A 2026 East China Normal University review of Lin Jingjing’s design-history book dates the CA770 programme to the end of 1959. The new car was intended to replace the CA72 as a formal three-row sedan, not simply lengthen it. Jia Yanliang later recalled that the CA72 looked heavy and that its passenger layout left room for improvement. Wang Zhen, then a vehicle-plant director, says the group studied international sedans and kept the body under six metres partly to make turns in Beijing’s narrow lanes. The brief joined ceremonial use to passenger space and manoeuvrability.
From the journal
Seven Clay Models and the Shape of the Hongqi CA770
The Hongqi CA770 took shape through seven clay proposals, factory-wide review and a full-size model made under difficult workshop conditions. Jia Yanliang and Wang Zhen recall different parts of the design, while a later university-published design-history review places the sedan programme and its delivery milestones in a longer chronology.
In the same city · Changchun ↗A formal three-row sedan required a new design
Seven clay proposals made the outline tangible
Jia recalled five stylists and two students preparing seven 1:5 clay proposals; his proposal was selected, and he led the move toward a full-size clay body. Wang’s account describes factory workers comparing the models and says the full-size form gathered strengths from different proposals. The two recollections differ on how singular the winning design was, but both place clay modelling and collective review at the centre of the process. The model made proportion a shared, visible object that a workshop team could examine rather than an outline confined to a drawing.
The full-size model had to fit a working factory
Jia remembered building the 1:1 clay body in an off-road vehicle workshop because the sedan shop lacked space. Wang recalls the prototype work being spread across several factory sites after a building was evacuated. His account says a storm damaged the sedan shop in May 1965; hundreds of machines were moved to seven sites in about two weeks while the work continued. Read together, the recollections show that modelling depended on room, tools and cooperation with manufacturing shops. The full-size form let the team judge proportions at human scale, but making it required the factory to reorganize real working space.
References became measurable design decisions
Jia later recalled borrowing the crisp profiles of Ming furniture and studying the Volga’s body lines. He said he lowered the engine in the body package and enlarged the windows to alter proportion and cabin openness. A 1:5 model was tested in a wind tunnel at Harbin Aircraft Factory; threads on it showed how air moved across the body.
A wider team carried the styling into production
Jia’s account names Zhu Zizhi coordinating the project, Yang Jianzhong responsible for the engine and Hua Fulin for the chassis. Styling had to meet body construction, mechanical layout and factory process; the full-size model was one stage in a car assembled by several specialist groups. The ECNU review places type acceptance at the end of 1965 and says the first 20 cars were sent to Beijing on 21 April 1966. The sequence extended beyond form-making: design, acceptance and delivery were separate milestones.