Freaky 1970 bubblecar concept vehicle, then and now

Dinosaurs and Robots brings us a look at Luigi Colani's 1970 LeMans Concept Car, "a hand-sculpted, biomorphic, plexiglass-domed, pivoting cockpit pod onto the business end of a Lamborghini Miura," presently up for sale on eBay, in somewhat rough shape. This thing looks like the sort of car that the really gifted draw-ers in my grade three class used to obsessively sketch (minus the jet engine and the drone chute).

Other Makes: Luigi Colani LeMans Concept

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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knoxblox

It’s sad to see nice things wind up in the hands of collectors who either unable or don’t know how to care for them.
I include living beings in this category (exotic pets, race horses, etc.), but sadly, it’s hard to fine for incarcerate someone for junking up a concept car.
- imag
  
  And there are also collectors who do exactly the opposite: hermetically seal the thing they are collecting away from any possible enjoyment or use of it. That behavior can be equally disturbing.
woid

An extreme example of my wife refers to as “a penis car.”

I’m guessing the designer would be very stressed indeed about going through the new TSA x-rays.
Bryan C

knoxblox, it’s a choice of evils. I’d rather have the car suffer from benign neglect, or shadetree tinkering, than scrapped or cannibalized. Which is sadly exactly what happened to most concept cars.
Anonymous

the bat-mobile lurks…

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1989-Batmobile-2-Car-Batman-Returns-Real-Deal-/150519568253?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item230baa577d#ht_2626wt_1165
redcreme

That’s exactly what a futuristic car is all about! But I can’t see myself using one of those in the future :)
Anonymous

Amazing deal for $75k… Finding a barn-find Colani is an incredible opportunity since as far as I know they’re all sitting in museums, and it’s very rare for them to show up on the market. I’m sure this will end up with the same fate, but it’s nice to fantasize about some Bladerunner fan finishing it off and making their drive to work a sci-fi experience.
dculberson

I can’t even imagine the story behind this one. This blows me away even more than the Orbitron being found in Tijuana.
MadRat

Hopefully it’ll get restored like Ed Roth’s Orbitron. http://www.theorbitron.com/
ackpht

Wow. Major attention-getter, not much use as transportation.

I don’t think the two halves pivot in the middle. I pray they don’t.
Anonymous

Talk about your “cock” pits. Sheesh!!
eviladrian

I’ll say this for Colani, he never met a machine that he couldn’t make look like a wang.
- Anonymous
  
  Yeah I think the TSA would like to take a look at this car!
Jared

Its current state reminds me of the sort of ‘distressed futuristic’ look that George Lucas was going for in the original Star Wars trilogy. Somebody should Photoshop some covetous Jawas into that image.
Anonymous

“drone chute”? i think you mean “drogue chute”. seems to be a common mistake (i made it myself not all that long ago) — at 500 google hits vs 20k, i’m inclined to believe “drone chute” is a term used to describe a subset of drogue uses, generally by people unfamiliar with the real term.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drogue_parachute
emptyshirt

Is it drone chute or drogue chute? I’m more familiar with the latter. Are they the same/similar/different?
narrowstreetsLA

GENITALICIOUS