Motormouth: How Dongfeng 007 made me feel like "James Bong" double-O-seven

This was the closest I ever got to feeling like a pirated Chinese uncle version of agent 007, James Bond, because all the Chinese-chess set pieces were put in place by Dongfeng.

There was a mission, unclassified in this case, which was to openly infiltrate the home-city headquarters of a China state-owned automaker and secretly learn more about it, including a preview of a special product codenamed "007".

There was also an exotic location - Wuhan, where a global virus broke out several years ago and dramatically changed the world. 

Equally exotic, but thankfully not related to a pandemic, were the protected proving ground and no-nonsense in-house museum I explored during my Wuhan assignment.

There were gadgets galore, too - from basic gimmicks to advanced systems which could answer my random queries, get me up to speed quickly on the infotainment highway, and even provide a taxi service without a taxi driver.

The mission’s paramilitary aspect added a cold war to the hot mala I tasted and brought me back to my national service days, when I was a fit young man who was trained to fire a rifle but not allowed to vote.

Even though this unfit young senior didn't rappel down from a flying car to a balcony of the Dongfeng museum, I did clamber onboard an armoured personnel carrier (APC), complete with a heavy machine gun mounted on the cupola.

The unexpected cultural experience triggered a rapid-fire rush of army memories from my NS stint in an armour unit, which had APCs and light battle tanks, plus a lowly corporal who never imagined he would become a media platoon commander tasked with an international motoring operation.

These items are not suitable for the pirated Chinese uncle version of agent 007.

I blew into town with Volt Auto to pay a tactical visit to Dongfeng, which started its half-century journey in 1969 by producing military vehicles. 

Today, the toughest of the civvy Dongfengs such as M-Hero 917 are always ready for hostilities in peacetime.

However, these mighty machines now do most of their dirty work on urban battlegrounds where huge SUVs try to outgun one another; in rural areas where farmers are fearless and Jeeps fear to tread; and in the middle of nowhere with no Land Rover Defenders on the defensive.

On the other end of the Dongfeng automotive scale, diametrically opposed to the communist heroism embodied by M-Hero, is the capitalist hedonism presented by 007. 

This glorious flagship fastback, properly made in China for the "mastige" (mass prestige) segment of modern society, left my "James Bong" alter ego both shaken and stirred. Martini or moutai was served separately.

The electric fastback is a low-slung, high-tech limousine which looked like a million renminbi when I spied it in the metal for the first time in Wuhan, but actually costs a fraction of that, even when fully equipped with all the bells and whistles, toys and missiles.

It is priced under a quarter-million yuan in China and around a quarter-million SGD in Singapore after rebates and applicable promotions. 

There wasn't a Mandarin-speaking quartermaster named QQ to hand over the 007 demo car to me at the Dongfeng test track, but there was a staffer alongside to guide me along while I drove as a foreign Chinese man on a local China mission.

Just in case I attempted something stupid and dramatic with the 007 that would cause a diplomatic rift between little Singapore and the gigantic People's Republic of China.

The gadgetry and cqpability of the dual-motor 400-kilowatt all-wheel-drive, open-secret sedan were mildly mind-blowing, but what blew me away like a refreshing wind from the east was the 007's safe wade through a flooded "storm drain" of the circuit.

This was my "James Bong" 007 superspy moment in Wuhan, without any spying or spinning.

Dongfeng M-Heroes performing heroic actions to help "James Bong" complete his Wuhan mission.

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