Only three seats, though!
Looks quite nice, it'll be interesting to see if the build quality is as good!!
|
me velly like
yuu doo plart exchange?
|
|
I saw this in the paper. Rolls or rather BMW are calling in the lawyers but quite funny though. Looks absolutely hideous!
|
Why? Because they didn't think of it first... a mini roller, that is... jealousy, eh!
They should bring back Vanden Plas if they own that trade name as well!
|
|
At £30,000 there is going to be a lot of build quality issues on a car of that spec, even if it is built in China.
|
I think the front actually looks better than the real (hideously ugly) thing.
Wouldn't be surprised if the next 'facelifted' Phantom has the bigger headlights anybody but a blind man would have put on it in the first place.
Well done, China!
|
|
I can see Alan Sugar sitting in the back with his two Apprentice sidekicks sitting on the floor either side of him, massaging his ego.
|
|
|
|
At £30 000 there is going to be a lot of build quality issues on a car of that spec even if it is built in China.
What proof do you have of that? My dealings with Chinese manufacturers indicated that they can produce things to as high a quality as UK manufacturers, and quite often to a higher quality.
|
Search th net for everything from Chinese Smart cars to CRVs.
tinyurl.com/cqbj7x
They shamelessly copy a multitude of vehicles and will stand next to the copy and deny all knowledge.
|
more on the Smart clone
tinyurl.com/cpemjf
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm with the less cynical. Yes it's vulgar andd showy but it's £30k and I quite fancy trying out that throne myself. The problem would be that any chauffeur would probably need paying £30-50k to drive it.
|
A good link here with quite a few photos of identical copies. Everything form Daewoo Matiz to BMW 7 Series and Coaches
tinyurl.com/d7967y
|
Please remember, the Chinese, the Thais, the Indonesians and now the Vietnamese make the originals of many of the expensive fashion items you buy. 'Cheap Chinese copies' are merely production they divert to sell themselves. The only sensible thing to do in this circumstance is to learn Cantonese or Mandarin.
HJ
Edited by Honestjohn on 26/04/2009 at 14:56
|
|
A fake Roller eh? Probably has the structural integrity of a plastic cup if this is anything to go by tinyurl.com/29jsfs
|
Quote:...""Why? Because they didn't think of it first... a mini roller, that is... jealousy, eh!
They should bring back Vanden Plas if they own that trade name as well!""
BMW do not, and never have, owned the trade name 'Rolls-Royce'. It is licenced to them for use on luxury cars by Rolls-Royce PLC, the aero engine manufacturer.
Even Rolls-Royce Motors Ltd, which was split from the aero engine manufacturer after the bankruptcy and state takeover in 1971, only had the name on licence.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 26/04/2009 at 15:49
|
The best copycat story is an internal British one.
The small manufacturer Lea-Francis were developing a new model in the late 50's /early 60's. One story is that someone with some clout had seen some sneak sketches of the Jaguar Mark 10, which was then also being developed. Lea-Francis went ahead with their Jaguar Mark 10 lookalike, based on very little real info. The outcome was extremely ugly and at its motor show debut there were no orders. Only 3 Lynxes were made.
galeri.milliyet.com.tr/2009/2/27En_cirkin_otomobil...g
|
Only 3 Lynxes were made.galeri.milliyet.com.tr/2009/2/27En_cirkin_otomobil...g
.>>>>>>>>>>> that looks nice,
a bit boaty with the swage all over the shop but still nice,
can i have one mister?
|
Our doctor in the early fifties, a friend of my parents, had a new Lea-Francis saloon. They weren't made for much longer.
It was a strangely old-fashioned device although it went quite well. It may even have had a beam front axle, by then quite rare except with super-cheap Ford tens and the like. The owner described it as a 'heavy 14' which may well mean 1.5 litres or so. It was a four cylinder engine but quite likely dohc. The doctor used to cruise at 75 when he could.
|
|
I bet that would cause a few chinks in the neighbour's curtains.
|
Has anyone made a production three seater limo?
Just wondering who they are copying...
|
Loos great other than the single seat in the back - looks like a disabled persons car looking at the seat., ie, small vans converted to take wheelchair people hav the person in the middle
the car does look good
|
|
A fake Roller eh? Probably has the structural integrity of a plastic cup if this is anything to go by tinyurl.com/29jsfs
That before the car was modified to a satisfactory level. Many products need to go through development testing and subsequent modification. Rarely does anything of any significant value go straight from the drawing board to production. Plastic toys inside cornflake packets and Christmas crackers may, but that's about all.
And it's not a fake Roller, it's just something which happens to bear a similarity to a Roller, intentionally or otherwise.
|
...And it's not a fake Roller...
Apologies, L'escargot, I should have used the following thread title:
"Something which happens to bear a similarity to a Roller, intentionally or otherwise."
Anyone still awake after reading that lot?
|
Anyone still awake after reading that lot?
Me!
|
L'escargot,
You're right, of course, the car is not trying to be a fake or counterfeit Roller.
If it was it would have R-R badges and the like.
So a thread title which meets the need for accuracy and brevity would be:
"A Roller rip-off?"
Phew, got there in the end.
|
|
|
|
|
The Crashworthiness (or not) of Chinese cars is legendary. Google the Landwind (a Vx Frontera rip-off). The stuctural integrity was nil. And this wasn't a car in development, it was a car on the market.
|
The Crashworthiness (or not) of Chinese cars is legendary.
All I can say is that having dealt with Chinese manufacturing companies as part of my former automotive R&D job, I found them to be of the highest integrity and professionalism. Your statement "The Crashworthiness (or not) of Chinese cars is legendary." is pure sensationalism. I prefer things to be described accurately, not sensationalised.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A good link here with quite a few photos of identical copies. Everything form Daewoo Matiz to BMW 7 Series and Coaches tinyurl.com/d7967y
In terms of pure copying, the BMW is by far the worst executed of all that lot, it is jaw droppingly hideous.
|
I looked up a bit more on the ill-fated Lea Francis Lynx, the car that made the Edsel look like a runaway success!
Another story, maybe part of the same one, is that Lea-Frances was keen to emulate some of the stylish Italian sports car designs. The boss wanted something evocative of a catamaran too. In the end a cartoonist helped with the styling (I kid you not). The Jaguar Mk 10 bit was told to me by someone who worked for another luxury car maker at the time!
|
I forget what the model was called, but there was a Lea-Francis two-seater with a curved radiator grille in production for the company's last couple of years. Like all post-war Lea-Francises its styling was a bit awkward, but it wasn't bizarre like the prototype in the link photo.
I don't think many were sold however. Basically Lea-Francis were a vintage car manufacturer, building a very small number of cars by hand, hanging on long after most of their small-volume 'quality' contemporaries had been taken over by corporations or gone out of business. The two that spring to mind are Wolseley and Riley (Austin-Morris/BMC) but one could add Sunbeam-Talbot and Humber (Rootes Group). Another quality car maker, Armstrong-Siddeley, lasted into the early sixties and made latterly some very rapid large saloons. The remnants of Daimler, owned at that time by BSA, at the last minute made the very quick V8-powered Majestic Major before being amalgamated with Jaguar and becoming Jag clones.
Lea-Francis cars were old-fashioned but well made and quite rapid for their day. Owners liked them a lot. I wonder if anyone else has ever been in one?
|
So in the Soviet European Union we're all going to troll around in washing-machine-motor powered plastic Noddy cars, whilst the peasants 'destroy the world' with copies of the most opulent cars we're expected to give up? You couldn't make it up!
|
|
I saw one of those Micra-based MKII Jag copies last year. It fooled me for about 5 seconds from about 50 yards away. I decided in the end it looked fun!
|
|
A neighbour has one of them too fooled me for about 1 second but the Micra's dash and doors and even front wings gave it away. Very cleverly done though forget the maker but it begins with M.
|
|
|
|
|
|
tinyurl.com/d3mc4d
A fake Roller would have a Roller badge on it, just as a fake Rolex watch says Rolex on it.
|
|
|
