Chapter 1010: Cars of Grassroots People

Gao Zhendong's mouth is full of excuses, he's just short of making them into a jingle for the postgraduate entrance examination.

"Tell us quickly." Gao Zhendong's words aroused the curiosity of his comrades. They thought that this thing could transport people and some goods, which was good enough. They didn't expect that there was a master at it?

Gao Zhendong drew a small bread that would later become famous on the blackboard, then turned around and said, "That's it, a small bread!"

If we really want to configure a vehicle under the current conditions, a minivan is definitely more popular than a hatchback.

Looking at the car on the blackboard that really looked like a piece of toast, the comrades were confused. What the hell was this?

Only the comrades from the Thirteenth Ministry of Machines were familiar with this thing, at least it looked familiar.

"Comrade Zhendong, your car looks a bit like Hans's Volkswagen."

Gao Zhendong laughed. As expected, professionals are professionals. They can tell at a glance who this thing resembles.

The world's earliest van was Volkswagen's Transporter, codenamed Type 2. By the way, the Beetle is Type 1.

"Yes, yes, it is very similar. We should use good things. Or it might be more appropriate to call it a van."

"Well, I think 'van' sounds better and is catchy." The chief engineer of the 17th Ministry of Machine Building laughed, and everyone else did the same.

"This car should not exceed 4 meters in length, have a higher chassis, front and rear integral bridges, leaf spring suspension, three rows of 7 to 8 seats, the back two rows are removable, the engine is 1.2 liters, tuned for low torque, manual transmission, and yes, this car must be rear-wheel drive." Small van, must be rear-wheel drive!
When I first heard Gao Zhendong talk about this car, I felt it was just a makeshift one. The front and rear integral bridges and leaf spring suspension were jokingly called cart suspension in later generations.

But the more the comrades listened, the more they felt that Gao Zhendong's idea was brilliant.

The shorter length and higher body of the car mean that it has better passability under the current road conditions and can go to more places.

With front and rear integral bridges and leaf springs, the structure of this car is extremely simple. It is easy to build and repair and has good reliability. Another advantage of this structure is that it can be installed!
Combined with the rear-wheel drive and low-torque engine tuning, this means that this car has a strong loading capacity.

Manual transmission is fuel efficient and cheap.

All of this indicates one thing - Comrade Gao Zhendong really wants to build a car that ordinary people can afford as soon as possible. Maybe that day will be ten, twenty or even thirty years later, but the first car to be popularized will most likely be this one.

"Hey, don't say anything. This car sounds like one that I would like to use. It is perfect for grassroots official use." The comrade from the 11th Ministry of Machine Building had done grassroots work and had extremely rich experience.

It can carry people and goods, has low operating costs, and has good passability, making it very suitable for grassroots official duties.

"Yes, and if we remove the third row or even the second row and replace it with a small truck, it can be very useful at the grassroots level and in factories and mines, and it is a good supplement to large transport vehicles." A comrade from the 13th Ministry of Machine Building laughed. After all, large trucks have high deployment costs and large cargo capacity. It is not cost-effective to deploy large trucks for a considerable amount of transportation work, and there are not as many places where these things can be put.

When Gao Zhendong heard his words, he was astonished. This comrade was able to come up with double-row and single-row small trucks so quickly. His basic skills in the use of cars must be very solid.

As for pickup trucks, forget about it. They have high fuel consumption, complex structure, high cost and are very long. They are not easy to use these days.

Everyone praised Gao Zhendong's suggestion. This type of car and even its derivative models are indeed the most suitable for most of our grassroots use. If there is basically no need to use a two-box sedan domestically, then this car is extremely practical for us and even for poor third world countries.

Even if this car is not sold, it is still a good idea to use it as aid. This thought came to everyone's mind. For those poor brothers, this car is much more practical than a sedan.

"Well, you must build this car! If you don't, we will build it ourselves." The deputy leader of the 11th Ministry of Machine Building joked.

But the comrades of the Thirteenth Ministry of Machine Building did not dare to think that they were joking. As everyone knows, jokes are the external expression of one's true inner thoughts.

"No, leader, let us do this and won't bother you. Your work is important, so don't waste your energy on these small things." The director of the Thirteenth Ministry of Machines said with a smile.

"What about other models? Zhendong, do you have any other ideas?" The chief engineer of the department was very curious about how much was in his head.

Unexpectedly, Gao Zhendong shook his head and said, "There are not too many. At most, there is a medium-sized bus suitable for rural grassroots transportation conditions. For the others, we can follow the layout of mid-range and high-end cars. I don't have any specific ideas. I think the comrades of the Thirteenth Ministry of Machinery have ideas."

His words sounded ordinary, but they made several comrades stand in awe. You see, Comrade Gao Zhendong is most concerned about the production and life of the grassroots people. I don't know how they came up with this result.

In fact, this was Gao Zhendong's true words. He was really not familiar with the mid-to-high-end cars of today, especially their appearance and style. He really could not accept them. As for the technology, when it came to mid-to-high-end cars, he could just install whatever he had, pile up the materials and technology and that would be it. The comrades in the 13th Ministry of Machine Building were much more familiar with it than he was.

But he added: "If possible, I suggest that three-point seat belts and ABS anti-lock braking systems be installed on these cars. These two things don't cost much, but I think the effect is still very good."

ABS was invented a long time ago, and the three-point seat belt was invented only a few years ago, but the comrades of the Thirteenth Ministry of Machine Building knew about it and took Gao Zhendong's words very seriously: "Well, I will mention this matter to the ministry and let the ministry arrange it."

Regardless of whether these two suggestions are realistic, their starting point is for the safety of drivers and passengers. As the ministry in charge of automobile production, we cannot just ignore them.

"Comrade Zhendong, do you think we should send a few people over to do the final test together with your comrades? This will not only allow us to learn the technology in advance, but also reduce your workload." In the end, everything would come down to this engine, and the comrades from the Thirteenth Ministry of Machine Building put forward their own ideas.

This engine is highly completed. The earlier people come, the earlier the technology can be transferred. Chief Engineer Gao has said that the 1.2, 1.5, and 3.0 series engines must be completed by the comrades who take over.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, this is very necessary. For specific matters, your comrades can communicate with Comrade Liang Faming from the Technical Department of our Third Factory."

Although the acceptance meeting took a long time, the process went very smoothly. The main reason was that there was really no fault to be found. The comrades who came to participate in the acceptance were not at that level themselves, so they naturally could not find any fault with an engine that was far beyond their own level. If they had to say something, the slightly high compression ratio was a problem, but it was not the main problem.

Everything went smoothly. All the signatures that needed to be signed were signed, and all the seals that needed to be stamped were stamped. Only when the chief engineer of the 17th Ministry of Machine Building signed, he always had the illusion that he was a gigolo. Hey, the ministry did nothing, and the chief engineer squeezed out a little bit of the factory's research funds to complete this major national achievement. As a leader of the ministry in charge of technology, he felt really ashamed.

Even the funding they squeezed out only covers processing fees, material fees, and a little bit of testing fees, with no other fees at all.

I looked at Gao Zhendong who was smiling cheerfully. Was it him who did it? Then it was all right.

Seeing that there was still a lot of time before the end of the afternoon shift, the director of the Thirteenth Ministry of Machine Building ignored Gao Zhendong's repeated attempts to keep him for dinner and turned around and ran away with the documents.

As soon as he got into his car, he said to the driver, "Go as fast as possible. I need to go back to see my leader."

The GAZ-69 staggered and "flew" towards the th Ministry of Machine Building. It flew, but not very fast.

If only the cars in the plan could be produced earlier, this thing could be replaced, the director thought to himself.

After all, the "Songjiang" car is a luxury car. During its entire life cycle of 30 years, less than 7 units were produced. In 3, there were even fewer. Even the ministries in charge of motor vehicle production could only make do with the GAZ-63 for the time being.

Thinking of this, he felt even more anxious. Whether he had a good car or not was put aside for the time being, but the matter at hand was really important.

In less than half an hour, he rushed into the leader's office.

Seeing him coming, the leader of the Thirteenth Ministry of Machine Building didn't think it was strange: "How was your participation in the engine acceptance meeting today? How are the comrades from other ministries? Are they as good as your department? Hahaha."

Since it is cross-departmental work, it is certain that the Director of the Science and Technology Department will come to report to him after the meeting. The leader even made a joke about it.

Unexpectedly, the director of his own department looked ashamed: "I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it. Now I know what it means that there are always people better than you."

"What do you mean?" The leader of the Thirteenth Ministry of Machine Building was a little confused. How could a meeting turn out like this?

The director of his department handed him a document and said, "Look for yourself. They made a remarkable engine."

The leader took it and flipped through it. The performance summary table on the first page made his eyes widen.

"Impossible? This is the level of the latest engine of Mercedes-Benz 220S, and the volume, displacement and weight are so much smaller! Comrades, haven't you launched enough satellites yet?" He was even a little angry.

"Yes, these data are true. Moreover, by the time I left, the engine had been running continuously at full rated power for nearly 140 hours."

"Hiss~~~~~~~~" The leader of the Thirteenth Machine Department took a breath of cold air.

(End of this chapter)