Earlier, it was likely, that a designer or a bodywork company, would be supplied with one or more chassis and their drive trains or with half-finished cars from the particular manufacture and from which sometimes wonderful prototypes would be created, quite often having very little to do with the final series. The company would then show the cars at trade fairs or try to coax an order from the respective manufacturer. Unfortunately, this has all changed. The manufacturers now build their dream-cars themselves, either using sheet metal or GFRP.

The Carrozzeria Castagna in Milan has been around for a long time. The company was founded by Carlo Castagna in the mid 19th century, at that time of course, he was still a coach-builder. We have one example of his work on our site, the Alfa 'La Bomba' from 1914. If you follow the link to the video below, you can see, apart from a number of other projects, a particularly large amount of modern Fiat 500 rebuilds.

For Peugeot, they had already altered the 508 RXH (see far bottom). Now, it was the turn of the 2008, still only a prototype. Of course, the side-panels set off in blue are quite striking, however, because no other changes have been made to the exterior shape, the interior becomes particularly interesting.

You wouldn't recognise the interior of the Peugeot again. The ceiling and the pillars have been clad in Alcantara®, but the centre parts of the seats are, probably for reasons of air distribution, spanned with a cloth material, indeed, this bears the same name. As far as the choice of leather is concerned, they were neither particularly careful with the basic colour nor with the combination of colours. In this case, the starry night-sky in the panorama-roof looks a bit plain.

Just as eye-catching is the dashboard. Here the three basic colours: red, grey and white are brought to the fore, whereby, at certain places, the leatherwork has a pleasant look and feel to it. Of course, everything has been perfectly worked, some of it hand sewn in cross-stitch.

The luggage compartment has a different side panelling and beautifully made flooring with a big Peugeot emblem, all this is made of wood. Whether this is practical, well … According to the designer, for the transporting of normal loads, it should be protected by lining it with a blanket. This can of course, also be used to have a picnic.

On the exterior, the colour accenting is more prominent than with the 508 RXH. Take note, that not only the blue panelling below the window-line, but also the red lower part of the body differs from the upper part by using a special matt spray painting. The use of white on the roof-edges and the roof spoiler, completes the trio of colours.

If anything is really disruptive, then perhaps it's the front doors, there where the corners jut needlessly into the wheel housings. It's very strange, that they felt it necessary to close in the coloured surfaces so starkly. On the 508 RXH, it looks like a wooden rail from the DIY-shop. In the case of the 2008, due to the not continuous beading, it is a little more discreet because it begins, somewhat offset and unmotivated, at the rear door. 08/14

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