Momo Mirage

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The Momo Mirage ( miʁaʒ , French for “ mirage ” or “appearance”) was an American sports car that was produced in small numbers in the early 1970s and marketed as Momo .

The project was created by the American businessman Peter Kalikow and the New York Jaguar dealer Alfredo Momo. In 1967 Kalikow, who had long been considered an automobile lover, decided to develop his own vehicle. The reason for this was allegedly the presentation of the Aston Martin DBS , with whose driving behavior Kalikow should have disagreed. The aim was to create a Gran Turismo that would fill the gap between a Rolls-Royce and a Ferrari : spirited, elegant and conservative. From a technical point of view, solid American high-volume components should be used, while the chassis and body design should have Italian references. Alfredo Momo made some contacts here.

The car

The second prototype, still in the hands of P. Kalikow

The technology

The chassis was an Italian design. Kalikow and Momo initially commissioned Giulio Alfieri , the former Maserati chief engineer, to develop the chassis , which, however, was unable to complete the work in the allotted time. Ultimately, the order was given to Stanguellini , a small racing car designer from Modena. Vittorio Stanguellini developed a massive platform chassis on which numerous third-party components were installed: the front suspension was taken over from the Jaguar Mark 2 , the steering came from Alford & Alder, the dampers from Koni and the brakes from Girling.

The engine used was a 5.7 liter eight-cylinder Chevrolet of the LT-1 type, which was recently used in the Chevrolet Corvette and was also found in some European hybrids, namely in Iso Rivolta's cars . Kalikow wanted to replace the factory carburetor system with a gasoline injection system from Lucas ; however, this plan was ultimately not implemented. The power transmission was to take place via a manual five-speed transmission from ZF , alternatively a GM automatic was provided.

The design

The design of the car should exude European elegance and be developed by an Italian designer. It was clear early on that the car should be designed as a two-door, four-seat coupé . After a few casual and ultimately fruitless inquiries from Giovanni Michelotti , Pininfarina and Ghia , more serious discussions developed with Pietro Frua in the autumn of 1970 , who ultimately contained the order to manufacture the body.

The first 1: 1 model was completed by Frua in early 1971. It was a straight coupé with a long bonnet and a large radiator grille framed by round double headlights. In many ways it was an evolution of the Lancia Marica, a coupé designed by Tom Tjaarda in 1969 for Carrozzeria Ghia. In particular, the line of the C-pillar , which started directly at the upper rear door frame and then sloped straight down, corresponded to the two years older model. Peter Kalikow later claimed that the design was not - or not alone - developed by Frua; rather, a designer named Gene Garfinkel, who works for Raymond Loewy's studios , did the work largely alone.

The production

The first prototype, a maroon coupe with a carburettor and manual gearbox, was completed in the course of 1971. It was first presented in Italy and also used for test drives before being transferred to the United States in December 1971 . Another prototype, painted blue, was built in early 1972 with a modified final drive.

Rear view of the Mirage

The plan was to start series production in the course of 1972; Kalikow was thinking of producing 12 vehicles initially. Stanguellini was supposed to manufacture the chassis, and Pietro Frua was responsible for the manual construction of the vehicle. Stanguellini manufactured nine chassis by autumn 1972, of which at least six (including the prototypes) were clad at Frua.

In autumn 1972 Kalikow and Momo pulled the emergency brake. The reason for this was exploding costs. Both Stanguellini and Frua had doubled their asking price from the initial agreements: Stanguellini was now asking for $ 8,000 for each chassis, and Frua was charging a manufacturing price of $ 7,000 per vehicle. Added to this were the costs for the engines, which had to be obtained regularly from American Chevrolet dealers. This meant that Kalikov's plan to offer the car at a unit price of around 12,000 dollars - and thus cheaper than the contemporary Ferrari - was no longer feasible. In addition, production in Italy was repeatedly disrupted by numerous strikes. Ultimately, Kalikow had lost half a million US dollars on the project. In order not to let the losses become even greater, he ended the adventure at short notice.

A total of six vehicles were originally built, three of which are in Kalikov's possession:

  • Three cars - the brown and the blue prototype as well as a silver vehicle - are now owned by Peter Kalikow; they are located in New York and are occasionally presented to the public. The silver car was shown at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este in April 2009 .
  • A fourth car was bought by General Motors.
  • A fifth car is said to have been sold by Stanguellini in Italy and later burned down.
  • The sixth vehicle should not have been ready to drive.

In 2012, Kalikow commissioned Paolo Garella to build another vehicle (chassis 105) with an aluminum body.

The whereabouts of the remaining three chassis is unclear. In the 1980s there were rumors that they too had been dressed by Frua and gradually sold. However, no evidence is available for this; Peter Kalikow expressly did not confirm this.

Competitors

literature

  • Pete Coltrin: Chevy-Powered Momo Mirage , in: Road & Track 12/1971: First driving report (engl.)
  • Mick Walsh: Manhattan Transfer . Presentation, production history and driving report for the Momo Mirage with pictures of the maroon model and short statements by Peter Kalikow in: Classic & Sports Car 4/2005.

Web links

Commons : Momo Mirage  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Momo Mirage Coupe: Classic Cars. Retrieved May 22, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Momo Mirage no.105 - Paolo Garella. Retrieved May 22, 2020 .