Ferrari Modulo

We have all seen pictures of this car, but moving is quite special.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxHcURXGlFE

Sorry, if this is a repost.

Steve

 

Funny : all the sequences on the move are shown in way down as the car runs free-wheel...

 

FWIW (not much) I've never seen it before. Cool. Thanx for posting.

 

It is my understanding that Napolis has purchased it from Ferrari/Pininfarina and is having it fitted it with the one-off Ferrari marine engine.

LOL!


Best,
Dave

 

It would be but that all computer generated. Modulo is a design exercise not a functioning car nor could it become one without a massive amount of work and redesign as the front wheels can't turn without hitting the body.

At one point I offered to buy it and continue it's voyage to a working car but Andrea wanted to let it be.

 

Don't think so. The car in the video must be real but with the engine not running...

 

Look at the drivers hands and the steering wheel. Look at it on the curves. The wheels don't turn.

 

Sorry, I'm not convinced. The thing is real...

 

I think it is real, the curves in the road are not that tight. Cool design by the same guy that designed my Lancia Montecarlo and Jim's yellow Dino, the same guy who put this on youtube also posted a vid of the Dino Competizione driving: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHGOFPGgDl0&feature=channel (In "Woodstock" style with the different windows )

 

Jim lied to us : his Dino Competizione is not real : All computer generated !!!

 

I think the Modulo and the AMC Pacer look somehow similar...

 

Here is how it originally appeared at the 1970 Geneva Auto Show. It was later shown at Turin with the revised silver color scheme (which looks better, IMO). This is a bit of a coincidence as I just recently posted this photo on my "1970 Geneva Auto Show" thread.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Details, details...

 

Good observation, from 0:40 to 0:55 the car first goes downhill and then uphill but slowing down and at 0:55 it just comes to a stop...no (not working) engine. And yes the hands of the driver look CGI.

 

Napolis is correct. The car is a non running prototype.

I am not sure how the video was created, but if you look at pictures of the engine bay of the Modulo, the transparent velocity stacks are sealed from the cam covers.

This car followed in the footsteps of the P5 and P6 as another pure design exercise, albeit non running. (However, I am not sure about the yellow 512s)

Interestingly, however, Automobile Quarterly Volume 9, #4 from the Summer of 1971 states, and I quote, "The sight of this car in motion is an eerie experience - - it appears to float over the road like some Bradburyesque visitor from an alien world come to show us how much we still have to learn."

I cannot explain how this is so when the car was a pure design exercise.

Napolis, can you shed some more light on this??

 

I'll ask PF how the video was made but the car definitely does not run and the front wheels don't turn right to left enough to steer.

Also note that the tires in Dinodans photo are Firestone and the ones in the video aren't.

 

Enough said.

I've loved the Modulo since I first saw a picture of it when it was nearly new. But it's not really a car.

The headlights in the video are curious, though.

 

after watching the video, i think there are several lopped segments.... the car seems to glide, yes, but not really drive.

the video looks old. the slight curves look so slight that the wheels may work.

does anyone know when this was made? based on the way it was filmed, i would guess mid 80's or older. notice how subtle the turns that it makes are and how slow it is going? i would have expected enya music to play instead of what play s on the video.....

 

Cool video, I've always loved this car.

You'd think that the front wheels could be fitted with 'body' pieces on the outside using the same method current F1 cars affix non-rotating brake ducts, matched to the rest of the body to appear as one piece when driving (or parking) straight ahead. Front suspension travel would necessarily need to be very small, but still doable.

 

I've got to believe that, at the very least, there must have been some type of braking system that exists to stop the car; I doubt that PF would just let the car "free wheel" down a steep grade with no way of stopping. Or do you think that that footage is computer generated as well?

 

The car has no operable brakes at all.

It's interesting to ponder if you could buy it should one leave it as it is or finish it up as a working car?

Dino Competizione was a working car so bringing her out of a 40 year sleep didn't require what it would take to get this one going.

 

Jim, why you don't ask directly to Pininfarina and have definitively the proof that the car is real ??

 

I have and will report.

 

OK. Thanks.

 

Is there anything remotely mechanical in it?

If it was built on a 512 racing chassis, putting it 'om the road' would be a very interesting proposition.
That said, I cannot see how giving the car a way to negate even the slightest bend could be done without some serious modification to the skin, which in turn would spoil the design.

I think it'd best be left as is.