The Adventures of my Camaro in China

[MSgt O]

Originally Posted by rocknroll_jeph

Two posts in one day! I also attended the Beijing Auto Expo yesterday... please don't be angry but a representative from Ford send me a free ticket.

The exhibition center is about 15 minute bike ride from my new house, it was across the street from my old house, but at least I didn't have to fight for a parking spot or some people travel from all over China just to see the show.

I have been chatting with a Ford representative for a few months regarding the Dark Horse. My Camaro is getting up there in age and the only car sold in China that I am remotely interested in is the Mustang.

So to get me to become more interested the car she invited me to the exhibition. I would have gone anyway, but it was nice to get a free ticket. While I was there they also treated me to a coffee and snack in the VIP section of the Ford booth. I had a great conversation with them and also learned a lot about the China edition of the Dark Horse.

Here are some interesting facts- due to the Chinese environmental department being more strict that the US, the 5.0L has been detuned. Not sure of the HP but the 0-60 time is around 4 seconds, but it's around 3.7 for the US version.

Only 200 Mustang Dark Horses will be imported into China and will all be the same- automatic transmission, blue Brembo calipers and non-carbon fiber wheels, so I think its just the basic Dark Horse with no options.

The price is around 700,000RMB or as of today comes to about $96,673 USD

I tried to configure it on the US website and it looks like it would be about $65,805 USD for the version they are selling in China. In the US it would cost about $866/ mo and the sales rep told me that if I were to put down a 20,000RMB ($2,762) down payment, there would be no interest for a few years and the monthly payments would be about 12,000/mo ($1657/mo), for 5 years, with options to pay off early. Which, to my current working situation, wouldn't be too difficult for me.

The downside would be I'd be a Mustang owner, and the cost of insurance and gas would go up.

The positive would be finally having a V8 of my own and being able to own 1 of 200 Dark Horses in China...

That being said, I only know of a handful of Silver Camaros in China, so there are probably even less of my Camaro than the Dark Horse.

Anyway, my wife doesn't let me spend $20 on the Lego Mustang Dark Horse, so I doubt she'll let me get a new car that would cost more in every way.

Thanks for reading and here is the video I made from yesterday. Most of the other cars in the exhibition were electric SUVs with gaudy lights and features to take the fun out of driving...

https://www.dongchedi.com/ugc/articl...ation_backflow

if you are staying in China for the duration(which I think you are)...might be a fun car to have and enjoy, then pass it along to a collector when you want something new!

[rocknroll_jeph]

Originally Posted by MSgt O

Very cool to see the car culture over there, how they, as well as here, are looking at the future with EVs and the place gas powered vehicles will hold in coming generations. There will always be "car people" but most young people see them as utilitarian and not enjoyment...seems to be the same there. Thanks for sharing Jeph!

Thank you for sharing your take-away from watching the video, I alway appreciate hearing from you!

... And in 5 weeks my wife and I will be back in Michigan for the summer

[rocknroll_jeph]

This past weekend I meet up with a photographer who loves American cars. He just turned 25 a few days ago and told me that when he was about 10 and saw the transformers movie for the first time it had a huge impact on his perception of muscle cars in particular (while making me feel old at the same time!) He usually charges for photo shoots but he really wanted to photograph my car so he did it for free, which I gratefully accepted.

While we were chatting and taking photos I head a distinct sound and another Camaro drove by. Stateside that wouldn't be too odd, but this is China, so the odds of two Camaros in the same place are astronomically small. Like most of us would have done in that situation, I ran after the other Camaro to say hi.

We had never met before but he recognized me from all the videos I have been making. In our Camaro groups he doesn't say much, but it was nice to chat with him. Not only does he have a V6 Camaro, which 99.9% of them are here, but he is also building a manual V8 Camaro, one piece at a time, which is the first time I have ever heard of someone doing that here, and one of 2 manual Camaros that I know about in China.

Ultimately his V8 will be unable to get registered for the road so it will be track only, but still, that is going to be an amazing project for him, and we managed to get a few photos of our cars together. He felt really bad because he recently de-modded his Camaro for legal reasons that I have written about before, so it was back to stock. He said after he puts the mods back on we should have another photo shoot.

Also the photographer wants to get a 5th gen Mustang and a Challenger together so we can have a muscle car trifecta car shoot. I'm looking forward to that. The more we can do to improve the car culture, spread awareness and show the good size of car meets the better.

If you got this far, you deserve some amazing photographs, I got 29 photos and here are my favorite... Also he photoshopped the last license plate my dad had registered before he passed away in 2008 onto my car which was really touching.

[chevy pilot]

What had been changed,when car couldn't registered for the road ?

[rocknroll_jeph]

Originally Posted by chevy pilot

What had been changed,when car couldn't registered for the road ?

For my friend's car, it was not properly imported when he bought it, and the rules and regulations of china are very strict. He bought the V8 shell with the purpose making a track car, knowing that it couldn't be driven on the road.

I think that it was imported as a parts car, but next time I see him, I'll do some investigative journalism and get to the bottom of his story.

I with I had enough cash to throw at a car like that!