In the early 1970s Chinese "Communist" leader Mao Tse Tung commissioned a ten-metre long luxury six-door stretch "Red Flag" limousine, complete with fridge, telephone, TV, double bed, desk and sofa.

"We must produce our own longest limousine," Mao declared, in a bid to showcase the country's auto industry in general and the First Automobile Works in particular.

Sadly, Mao died in 1976 before he could use what would become the first -- and last -- limo produced by the First Automobile Works.

[Chinese collector Luo Wenyou later acquired the car -- and refused to say how.]

[In 2003, Geely Group, China's only privately owned automaker, unveiled the "Beauty Leopard": the world's first car equipped with a telephone, navigation gear and... a karaoke machine.]