Pininfarina is thought for designing a few of Italy’s most lovely automobiles. From Lancias and Fiats to Alfa Romeos and Ferraris, the Turin-based design home and coachbuilder has maintained decades-long collaborations with many home automakers. Nevertheless, one among its longest partnerships was really with a carmaker from a neighboring nation: Peugeot.
Pininfarina founder Battista Farina labored with Peugeot even earlier than establishing his firm in 1930. As early because the late Twenties, he created bespoke our bodies for the Quadrilette lineup of small and inexpensive automobiles. Because the a long time went on, the collaboration developed past design work. Pininfarina started constructing automobiles for the lion-badged model, beginning with the 404 convertible, the primary Peugeot assembled by an exterior firm.
The enduring Franco-Italian duo arguably reached its peak with the 406 Coupe, launched on the 1996 Paris Motor Present. A couple of months later in Geneva, Peugeot and Pininfarina set their sights on Germany’s luxurious trio. The 1997 Nautilus idea focused the likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi. Properly, no less than conceptually.
It was among the many remaining makes an attempt to compete with high-end sedans just like the S-Class, 7 Sequence, and A8. The following in-house 607 by no means really rivaled the Germans, and that is still true for more moderen choices such because the smaller 508 and the little-known DS9. Though Pininfarina had expertise designing massive sedans for Peugeot, the Nautilus sat on the next pedestal than the 605 and different earlier three-box saloons.
However regardless of its easy surfaces and Alfa Romeo-esque hidden door handles, the automobile had a basic difficulty: It rode on the bones of the 605, a mannequin Peugeot launched in 1989. Pininfarina refined a big govt sedan that it had designed a decade prior, making an attempt to venture it into the longer term.
The particular person main the design group wasn’t Italian. Ken Okuyama, of Ferrari Enzo fame, penned the Nautilus, grafting a fastback profile onto an growing older sedan. When it debuted on the 1997 Geneva Motor Present, Peugeot referred to as it “an thrilling stylistic exploration of the high-class sporty saloon.”
The proficient Japanese designer managed to conjure the phantasm of rear-wheel-drive proportions, regardless that the automobile remained front-drive just like the 605. The idea was considerably bigger than its donor automobile, stretching to almost 197 inches (5 meters). It featured an imposing wheelbase and sat on elegant 19-inch wheels with alternating blue and silver spokes.
Its crisp design, lengthy hood, and swoopy roofline made the 605 look severely outdated. Pininfarina decluttered the edges by changing standard mirrors with cameras and integrating the door handles into the pillars. Total, the Nautilus appeared nothing like Peugeot’s Nineties lineup, injecting a deep sense of modernity to assist the model climb towards German luxurious territory.
Simply because the rear mild bar hinted at what was to return, the simplified inside with twin screens was forward of its time. The idea additionally hails from an period when massive luxurious sedans may nonetheless have handbook gearboxes, as proven by the aluminum shift knob subsequent to a unusual crimson hazard-light button. Though it nonetheless had analog dials, Pininfarina made them really feel extra futuristic by hiding the gauges behind a retractable lid when the automobile was stationary.
Though the Nautilus did not make it to manufacturing, its entrance fascia seemingly previewed future Peugeot designs just like the 407 launched in 2004. Its expansive panoramic roof foreshadowed manufacturing fashions such because the 308 wagon’s glass roof within the early 2000s. The automobile’s total form may need additionally influenced the Ken Okuyama-designed fifth-generation Maserati Quattroporte revealed across the similar time.
Beneath the all-new bodywork sat the identical naturally aspirated 3.0-liter V-6 borrowed from the 605. It produced 197 horsepower, despatched to the entrance wheels by a five-speed handbook gearbox. With the idea weighing greater than its donor automobile attributable to its extra substantial measurement, efficiency was unlikely to have been spectacular.
Honestly, the Nautilus was by no means supposed for manufacturing; it served as proof that Pininfarina may envision a flagship Peugeot. Not lengthy after the big luxurious sedan debuted, the 2 firms parted methods, with Peugeot opting to deliver styling in-house.
As for one more flagship within the mildew of the Nautilus, it’s unlikely. Between Alfa Romeo and Maserati, mother or father firm Stellantis already has manufacturers higher suited to a high-end, massive sedan tailor-made to those that have not caught the SUV bug but.
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