Body Design
The body was done by Italian stylist Pininfarina and was completely new. It was all-steel monocoque which strongly resembled the BMW 3-Series of the time. The design is based on Peugeot's 'VSS' prototype safety vehicle, which Peugeot created to improve car safety. This meant that the car had front and rear crumple zones, side impact protection, a protected fuel tank and bolt-on front wings.
Three bodystyles were available, consisting of a conventional three-box four-door sedan, a five-door station wagon, and a three-door panel van. A series of aerodynamic research studies called VERA (Véhicule Économe de Recherche Appliquée, "applied research in economical vehicles") was also begun in 1981. The diesel VERA was significantly lightened (from 925 to 750 kg or 2,040 to 1,650 lb) and made more aerodynamic. A large rear wing, skirts covering parts of the rear wheels, and deeply scalloped sections behind the front wheels were all noticeable. The Cx was reduced from 0.44 to 0.319, helping lower fuel consumption between 33 and 38 percent. At the 1982 Geneva Salon the VERA 02, with a 1,362 cc turbodiesel, was shown, and the more radical VERA Plus followed later in 1982 - this was no more than a thinly veiled Peugeot 309 prototype.
Read more about this topic: Peugeot 305
Famous quotes containing the words body and/or design:
“You are the food,
you are the tooth, you are the husband,
light, light, sieving through the screen
whereon I bounce my big body at you
like shoes after a wedding car.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)