guo Li, the director of the automobile plant at that time, decided that all the design and trial production work must be carried out step by step, in strict accordance with the formal design steps, and start from scratch. The achievements that have been achieved can only be used as confidence and motivation. He proposed that all our work must be carried out at an accelerated pace on the normal track.
The "normal track" here is the commonly adopted scientific work method, and the "accelerated progress" is to do our best to break through the shackles and move forward quickly. We should respect the objective laws of facts, and we should not be constrained by conventions and dare not forge ahead.
This image is a re-sculpted full-size clay model of the CA72 model. After all the product drawings are drawn, the main model is made of high-quality pine wood, these work steps are the working procedures of the automobile industry in advanced countries, and we have done it conscientiously.
▲The main model of the CA72 model
Throughout the development process of Hongqi, we have always held the attitude of further exploration of the design that has been made.
At the end of 1958, we began to design the whole vehicle step by step. In September 1959, the design and trial production of the first finalized car, the CA72, with an official product number, was completed. Previously, we have designed and trial-produced three prototypes: CA72-2E, CA72-3E and CA72-4E.
In these three design and trial production test models, it was not a partial change trial production on one vehicle, but a new prototype according to the new plan.
▲CA72-2E
▲CA72-3E
▲CA72-4E
After nine months and four rounds of trial vehicle exploration, the CA72 was finalized. This speed and efficiency is still an excellent record.
In September 1959, the first officially finalized product, Hongqi CA72, came out.
▲CA72 is an official product
In order to present the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, FAW decided to rush to produce 10 CA72s and send them to Beijing. These 10 red flags, together with the peace car manufactured by the Beijing Automobile Factory and the Phoenix car manufactured by the Shanghai Automobile Factory, were displayed in front of Tiananmen Square and were praised by the masses.
▲The red flag was displayed in front of Tiananmen Square
As far as we know, some Soviet experts who were skeptical of the mainland's own development of luxury cars could hardly believe that we had built the CA72 ourselves.
This photo is a commemorative photo taken by Qiu Haiyuan, the photographer of the design office, when I drove to Changchun Nanling Stadium to take pictures after the first CA72 was made. As you can see from the photo, I was standing in front of the beautiful Hongqi car, with blue clothes and two large patches on my pants.
After CA72 was put into production, in view of some quality defects that continued to appear, the factory leaders decided to set up 48 professional research teams to solve quality problems in different specialties. Through the efforts of various professional research teams, certain results have been obtained. In the process, several improvements were made to the CA72 model, such as the addition of air conditioning, which led to the later CA72B.
Originally, Hongqi CA72 was only available to senior leaders of the central and national governments. The central government's opinion is that at present, it is only used in China and is not supplied to the outside world.
In 1959, at the Leipzig International Exposition in East Germany, we had the opportunity to display the red flag to the outside world, and the scene was enthusiastic and had a great impact.
▲In 1959, the red flag went abroad and was exhibited at the Leipzig International Exposition
In 1960, the red flag was exhibited at the Geneva International Exposition in Switzerland, which was the public appearance of the red flag around the world and attracted the attention of the world.
According to the participants at the time, an Italy car design expert saw the red flag and made only one word of comment "smart and cunning". He does not convey to us the original text of the word, only the meaning.
It is not difficult to see that the so-called "smart" means that we can design and manufacture such a high-end car by ourselves under the conditions at that time; The so-called "cunning" refers to the fact that the other party can see that many of our design content is learned from other countries' famous cars, but they can't say whose design they copied.
Another Italy automotive styling expert said after taking a closer look at the Hongqi car: "Hongqi styling design is a model of the combination of oriental art and automotive technology. ”
Although the central government stipulated at that time that the red flag would not be provided for use abroad for the time being, Huang Zhen, the mainland's ambassador to France, specifically proposed that in order to participate in France's world political activities, he requested that a red flag be equipped. In this way, for the first time, the red flag appeared on the streets of Paris.
In 1965, another red flag was displayed at the Chinese Pavilion at the Foire de Paris Exhibition in France.
▲CA72 exhibited in Paris in 1965
After the CA72 was finalized and put into production, the central car department gave feedback that we should produce a three-row car as the basic type, while the CA72 was based on a two-row car as the basic type. So, in the years that followed, we began to explore the next generation of models, the long-wheelbase three-row seating model.
At the end of 1959, based on the CA72, we designed and prototyped the first long-wheelbase three-row seater.
It is worth noting that the "Zhong" character logo on the front of this car means the "Zhong" character and the image of the combination of the mass line. At that time, it advocated "two participations, one reform and three combinations" ("two participations" refers to the participation of cadres in labor and the participation of workers in management; "One reform" refers to the reform of all unreasonable systems; "Three combinations" refers to the combination of workers, management cadres, and technical personnel).
This was the slogan of FAW to realize the "250 vehicles in class" campaign, which was later recognized by the central government and became the fundamental business idea of the national "industrial constitution". This "public" word mark is used in many places in FAW and has become an informal factory mark. Unfortunately, during the Cultural Revolution, the rebels considered it to be the "Three Mountains" and abolished it.
In 1960, we developed the CA72 three-row model – with the intention of simplifying the body styling and drawing process, taking samples from 1:5 models, enlarging them and drawing them on a blackboard. Then, the curves on the blackboard drawing are directly made into wooden tires, and the body parts are machined by hand. If the test is successful, it can further shorten the work cycle of the body design and improve the work efficiency.
In terms of styling, we draw on the Italy style of styling - using relief instead of decorative pieces. But unexpectedly, during the Cultural Revolution, the stylist was quarantined and censored because of his background and overseas relations, and some people artificially criticized the designer, framing the body styling form as "using the side depression of the body to satirize the mainland during the three-year difficult period, and the people were hungry". As a result, the design plan was burned.
▲Comparison of the three-row seats designed in 1960 with the CA72 basic model
▲1960 1/5 clay model of three rows of seats
In 1964, we designed and prototyped a three-row model. The purpose of this time is very clear: to summarize the lessons learned and make targeted improvements.
When sculpting the full-size clay model in the workshop, Wang Shaolin, the deputy director of the automobile factory at the time, personally participated in the labor and sculpted the full-size clay model with the designers for nearly two months. The prototype was completed in the third quarter of 1964.
▲The CA72 three-row model was designed and trial-produced in 1964
The styling of this model is significantly improved from the three-row seating model produced in the previous two rounds of trial production. However, at this time, all walks of life were launching the "Four Clean-up Movement", and the production of industrial plants and mines fell into a state of semi-paralysis.
In the workshop, some "activists" blamed the stylist from a bad family, criticized the designer, and denied the discussion of the body method on the grounds that "the front window pillar of this model is too tilted, and the driver's head is not convenient to stick out of the front triangular window when reversing". This model ushered in the end of self-destruction.
Before the National Day in 1959, we sent the trial CA72J to Beijing. This special review car was given to Lin Biao.
▲CA72J parade car (1959)
In 1962, considering that it was inconvenient for the national leaders to stand for a long time in the parade car, a structure that the rear seat could be flipped over and could be temporarily seated on it after folding, which was the parade car with a movable seat.
This kind of design has no precedent in the world, which shows that we young designers can create many things without precedent as long as they emancipate their minds.
After the production of the Hongqi CA72J review car, it was immediately provided to the application of national state activities and attracted the attention of world public opinion. In foreign affairs activities, riding in the self-produced red flag review car is a display of the country's dignity and strength.
▲Chairman Mao inspected in a red flag convertible
After 6 years of exploration of the second-generation Hongqi model, we have achieved a relatively clear concept of the new model contour. In addition, with the accumulation of new model development technology, the second-generation Hongqi CA770 was put on the agenda from the end of 1964.
▲In 1965, the trial production of the first CA770 prototype was completed. After being sent to Beijing, it was used by Peng Zhen, the mayor of Beijing
At this time, FAW set up a car workshop specializing in the production of cars, and planned to produce the first batch of 20 cars before May 1, 1966, and send them to Beijing for use.
▲In 1965, the first batch of CA770 was assembled
From the first step of development, all design work steps of CA770 were carried out in full accordance with the formal procedures, and the design time was completed in 4 months. The prototype car has been tested on the road.
▲CA770 is doing road tests on the highway to Dalian
By the time of the first CA770s, all designers and workers were busy from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, and went to work on time the next morning, with no days off and no overtime pay. When a few people have something to do and want to go home before 9 p.m., some people will ask, why do you want to leave early? You can see the state of our work at that time.
After the CA770 was put into production, we continued to work on the design and development of the CA770 series variants. In June 1966, when the Cultural Revolution began, FAW continued to maintain production for a period of time, so it was possible to continue the development of the model. In less than a few months, we completed the development of the CA771 two-row model.
▲CA771 has two rows of seats
In 1968, under the influence of the Cultural Revolution, the rebels seized power, established the Revolutionary Committee, the product design department was disbanded, and the technicians were sent to the workshop as workers, participating in labor and reforming their thinking.
Some rebel workers did their own work on product design and improvement. Based on their own experience and perception of the product, they simplified the design of the CA770 model being produced - eliminating the center partition wall; Shorten the front and rear overhangs, and put into mass production without testing; The custom model number is CA773.
▲The CA773 is a three-row model with simplified installations
Only 285 units of the CA773 were produced. Later, the user reported that there were problems with the product and it was not suitable to continue production. When the higher-level leading organs inquired about the matter, the rebels in power claimed that the production of this model was "decided by Comrade Yu Qiuli." The person in charge went to Beijing to find Yu Qiuli to verify the matter, and Yu Qiuli said: "Nonsense! I had no idea about it. As a result, CA773 production vanished.
After the CA770 was officially produced, the car factory began to work on the development and preparation of the next model. However, during the Cultural Revolution, neither the ideological preparation nor the arrangement of working methods could not be affected by the situation at that time.
Following the CA773, the model number is CA774. In terms of styling and design ideas, the original principle of "going our own way" was replaced by "catching up with the world's trends". This trend of design thinking can be seen in the following renderings.
▲CA774 modeling design renderings
The CA774 model has undergone four rounds of design and trial production, and the product numbers are CA774-1E, CA774-2E, CA774-3E, and CA774-4E. Among them, the body structure of the first two-wheeled prototype is a "monolithic" frame structure, and it was found in the test that the body rigidity is not strong and it is easy to deform, resulting in the door stuck. For this reason, it was later changed to a "load-bearing type" with a frame structure.
▲CA774-1E prototype
▲CA774-2E prototype
▲CA774-3E prototype
▲CA774-4E prototype
The CA774 model went through four rounds of design and trial production from 1E to 4E, and lasted 10 years from 1968 to 1978. The car factory tried to get the West German company Porsche to participate in the design and trial production, but after several negotiations, no agreement was reached.
On the other hand, we have not completely given up on the continued development of the CA774 model. At the beginning of 1979, I finished my workshop work and transferred to the technical department, engaged in body technology and punching design, which is equivalent to 8 years later, I returned to the design department again to carry out CA774-5E styling design.
We are not limited to the insights held by CA774 stylists. Compared to the CA774 styling style, the CA774-5E design has some differences, but we haven't completely changed the pursuit of most people at the time.
▲CA774-5E prototype
The CA774-5E prototype was taken away and used by Wang Lishan, deputy director of FAW, when he was transferred to Shandong to work.
From this process, we can see that our product development thinking has begun to change, and gradually towards the trend of seeking joint design with foreign countries.
(To be continued)