Miguel Sánchez
During the XNUMXs, American motorsport experienced its particular golden age. A time settled in postwar economic growth. Knowing one of the most appreciated and pampered industries in a country that had not only become the center of the West, but also in a territory where mobility was thought by and from the private car. In this sense, Detroit industries acted like there was no tomorrow. As if mineral and oil resources were inexhaustible for an expanding economy at the blow of military bases spread all over the planet.
Structural optimism even more intensified with the space race. Filling all the elements of everyday life with futuristic aesthetics and galactic dreams. Including automobiles. Which began to wear chrome, atomic terms and volumes impossible for mobility in a vericueta European city. So things, the environment was conducive to the reception of innovative ideas regarding the bodies. Even as expensive and complex as they were. Which is why the Ford Fairlane 1957 Skyliner appeared in 500.
A huge hardtop convertible capable of consuming up to 17 liters per hundred kilometers. However, its main novelty lay in the roof's ability to fit into the trunk by itself. An automation that required seven electric motors, four lifting jacks and various locking mechanisms to work what seemed like science fiction.
Converting from a hardtop to a convertible in just a few seconds. Undoubtedly a boast that establishes the Skyliner as the great reference when it comes to the beginning of vehicles with a removable hardtop thanks to its more than 13.000 units sold. Obviously many more than the 79 of the Peugeot Eclipse. Yes indeed, the French was the first car with this type of bodywork when it was presented in 1935. More than twenty years before the Ford.
PEUGEOT ECLIPSE. AN EXCLUSIVE BODYWORK
Founded in 1925, Carrosserie Pourtout was one of the best auto body companies in pre-WWII France. In fact, most of his works were unique pieces. Designs as elaborate as several of the interventions he made on the Lancia Augusta -called Belna in France and with a novel narrow-angle V4- or the attractive Peugeot 302 Darl'mat racing. One of the perfect candidates to make a prestigious version based on the new Peugeot 401. A medium-sized station wagon presented at the 1934 Paris Motor Show, which was fitted with a 1-liter, four-cylinder, 7CV engine at 44 rpm.
A success for the lion's mark, selling 13.545 units in just its two years of production. Possibly the 401's greatest credit had it not been for the Eclipse variant. Precisely that which Pourtout was entrusted to create an exclusive and novel product with an impact on the media. In this way, the bodywork project was not to devise new lines but to introduce an invention that they had been working with for a long time. More specifically its designer Georges Paulin.
401 in sedan form 
601 Eclipse 
Imposing 601 Eclipse on the streets of Paris
Code name in the early days of aerodynamics and the author of some such groundbreaking designs as the 1939 Bentley Corniche I. Unfortunately far less than he could have done had it not been for his assassination by Nazism in 1942. Made to what He came after being betrayed while spying for the British as a member of the French resistance. A tragic end, responsible for ending a brilliant career in which his aerodynamic studies were combined with the creation of the first convertible hardtop on the Peugeot Eclipse.
A MODEL FOR PEUGEOT
The Peugeot Eclipse not only has the honor of being the first series-produced hardtop convertible, but also of having created a school within its brand. Something really interesting, since this type of bodywork remained forgotten for decades until its resurrection by the 1996 Mercedes SLK. Responsible for rescuing hardtop convertibles for mass production. Only preceded in the most immediate by some prototypes such as Walter de'Silva's Alfa Romeo Proteo, a test of what would later become the GTV and Spider.
As regards Peugeot, it continued the Eclipse body with variants of the 402 and 602. Both contemporaries of the 401 Eclipse, since while the former was its replacement in the mid-range, the latter was the top of the range produced until 1935. Same year as the construction of the 79 units of the first Eclipse, after which it took until 1999 for the appearance of another hardtop convertible model in the brand with the 206 cc. A cute little model that sold quite well thanks to the carefree character of a car that put open-air driving within the reach of the masses. And, what is more important, without sacrificing an iota of practicality.
Following this positive experience, Peugeot has always offered several convertible models in recent years that follow in the wake of the 1935 Eclipse. Among them the current 207 cc and 308 cc. Protagonists of a saga already fully established in the French brand. Which part of the creative ingenuity of a Jew who started out as a dentist, developed as a car designer and ended up before the bullets of the Nazi army. Yet another among the millions of bleak stories in a Europe torn apart by barbarism and genocide.
Photographs: Ford / Peugeot
