GIANNI ROGLIATTI’S FINEST “ARTICLE”
Presented at Giovanni Michelotti’s stand during the 1974 Geneva Motor Show, this original two-seater compact city car – with a name evocative of the lunar lander module, but which in fact stands for “Laboratorio Elettrico Mobile” (mobile electrical laboratory) – was the product of two years’ work of one the greatest automotive journalists of our time, who passed away four years ago. This was Gianni Rogliatti (1929-2012), an engineer from Turin, one of the most authoritative experts of Ferrari history and the author of countless books and articles on automobile history and technology.
In his free time between jobs as a correspondent for leading motoring magazines and the motoring pages of the most important newspapers, between 1972 and 1973 Rogliatti built an experimental car to both evaluate the market potential for an electric city car and conduct a number of different experiments in the application of electronics in an automobile.
The most original feature of the car was a monocoque structure in riveted sheet duralumin (constructed with the same techniques in use for the most advanced formula race cars of the era), giving the car a total weight – without batteries – of just 350 kg. This was extraordinarily light, especially considering that the car had independent suspension, hydraulic brakes (with regenerative braking technology to recover kinetic energy during braking), complex electrical and electronic systems and offered a comfortable, well-appointed cabin. With batteries, the car still weighed just 510 kg. Three different battery charging solutions were envisaged, each of which installable in a small compartment at the rear: a conventional rectifier charger, connectable to a mains socket; a fuel cell system; and a generator powered by a small environmentally friendly engine running on methyl alcohol and castor oil, and producing no harmful exhaust emissions.
From left Gianni Rogliatti and Giovanni Michelotti
The bodywork was by one of Italy’s greatest car designers Giovanni Michelotti (1921-1980), and his handiwork is clearly recognisable in the compact, functional and elegant forms of the car and in a number of truly brilliant details. These include the generously sized windscreen and rear screen, with the rear screen opening completely to facilitate loading luggage, the gullwing doors, which extend over the car and into the roof to make getting into and out of the car easier, and the removable front section, allowing unimpeded access to the interior of the car and the compartments housing the mechanical components. The four wheels are arranged in a diamond pattern, with a steering wheel at the front, a drive wheel at the rear and two lateral stabiliser wheels. The purpose of this layout, which was also used on the Pininfarina X, was to reduce the mass of the mechanical elements (with half the number of steering components and doing away with a differential and axle shafts) and friction, while also experimenting a rarely used configuration.
This car – a concentrated package of ideas and solutions that are still far from outdated today, but which never went beyond the prototype stage – was donated to MAUTO in 2012 by Gianni’s wife Adriana Rogliatti and his daughter Chiara, in memory of Gianni himself.
Motor: 4 pole, 24 V direct current
Power: 4 BHP at 50 A
Batteries: 4 x Marelli 12 V 150 Ah
Total vehicle weight: 510 Kg
