2003 Peugeot 4002: Concept We Forgot

There are some wild concept cars in this world and then there's this.

Khodrocar - You might think this is a concept car unveiled at a recent motor show, but the truth of the matter is, we’re looking at a concept as old as the Volkswagen Golf V.

The year was 2002. Peugeot was attending the Paris Motor Show to showcase the then new 208 GTi and Partner Combi facelift among other premieres. At the same time, the member of the PSA family was hosting the second edition of its Peugeot Design Competition to give applicants the chance to win €5,000 for the best design. No less than 2,800 projects from 90 countries were submitted and 32-year-old German designer Stefan Schulze managed to win the competition by grabbing the most votes.

All participants had to build their virtual creations following this theme:

"Delve into the history of the Peugeot brand and imagine the vehicle that Peugeot could evolve into in the coming years – a vehicle replete with stylistic references to classic Peugeot models of the past.”

Stefan Schulze did just that by imagining a retro-futuristic concept car that took inspiration from the Peugeot 402 of the 1930s. Still suitable to become the next Batmobile, his design was actually built by the company on a 1:1 scale and was exhibited a year later at the alternating Frankfurt Motor Show. Needless to say, it was purely a design concept without running gear or any intentions of turning the showcar into a production model.

Sitting on retro-flavored 21-inch wheels, the Peugeot 4002 had a swoopy body made from a combination of fiberglass and aluminum with the mirrors actually positioned above the low-slung body. Stefan Schulze envisioned the concept with a mid-engined layout breathing through the quad exhaust tips mounted in the center of the rear bumper. In some ways, it kind of looks like a French version of Jozef Kabaň’s Bugatti Veyron hypercar, which coincidentally also carried the "Made in France” label as it was built in Molsheim, Alsace.