{"id":45631,"date":"2026-08-26T15:17:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/?p=45631"},"modified":"2026-08-26T15:17:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:17:53","slug":"lets-give-the-bouvot-welter-duo-credit-where-pininfarina-deserves-none","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/?p=45631","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s give the Bouvot-Welter duo credit where Pininfarina deserves none"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ah! The look of the Peugeot 504, pictured below, one of the legendary saloons in the Peugeot range, unveiled in 1968. \u201cThe eyes of Sophia Loren<\/em>,\u201d people used to say. Adding: \u201cThe Pininfarina touch really is something else!<\/em>\u201d But that very distinctive look, with headlights shaped like furrowed eyebrows, is not the creation of the Italian coachbuilder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ever since the Citro\u00ebn Ami 6 made its debut in 1961 with its oval headlights, uniquely shaped headlights have become a hallmark of the brand. The 504 is clear proof of this.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It all began in the mid-1960s with the presentation of the two scale models of the future 504 that had been shortlisted to determine the styling theme. This presentation took place at Peugeot\u2019s premises in Garenne Colombes, where Paul Bouvot, head of design, and G\u00e9rard Welter were working with the small team in place. Since 1951 and the Peugeot 403 project, which saw the car launched in 1955, the coachbuilder Pininfarina had been collaborating on the French brand\u2019s automotive projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1951, Peugeot and Pininfarina joined forces to create something truly special. The 1955 Peugeot 403 was the first fruit of this partnership.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A consultation process that could sometimes be a bit of a chore when the Pininfarina team visited France, in the Peugeot style. G\u00e9rard Welter mentioned this when we met him to discuss a book about his career: \u201cEnzo Carli and Sergio Pininfarina would go round the design offices, look at our designers\u2019 drawings, examine the models and then head back home. It had become unbearable for me. I managed to convince Paul Bouvot to put a stop to this sort of visit.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paul Bouvot standing in front of the framework of a future plaster model. Behind him is the sketch that the Pininfarina team were able to see during their visits (red arrow).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A very striking example of the interplay between Peugeot\u2019s design studies and visits by the Pininfarina teams is undoubtedly the Peugeot 504 Riviera concept car presented by the Italian firm in 1971, shown below. It bears a striking resemblance to a Peugeot concept that had already been revealed in the form of a drawing shown above, dated December 1965, from within the La Garenne studio. The comparison clearly raises doubts\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Peugeot brand is, however, justifiably proud of this collaboration with a carrozzeria<\/em> responsible for designing the finest Ferraris, thanks to the very special relationship between Battista Pinin Farina (the name \u2018Pininfarina\u2019 was coined in 1961) and Enzo Ferrari. The Peugeot family took great pride in this connection, which was to endure until the early 2000s. Internally, however, the narrative was not quite the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the 1950s, Battista Pinin Farina (pictured here on the left with Enzo Ferrari) added Peugeot to Ferrari among his preferred clients!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paul Bouvot, then head of design at Peugeot, \u201calways had to strike a balance between his desire to see his team\u2019s proposals win the day, and a genuine respect for Ferrari, which Bouvot revered just as much as Bugatti<\/em>\u201d, explained Welter, for whom the presentation of the Peugeot and Pininfarina models took on a special significance. The French proposal does indeed appear to be on a significantly higher creative level than Pininfarina\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Designed by Paul Bouvot and brought to life by G\u00e9rard Welter\u2019s team, the model of the future 504 looks very modern compared to that of the Italian consultant\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the day the two scale models of the future 504 were compared, there was a very real snag, as G\u00e9rard Welter revealed to us: \u201cFarina\u2019s proposal won over the management because it was made of sheet metal, whereas ours was made of plaster. Even though this didn\u2019t factor into the decision-making process, we can see that Farina was one step ahead, and his mastery of hand-formed sheet metal was remarkable for the time.<\/em>\u201d It was therefore difficult for the management to envisage the future when faced with the Pininfarina model, which looked very real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Whilst the Pininfarina concept car is characterised by its sloping rear boot, the front end \u2013 inspired by the 204 \u2013 appears very classic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, as G\u00e9rard Welter pointed out at the time, \u201cin Pininfarina\u2019s model, the entire front end echoed the design of the small 204, particularly with its oval headlights. The senior management at the time therefore decided to ask Farina to take the front end of the Peugeot model and incorporate it into the Italian model.<\/em>” The Pininfarina version was therefore ultimately chosen, with its distinctive headlights, clearly inspired by the Peugeot proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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G\u00e9rard Welter confirmed that \u201cwe owe this new look, of course, to Paul Bouvot: he designed it and, together with the craftsmen of the time, I modelled it. So we do not owe it to Pininfarina.<\/em> On our scale model, we proposed some highly innovative headlamp designs, and if we\u2019d been able to mass-produce them as they were, we\u2019d have had a tremendous head start. Unfortunately, we didn\u2019t know how to produce such headlamps; we could only dream of them.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gian-Battista Pinin Farina died in 1966. Five years earlier, he had changed the name of his company from Pinin Farina to Pininfarina.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From that date onwards, Peugeot\u2019s design team changed its approach towards the Italian coachbuilder. It began to draw a clear distinction between what it deemed appropriate to reveal and what had to remain secret. The Bouvot-Welter duo stood firm, and the team gained increasing influence over the Italian consultant, because, as G\u00e9rard put it, \u201cwe did, after all, give a fabulous and undeniable boost to Peugeot\u2019s identity. Our 504 model remains in my memory as one of the most modern we produced at the time.<\/em>\u201d It would be another full decade before a complete turnaround took place between the Peugeot design studio and the Italian consultant, with the M24 project for the Peugeot 205 (below) and the triumph of Peugeot\u2019s design language!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ah! The look of the Peugeot 504, pictured below, one of the legendary saloons in the Peugeot range, unveiled in 1968. \u201cThe eyes of Sophia Loren,\u201d people used to say. Adding: \u201cThe Pininfarina touch really is something else!\u201d But that very distinctive look, with headlights shaped like furrowed eyebrows, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45631"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45657,"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45631\/revisions\/45657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lignesauto.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}