The car collection of The Louwman Museum
Took my Canon R5 with a 35mm plus Mike Stevens to The Hague’s Louwman Museum on Saturday and you wouldn’t believe it but I made photos.
You win points if you spot the MG, the oldest surviving and first Toyota, and there’s ten points up for grabs if you can guess which one was my favourite.
A car that pulled my attention, amongst an entire museum of cars that desperately screamed for my attention, was this Chinese manufactured car, the SH760A. The English sign reads:
The characteristics of old Mercedes-Benz sedans are very evident in this Chinese Shanghai. The lines of the roof and the doors were inspired by the Mercedes ‘Ponton’, a model of the 1950s. Yet this Chinese sedan was produced in the 1980s. The example on display came to the Louwman Museum straight from the factory in 1986 and is completely new. It shows zero mileage and the protective plastic still covers the upholstery. The Shanghai automobile company was established in 1958 and lasted until 1991. The SH760 model, fitted with a straight-six engine also derived from an old Mercedes, was used in China primarily as a taxi or limousine for minor officials of the Communist Party. After this model, Shanghai started assembling various Volkswagen models, including the popular Shanghai Santana.
