MUSTANGMANIA INVADES ASIA PART 2: CHINA
The second stop fo My Journey was Beijing, China. I Expected to be in the heart of Asia, but the city center seems more than an European City. Getting in touch with the Mustang Club of China wasn’t that easy. Facebook, Google and many other things don’t run at all if you connect to local wifi. If you use your data roaming, yes, but for a very high price and extremely slowly.
I spent the whole week with the Chinese dealer of the company i was working for. On Saturday i was pretty tired, but i got a message on wechat( chinese version of facebook and whatsapp).
It said that Sunday morning, a representative from Mustang club of China, will come and pick me up from the hotel. That was the best news of a pretty bad week.
Kent Liu came and pick me up, in a sunny Sunday morning, with a lovely 2012 Mustang GT. Seeing a Mustang in China, Nowadays, is much more easier.
From the Worlwide Launch, a lot of S550 Mustangs( Mainly ecoboost, due to road taxes) Has been sent to China. We drove from Beijing City center to the Industrial Area.
At the beginning of a closed Road, a Red, white and blue logo got my attention ( also the 3 mustangs in front of the shop did the same): Wynn’s Speed Shop.
I think an European Guy could expect everything from an industrial Building in Asia, Except from 10 Mustangs doing maintenance at the same time.
The Owner of the Shop, – Xin GUo – gave me a warm welcome to his Shop.
Xin, a Tes driveEngineer and a Rally driver, founded the mustang club of China in 2011. “ I wanted to know more people who love the mustang like me” said “opening a club seemed a good idea”. Nowadays the club has more than 2.500 active members, and organizes trip, cruise, track days, holidays and events, all mustang oriented. The Ford Mustang worldwide launch Helped a lot the growing of the club: a lot of young wealthy actors and enterpreneurs chosed mustang as weekend car. The overall Mustang owners age in China is much lower than in many other countries of the world.
Xin showed me his favorite mustang: a 1966 fastback. “I can’t drive it on the pubblic roads” said “ Old cars can’t be on the road in China”. He is moving the car to the events or the track days, on a trailer. This law sounded pretty crazy to me.
He took a risk: He gave me a ride, on a nearby private street, on this car. At the end of this closed Road, the Shelby American Official store. I can’t imagine to see a Shelby store in China!
After few videos, a couple of beers and this ride, it was my time to fly back home.
Kent drove me to the airport.
I left them with the promise that i will be back, sooner or later.
Links:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Mustang-Club-of-China-1416749888629207/
