In <History: Project DIAMANT, the MAYBACH>, we already explain that the MAYBACH show car launched at the 1997 Tokyo Motor Show was built by STOLA on the 140 sedan chassis. The unique structure of the 140 was suitable for being developed into a larger limousine. Today’s article will give another example, 17 years after the MAYBACH, another large sedan closely associated with the 140.
AURUS is a Russian brand of luxury automobiles, previously known under the project designations “Unified Modular Platform” and the Project “Cortege”. The development of the project has been carried out by the NAMI (Central Scientific Research Automobile and Automotive Engines Institute) since 2013 as a platform for creating cars for “transporting and accompanying top officials of the state, as well as other persons subject to state protection.” Today you can see the complete AURUS fleet in Russian president motorcade.
The reason AURUS was born is simple: to replace Kremlin’s Mercedes. During the years when Daimler and the Russians had close ties, Mercedes-Benz and the Russian leadership worked together to mutual satisfaction. In 2005, Mercedes-Benz received “Official Kremlin Car” certification. By 2013, the Russian president had been flying S-Class for 20 years, starting with the 140 of course. Kremlin is probably the most famous spokesperson for the S 600 Pullman.
But the patriotism of the Russian people was quickly awakened, in 2010 President Medvedev received a proposal to return to the use of Russian cars, Russian patriots want to build their own car for the president because they consider Russia is a big country with a growing economy. Therefore, the most typical AURUS, Senat is a large sedan for state representative .
Senat’s design has some of its own style, especially the ZIS 110 from the Stalin period. In 2012, NAMI held a prize-winning solicitation event, collecting hundreds of proposals from web designers, and finally a set of more retro renderings were selected by the Kremlin. Even though the car has many exotic elements, it is still inevitably associated by automotive journalists and enthusiasts with famous existing products. Due to the huge projection, people will definitely name the most typical icon of this silhouette, Rolls-Royce. The Rolls-Royce Phantom was pretty much the only existance in this class.
In fact, AURUS is the trade name that appeared later. In the early stages, the project was called “Project Courtage”. According to this interview with Maxim Nagaytsev, the general manager of NAMI back then, the design development sequence of Project Courtage are:
Phase 1: Assimilate designer’s portfolio from internet
Phase 2: NAMI discusses and refines selected designs
Phase 3: Build prototype for presidential review and approval
For Phase 1, Although Yaroslav Yakovlev(Russia) and Bernd Weel(Dutch)’s design won the online competition, NAMI did not incorporate it into subsequent design development. However, in Phase 2 NAMI took on another design project, which was chosen based on the results of a closed competition: its author was Alexey Chvokin, who worked at the Russian Automotive Design company (a division of NAMI). Alexey proposed to match the style of the cars of the “Cortege” family with the ZIS-110 of 1945.
“In January 2014, all three models of the “Cortege” were delivered to Novo-Ogarevo, where the president examined them. He, of course, wanted to try out the limousine right away and got behind the wheel. Indeed, the car gave the impression of a finished product, and not a model – and really, at least get in and drive.”
In April 2014, Russian press announced the first physical prototype that approved by the president as mentioned. The appearance of this prototype is a bit rough compared to the later AURUS or the rendering, it does not even share many design details with the final AURUS. But this was the first prototype of Project Courtage, the predecessor to AURUS. I would call it the “AURUS Prototype” in the following texts. According to the description of NAMI’s general manager, this should be the outcome of Phase 3.
When I first saw this set of photos, my eyes were drawn to the front seats, which are obviously from the 140 sedan. It got fresh leather which isn’t as neat as the original one. Of course, this is not enough to prove that this huge prototype has a definite relationship with the 140 yet. The entire interior is filled with parts from other cars, such as the instrument panel from the BMW 7er, the steering wheel from the Ford Focus, and the seat switches from the Mercedes-Benz S-Class 221.
This is understandable, the Russian automotive industry has not designed or produced premium cars for a long time, so it needs to borrow parts from role models. In Nagaytsev’s words, it was to quickly tell the president what the car could look like. There are also Hyundai Equus seats (thanks R.S San for correcting me it’s not LEXUS as Russian media pointed) in the rear passenger compartment. Due to the lack of core components, this area appears relatively creative.
If the 140 front seats are just a borrowed part for a good reason (it’s funny because Mr. Putin already spends a lot of time in these seats from 2000 to 2010), the familiar gas pedal strikes me as an anomaly. The pedals on this prototype look identical to those on the 140. The Mercedes pedals at that time were fixed to the floormat and there was no gap between the pedals and the floor, which prevented anything from getting under the pedals and getting them stuck. Not enough resolution to verify this, it could be the pedal from any Mercedes or other car, but it looks to me like this is the pedal from the 140, says who deals with 140 everyday. In terms of visual indicators, this pedal has 7 grooves like the 140.
Another thing that is familiar to me is that although the dashboard of this car looks modern, it is actually a retro layout. First, for a 2010 or newer car, the instrument panel is usually thick, which means the driver is further away from the windshield. The dashboard of this car is not that thick. It can be seen from its connection with the front door panel that the dashboard does not even completely cover the A-pillar. The most iconic thing is the tunnel cover under the instrument panel, which is connected to the instrument panel in an L shape. This is not a common design feature on any 21st century luxury car, and honestly the curvature of it reminds me directly of the 140. This can be described as: the tunnel cover is inserted below the instrument panel, or the instrument panel is inserted above the tunnel cover. Also the shift area, and even though the shifter knob is from a Toyota Camry, which is like the 140’s shift area. That extra MT-style leather cover seems to be just there to keep out what they borrowed.
In the grand scheme of things, the car’s interior has some 221 flair, but the engineering details don’t feel like a 21st century car. Realize that this is a 2013 design, as a possible source of inspiration, when Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, etc. all used interiors that differed from this. The so-called engineering details mean that a car can completely deviate from its prototype in interior decoration, but it is difficult to change the basic layout of powertrain and electrical equipment. To me it’s an old car platform with a modern twist. A new S-Class prototype is often built on the basis of the old S-Class, so of course this AURUS prototype will also have a foundation. This base must not be any AURUS, since it doesn’t exist yet.
NAMI has very little publicity for this prototype, not even any direct introduction. There is no introduction to the design, and no introduction to the construction. I tried to find more information to explore its potential connection with 140. There are only two photos of the under construction prototype on the Internet. Since no further infromation, seems neither of them should have been leaked.
The main bodywork was already completed when the photo was taken, it’s a big guy. Not only all the body panels are new, they are also much larger than the 140, making it difficult to relate them. I was just attracted to the battery on the right side of the trunk, a sort of Mercedes or BMW layout that the 140 also included. But the location of the battery is higher than that of the 140, above the rear anti-collision beam. That beam also differs from 140, but not too much.
These two unintentional photos don’t really tell people much, but the second photo immediately made me smile. What’s behind the huge radiator grille that hasn’t been installed yet speaks for itself.
I certainly saw something familiar. The familiar portion is visually divided into two deckes by a horizontal beam. The upper deck are the power steering radiator pipe and two auxiliary fans from 140. The lower deck is a 140 oil cooler. You can even see the original semicircular radiator frame, which was designed like this because earlier cars had resistors for the aux fans installed underneath here. Later the resistors were moved to other locations, but the semicircular design continued.
I photographed this section at an similar angle with Octavius, with front bumper stripped. Then put the green outline from the AURUS prototype into the corresponding position of Octavius to examine whether the relative positions of these components change. If it changes, then the AURUS prototype may just borrow the cooling system or power system of the 140. If there is no change, then the AURUS prototype could be a completely 140 with replaced skin.
It can be seen that the relative positions of components with green outline are pretty close. It’s not entirely same, that has to do with the angle of photography and the focal length of the camera. The photo of the AURUS prototype looks a bit grainy, and since it was taken in 2013, it could be from some simple digital camera or earlier smartphone. These equipment can achieve focal lengths between 24 to 70 mm. I used a phone with a 28 mm lens to shoot, which is within that range but not destined to be exactly the same. The photos of the AURUS prototype do not have exif, so the exact same shot cannot be taken. Since the auxiliary fan, power steering pipe, and oil cooler must be fixed to the front of the body, this means that the front of the prototype is hidden inside a 140, so its body structure is likely to come from the 140.
To further see how the 140 is hidden underneath the AURUS prototype, more green outline has been added to the front of the 140. The positions of these parts are very fixed and by following these outlines you can make a nice car. If you leave these outlines, it’s a different car. Can these green lines fit the AURUS prototype?
There is a saying, if a shoe fits your foot, then it is your shoe. The green outline of the 140 is seamless in the AURUS prototype. You can see how the horizental beam passes through the radiator grille. Even the position of the headlights has not changed, although the holes for the two headlights appear to be obscured by new sheet metal. This picture shows how the 140’s initial structure is hidden under this prototype, and where the extra widening might come from.
In the screenshot below, the completed AURUS prototype does not look like a tall vehicle. Part of its visual height is not achieved by increasing the actual height of the body, but by reducing the ground clearance, the front bumper is thickened. This actually makes the car appear shorter than it is, rather than taller.
Currently this prototype is on display at the GON (ГАРАЖ ОСОБОГО НАЗНАЧЕНИЯ) museum. I would like to get a closer look at the underneath and engine bay of this car to determine its further relationship to the 140 in person some day. Before that I can only search.
On its own stand at the museum, the AURUS prototype is lifted up, giving it an even more imposing look, similar to the later AURUS. It is placed at an angle on a pedestal, which is the highest point in the museum. Maybe they found that the AURUS prototype was visually too low. Here is the chance that I tried to find some lower angle photos to hopefully see the suspension. On the normal height of 140 they are not visible, with the exception of the lifted car. The photo above does show that the front suspension of this prototype has upper control arm very similar to the 140, and the conventional shock absorber, so it may have completely inherited the 140 suspension, too.
Such methodology of enlarging the 140 is not the first of its kind. When STOLA built the 1997 MAYBACH, they took the 140 body provided by Mercedes, stretched and widened the original chassis, then welded in new sides and roof. The stretching of the chassis is easy to understand and usually occurs between the gearbox and differential. The widening is achieved by increasing the width of the fenders, as these cars also tend to require wider tires. However, since the width of the front axle (subframe, wheel carrier) itself is difficult to change, the width that the body can increase is limited.
For example, the width of the 1997 Mercedes MAYBACH show car is 60 mm wider than that of the 140 sedan. If the tire width is increased from the original 235 mm to 265 mm, the body width can be increased by 60 mm. So the AURUS prototype must has very wide tire. From some source, the tires of the AURUS are GOODYEAR EAGLE F1 SUV 4X4 with a width of 275 mm, even wider than the MAYBACH. Two sides can contribute 80 mm of extra width to the 140 chassis, a predictable solution. The later series-produced AURUS Senat used 255/55 R20, which was narrower than the prototype because the chassis was already adapted to the body.
Regardless, there’s no clue of the engine as the hood looks very dark in the only photos available. Oil cooler tells somthing. Not all 140s were equipped with an oil cooler, that’s a complicated situation. For pre-facelift, oil coolers were standard from 6 to 12 cylinders, all models. After facelift, only the “necessary” models were retained, such as the V12, Australian models, with several possibilities. For this one that perhaps comes from Russia, maybe just a V12.
Please don’t be offended if Mr. Putin sees this investigation. The article only points out the relationship between the first prototype of Project Cortege and the 140. There is no evidence that the later AURUS is related to it. According to the general manager of NAMI, the project was financially tight in the early stages, and the purpose of building the prototype was very clear—to quickly demonstrate the concept. So building a large concept car on the mature 140 is completely rational – not only economical, but also successful.
All investigations are based on limited information, please email me if you have doubts about the veracity of this article. If you want to quote the content of this article, please contact me in advance, please do not use my text for any commercial purposes.