China Is Building Brand New Classic Cars From The 1950s — And America Can't Buy

A 1953 Corvette. A classic Volkswagen bus. A Beetle. A tail-finned cruiser straight out of 1959. They look like museum pieces, but they're brand new, built in China, and under the chrome they hide plug-in hybrid systems, modern brakes and modern electronics. In this documentary, we tell the story of Songsan Motors, the Beijing motorcycle club that decided to build the cars the West walked away from. They survived a battle with BYD, the world's largest EV maker, and found a new home in Nanjing. We also go inside Juncheng, the Chinese factory stamping brand new steel bodies for the Land Cruiser FJ40, the Ford Bronco, the Datsun 240Z and the VW bus from scans of the originals. And the twist: these cars went on show in Los Angeles, at the heart of American car culture. But American buyers can't buy a single one. If you enjoy stories like this, subscribe and turn on notifications. New documentaries every week on Driver RPM. Chapters: 00:00 The Corvette That Was Never Built In America 02:52 The Cars The West Walked Away From 05:48 The Motorcycle Club That Wanted To Build Cars 09:11 The War With BYD 11:53 Born Again In Nanjing 15:29 The Factory That Rebuilds Legends 18:39 On Show In Los Angeles. Not For Sale In America. china classic cars, brand new classic cars, songsan motors, ss dolphin, songsan ss dolphin, chinese corvette, 1953 corvette replica, retro cars china, new classic cars, plug in hybrid classic car, juncheng, juncheng carbody, ford bronco body shell, fj40 body shell, datsun 240z body, vw bus new, volkswagen kombi, vw beetle, chinese cars, china car industry, byd, retro ev, classic car restoration, cars america can't buy, banned in america cars, la auto show, chinese car documentary, driver rpm, nanjing, chinese automakers #ChineseCars #ClassicCars #Corvette #SongsanMotors #DriverRPM