Collection of Colani prototypes, including some Automorrow racers, fails to sell at auction
10/22/2019
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Car Culture
Just a month after designer Luigi Colani died, a number of his full-size design studies and working one-off cars - including some of his Automorrow racers designed to break records at the Bonneville Salt Flats - appeared incomplete and damaged at auction and all failed to come anywhere close to their pre-auction estimates.
Throughout his life, Colani might have applied his visions of a bio-mimicking techno-utopian future to all sorts of consumer products - from TVs to pens to clothes, even to coffins - but he constantly returned to automobile design, the field in which he first rose to prominence in the early 1950s. While he began by designing cars for production and even produced his own kit car meant to use Volkswagen drivetrains, by the late 1960s he turned entirely to experimental and conceptual vehicles that relied heavily on his own sense of aerodynamic efficiency.
While many of his vehicular designs during the Seventies relied on aerodynamics for fuel efficiency, by the late Eighties he decided to prove his ideas with Automorrow, an all-out effort to set land-speed records at Bonneville with 13 different vehicles. Some were human powered, some two-wheeled, hardly any had a straight line.
"Tomorrow’s vehicles have to be lean and mean," Colani told the Los Angeles Times for a story on Automorrow. "They must generate maximum use within a minimum size. There is no future for the overweight, overpowered monsters now being churned out by the world’s auto industry."
Three of those Automorrow vehicles crossed the block as part of Catawiki's recent Automobilia auction. Utah 6, above, used a Volkswagen Golf four-cylinder engine mounted in the rear. Butterfly doors flanked either side of a severely sloped windshield while the underbody lifted sharply upward toward the rear - a feature that permeated Colani's four-wheeled designs, presumably to take advantage of ground effects. Estimated to sell for €50,000 to €75,000, it bid up to €25,000.
Utah 8, perhaps the most widely photographed of Colani's Automorrow vehicles, used a turbocharged 1,000cc BMW four-cylinder motorcycle engine good for 160 horsepower and theoretically capable of reaching 150 MPH in part due to its carbon-fiber chassis and overall weight of 1,300 pounds. Estimated to sell for €75,000 to €120,000, it bid up to €24,000.
The third Automorrow vehicle in the auction, Utah 11, used a turbocharged 1,300cc four-cylinder motorcycle engine and a sidecar-configuration three-wheeled chassis. Estimated to sell for €35,000 to €50,000, it bid up to €15,000.
Other Colani vehicles in the auction include his circa 2000 Formula 1 Car of Tomorrow, reportedly one of his most controversial designs; a circa 1983 Le Mans racer design study for Mazda; and his circa 2000 city car, powered by a Hyundai drivetrain. The Car of Tomorrow, estimated to sell for €100,000 to €125,000, bid to €15,000; the Le Mans study, estimated to sell for €50,000 to €75,000, also bid to €15,000; and the city car, estimated to sell for €25,000 to €32,500, bid to €9,000.
Another Colani vehicle in the auction, a golf cart, bid up to €7,500 but didn't sell.
Except for Utah 8, located in Rome, all of the above vehicles were located in Milan. Similarly, all but the Utah 8 were listed as damaged and in need of restoration.
(h/t to Car Design Archives)
Recent
Photo: Courtesy of Artcurial
Launched in 1969, the unit-body 404 was in some ways an updated version of the previous family car, the 403, although the two would be produced side-by-side for six years. Derived from the 403’s engine, the 404’s alloy-head, wet-liner XC four featured three main bearings and an oversquare 84 mm x 73 mm bore and stroke. Breathing through a one-barrel Solex carburetor, the four was rated at 72 horsepower, enough to push the boxy sedan through the air at 88 mph. The engine was canted over at 45 degrees, allowing for a lower hood line. The drivetrain employed a four-speed manual transmission, and torque-tube drive to the rear axle.
Photo: Courtesy of Artcurial
For the passengers, there were pillowy seats in the French tradition, upholstered in cloth or vinyl. The driver got no tachometer, but could gaze upon a 160-kph speedometer, gauges for gas level and engine temperature, an ammeter, and a trip odometer while gripping the big, plastic steering wheel. Gear changes were accomplished with a lever on the column.
Conservative Peugeot took a slow but steady approach to developing the 404. In 1961, it added an upmarket convertible version, sending basic platforms to Pininfarina's factory in Grugliasco, a suburb of Turin, for the construction of the bodies and interiors. An 85-hp injected version of the four, equipped with a Kugelfischer mechanical pump, was developed for the Cabriolet, but was also made available for the sedan.
1962 saw the introduction of a strikingly handsome coupe version, also designed and constructed by Pininfarina. A station wagon variant, with a longer wheelbase and redesigned rear suspension, arrived in 1963, followed by the introduction of an 86-hp, 1,948-cc diesel four in 1964. A diesel 404 Cabriolet converted into a single-seater hardtop captured 40 international speed and distance records at Montlhéry the following year.
Photo: Courtesy of Artcurial
Demand was sufficient to keep the 404 in production through 1975, with regular improvements in horsepower, efficiency, and braking performance. The range was rounded out with the launch of a pickup version in 1967. Peugeot made an effort to sell the 404 to Americans, especially during the early 1960s, taking out full-page ads in Road & Track and other enthusiast magazines. When R&T publisher John R. Bond called the Peugeot "one of the seven best made cars in the world," it was a compliment the manufacturer delighted in repeating.
Bond wasn't alone. The motoring press generally liked the 404, praising its combination of restrained good looks, first-rate build quality, noise isolation, assured handling, and willing engine. Bill Boddy, reviewing the 404 for the British magazine The Motor, called it "generally a splendid car, offering exceptional value for money," calling particular attention to its practicality, ruggedness, and excellent finish. It was the 404 that helped cement Peugeot's reputation for durability through rallying, with four wins in the East Africa Safari Rally alone.
Photo: Courtesy of Artcurial
Peugeot's French production run of 1,847,568 404s ended in 1975. A total of 2,885,374 units had been produced worldwide at the end of production. Mike Tippett, who administers a global registry for Le Club 404, estimates that about 29,000 404s came to the U.S., and another 12,000 to Canada. Just over 4,000 vehicles worldwide are accounted for in the registry.
NADA/J.D. Power shows an average market value of $4,375 for the sedan, while three 404s—body style unspecified, but probably coupes or convertibles—have been listed for sale on Hemmings.com over the past three years, with asking prices of $13,900 to $20,000. The carbureted example shown here was sold for the equivalent of $19,500 by French auction house Artcurial in November 2021.
Specifications - Peugeot 404*
Photo: Courtesy of Artcurial
Engine: OHV inline-four, 1,618 cc (98.7-cu.in.), single Solex downdraft carburetor; 76 hp at 5,500 rpm, 96 lb-ft at 2,500 rpm
Transmission: Four-speed manual/three-speed ZF automatic
Suspension: Front - MacPherson struts, single lower wishbones; Rear - rigid axle with coil springs and stabilizer bar
Brakes: Four-wheel drum
Wheelbase: 104.3 inches
Curb weight: 2,480 pounds
Price new: $2,575-$2,699
Value today: $7,300-$17,500**
*Figures are for a 1965-’66 404 sedan with a carbureted engine.
**Source: Classic Data GMBH
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