Watching Top Gear the other night, i don't know how old it was, because i record them and watch them when i can, and channel 9 cut and splice episodes to make old ones look like new ones, the boys went to China to test some of the Chinese cars, there was a Mini that looked like a Mini, but was changed enough not to get sued by BMW, there was a BMW X-5 lookalike, that BMW sued the Chinese over copywright, and the Chinese Goverment told BMW to rack off as it looked nothing like a 4WD Beemer,[it did], they tend to give the cars letters like 125/40-65, rather than call them names like Camry, but the best was a Alfa Romeo 166 knockoff, that had a twin spark motor, rather than a V-6, it didn't really look that close to a 166, but it looked ok, but didn't drive that good, the boys said a good European car would be a few seconds faster around the Chinese test track than the 166 'knockoff', it was actually driven by the Stigs Chinese cousin, they said the price would be about 12,000 Quid in the UK, i remember reading in the Drive Age liftout a few years ago, Honda built a car assembly plant in China to build a CRV 4WD, type car, and to Honda's horror their was an exact copy of the plant 6 klms down the road building an exact replica of the Honda, with different badges of course, Colin.
Yes other makers like VW and GM have found the same problems, the chinese have even copied the Roys Royce (rather lame attempt). And now they own most of the british car indsutry (rover, mg, land rover, aston martin and jaguar I believe).
But the interest is there because this market is about to out grow in annual growth terms Europe and US put together. Most of the large manufacturers are building cars in China in joint ventrure arrangements with Chinese companies, if you can't beat them join um knda deal i suppose.
1750GT
Perhaps one of the greatest reverse engineering feats in modern industrial history was the way the Russians copied the B29 Superfortress:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-4
You might find Colin that it's not actually a knock-off of a 166, but rather that the 166 platform was sold to a Chinese company, so they can effectively do whatever they like with it. That might also be why it doesn't look like a 166...
And the 166 came with many other engines in other markets, that Australia didn't get, as did the 156, 164, 90, 75........
I know that the 164 and 166 came with the twin spark 4 cylinder, there are a few 164 private imports from Asia i beleive, rumbling around Australia, the Chinese 166 didn't look that unatractive either, the boys said it just didn't drive that good, the Mini copy was a shocker, they said it looked like a childs drawing of a Mini, and then they copied it, Colin.