Peugeot 401

Every decade in automotive history can be epitomised, after some arguing amongst friends, by a single trend. The Fifties are undeniably symbolised by outrageous tailfins, regardless of the general isolation of the motoring world back then — Europe had European cars, Japan had its own domestic products and so on.

But America’s dominance over the world, not to mention the arrival of rock’n’roll and Hollywood on everyone’s television sets, ensured it was tailfins that etched themselves into our minds when it comes to the Fifties.

The Sixties were all about elegance of design, teardrop shapes and aerodynamic profiling.

The next decade brought about an obsession with downsizing and fuel efficiency, and was thus an era dominated by Japanese compacts.

In the Eighties, someone seemingly discovered the ruler and never looked back, at least not until the Nineties, when hyper-speed, arguably of course, dominated car magazine covers: the Bugatti EB110, McLaren F1, Lamborghini Diablo, Jaguar XJ220, all easily capable of blasting past the 200mph (322kph) mark.

So what about the Noughties? Alternative powertrains? Ridiculous niches (Sports Activity Coupé, Coupé-Saloon)? Double-clutch transmissions killing off the manuals?

All credible cases for painting a quick picture of a car decade. But so then is the Coupé Convertible…

The market today is saturated with such cars, with Peugeot CCs, Renault Meganes, Mercedes-Benz SLKs, BMW Z4s, and McLaren MP4-12C Spiders all taking the electrically folding hard-top route.

But it wasn’t in the past 10 years that the innovation came about, or even a couple of generations ago. No, it was in the distant Thirties that Peugeot pioneered the electric folding metal roof, a full two decades before the might of Ford jumped on the technology to equip its full-sized Fairlane 500 with the magically folding hard-top.

Peugeot released its 401 model in 1934, and the mid-sizer was a neat, but ubiquitous family car for snug European cities, powered by a 1.7-litre four-cylinder engine developing 44bhp. It was a volume seller, and as such underpinned every body style you could think of — Peugeot sold the 401 in at least four trims, and 11 body choices.

But the one to have was the 401 Eclipse, as that was the first car ever to feature an electric folding metal roof (no jokes about French electrics, please). Not even 80 of these specialist coach-built 401 Eclipses were produced, but the groundbreaking technology went on to grace other Peugeots, such as the smaller 301 (not the 2012 model wheels drove in Turkey recently), and the French firm’s flagship in the Thirties, the 601.

The ostentatious 601 was sensationally coach-built by Pourtout, and featured an intricate and particularly huge folding hard-top (all one-piece) that must have been quite a sight on Champs-Élysées.