The Moonster
At the Paris Auto Salon in 2000, Peugeot launched a competition on the Internet which invited designs for the Peugeot of 2020. It was claimed to be the first competition of its kind on the Net and drew nearly 2,000 entries from around the world (submission could be done only via the Net) when acceptance of entries ended on December 15th 2000. It was open to anyone 14 years old or older and only those working for an automobile manufacturer were not allowed to take part.
By mid-January this year, 50 designs were short-listed and presented on Peugeot’s website so that surfers and auto journalists could send in votes. In this initial phase of voting, 8,500 votes were cast and narrowed down the list to ten entries – one American, two Spanish, one Austrian, three Yugoslav, two French and one Slovenian.
80% of all the entries had come from outside France and the average age of the entrants was 28; in fact, 71.7% of entrants were between 15 and 29 years old. 40% of the designs proposed the Peugeot of 2020 as a sportscar while 25% chose a city car concept.
A jury commissioned by Peugeot reviewed the ten designs and by majority of votes, it was the submission of a young Yugoslav designer which won. The design of Marko Lukovic, a student at the University of Applied Arts in Belgrade, was called the ‘Moonster’ and impressed the jury with its ‘imaginative power and dynamism, with the spoiler suggesting excellent dynamic performance’. The judges were also attracted by the ‘UFO’ aspect of the Moonster.
Lukovic’s prize for the best design was 5,000 Euros (about RM17,000), which he received at the 2001 Geneva show, and a life-sized model of the Moonster which would be displayed at this year’s Frankfurt Motorshow.
From the technical point of view, Lukovic did not offer much about the Moonster (the contest did not require detailed technical specifications) so it was more a visual exercise. Thus it is more of a sculpture with a fluid form, aerodynamic – even hydrodynamic – with some cues from the insect world.
The full-sized model, which measured 4 metres long, 1.95 metres wide and 1.65 metres high, was fabricated under the supervision of the Peugeot Style Centre. With no technical drawings to refer to, the fabricators used the static drawings which Lukovic had submitted to create a 3-dimensional vehicle. To comply with its designer’s choice of all-aluminium bodywork, the main concern was to define aluminium panel cuts permitting manual production of the stamped sections and shapes, and then polishing these parts.
To support this aluminium bodywork, a self-supporting chassis was constructed and utilized a carbonfibre framework with mechanically connected components. The narrow cockpit, with two seats in tandem, used polycarbonate windows.
For the wheels, an aluminium block was cut and fashioned accordingly by Michelin. A unique tread pattern was given to the 300×55 R21 tyres which would bring to mind the footprints left in the dust of the moon’s surface by astronauts.
It is unlikely that we will be driving a car like the Moonster in the near future so rather than being something to expect as future transport, it serves as a demonstration that creativity is very much present among the people who will design tomorrow’s cars.
