FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW: Hongqi S9 supercar raises eyebrows

No-one is really sure why Hongqi was at this week’s Frankfurt motor show. And even after asking a barrage of questions, we’re still only a little the wiser.

Hongqi, which means Red Flag in Chinese, was one of at least three Chinese brands at this year’s IAA – its first overseas motor show appearance in almost 60 years – also including Great Wall and Byton, which revealed an SUV too.

The marque has traditionally supplied the country’s heads of state with its limousines. To complete the Chinese ‘Rolls-Royce’ metaphor, last year the former head of Rolls-Royce design, Giles Taylor, was lured to the brand.

Last year Hongqi lodged 600 per cent sales surge in China and this year it aims to sell more than 100,000 vehicles.

But the FAW Group-owned Chinese premium brand wasn’t offering a lot of information at its large display in Frankfurt. No English press kits and nothing on its global website.

It did, however, show two high-end vehicles: a fully electric SUV and what we believe is a conventionally-engined supercar.

According to some reports the former is an all-electric SUV concept dubbed E115 and the latter is the brand’s first self-designed and engineered supercar called the Hongqi S9.

Some quarters suggest the striking red super-coupe is powered by a twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 that may share some heritage with a Lexus powerplant.

What we can confirm is the SUV is large in almost the US-market Chevrolet Suburban sense and has more than a little Cadillac Escalade to its styling. A pure concept, it did not appear to be a running prototype.

The supercar, meantime, is super-low but sits on a substantial footprint. The cabin is complete and the car looks to be a runner – right down to some evidence of exhaust deposits on the paired vertical central outlets.

We wish we could tell you more…