Due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, we haven’t enjoyed our usual routine of obsessively covering auto shows … because there haven’t really been any auto shows to obsessively cover. That finally changed this week in Beijing, but pretty much everything interesting on display isn’t meant for American roads. And so we’ll instead flip the script and take a look at the strangest, most offbeat or otherwise intriguing things from China.
We’ll kick this list off with a pair of oddballs from a Chinese automaker called Songsan. The first of the retro-inspired duo, seen above, is called the SS Dolphin, and it’s clearly inspired by a late-1950s Chevrolet Corvette. A quick glance from some angles makes it look like the car’s designers did a pretty decent job mimicking the classic ‘Vette. From other angles, though, the proportions are all wrong. The most egregious view is from the rear three-quarter, where it’s painfully obvious that the light and sinewy Corvette’s lines don’t translate into a larger and more bolbous rear end. That’s probably not surprising as the SS Dolphin is nearly a foot longer than a 1958 Corvette. (This is not to be confused with the U.S.S. Dolphin, which was 137 feet longer than a ’58 Corvette).
Under that skin apparently lies a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine and electric motor combo that’s fed by a 16-kWh battery pack reportedly sourced from BYD. Songsan says it can travel about 60 miles on electric power and run from 0-60 in under 5 seconds.