Rare Rides: Rad Van Time With the 1998 Citron Berlingo Calao, by Sbarro

by Corey Lewis

Published: September 28th, 2021

rare rides rad van time with the 1998 citron berlingo calao by sbarro

Today’s Rare Ride started off as a standard and rather uninteresting Citroën Berlingo van, and was then thoroughly edited by Sbarro into a windsurfing-oriented beach vehicle.

It’s a lot to process, visually speaking.

The Berlingo went on sale for the 1997 model year, alongside its twin the Peugeot Partner. Two body styles were available in the Berlingo’s first generation, a small panel van with four or five doors, and a five-door “leisure activity vehicle,” which is the European name for a short-wheelbase van like the Ford Transit Connect.

Power was provided via a range of inline-four engines that ranged in size from 1.4 to 2.0 liters. There were a few EV examples too, sold as the Berlingo Electrique. In very European fashion, all vans were equipped with a five-speed manual transmission. Tidy in its dimensions, the Berlingo was just 162.8 inches long. To put that in perspective, Berlingo was a full 21 inches shorter than the second generation Chevy Cruze.

The Berlingo and Partner lived a very long time in their first generation, with singular facelift for 2003. Sales of the first-gen continued in Europe through 2013, and continue on in Argentina today. They just love the ancient Berlingo.

Shortly after its release, Italian car designer Franco Sbarro dreamed up a funky concept version of the Berlingo for a very specific audience: Windsurfers. His Swiss company, Sbarro, set to work and reimagined the Berlingo almost entirely. Gone were the doors and roof, the former replaced by hollowed-out panels to hold windsurfing boards and accouterments. The roof was changed to a connected roll bar setup and added a roof rack to hold additional equipment. Up to six windsurfers were seated on its teal and banana-colored seats; the rear cargo area provided two additional jump seats.

The exterior continued the teal/banana color scheme, and up front a decorative silver plastic brush guard was fitted for extra off-road sand adventure vibes. At the back, a drop-down tailgate wore the same perforated aesthetic as the brush guard. With no roof and no windows beyond the windshield, a windy driving experience was assured by the Calao.

The very Nineties Calao ended up in the hands of Peugeot-Citroën, at their Adventure Museum. PSA decided to thin their collection in 2020 and sold the Calao without registration and a disclaimer about its lack of regular use. That wasn’t a joke, as in 2020 the Calao had accumulated just 363 kilometers. It sold for $26,000.

[Images: Sbarro]

#1990s #ActivityVehicles #BeachVehicles #BespokeCars #Citroen #CitroenBerlingoCalaoBySbarro #ClassicCars #CollectorCars #CustomCars #EU #Europe #PSA #France #Peugeot #Imports #Sbarro #NewsBlog #RareRides #SbarroCalaoBerlingo #Windsurfing

Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

More by Corey Lewis

Comments

Join the conversation

3 of 5 comments

Wolfwagen on Sep 29, 2021

What. The. Hell. Is. That? The headline picture has a lot going on too: - The surfboard appears to have the silhouettes of an SR-71/A12 - Model holding the surfboard is wearing a dress with platform shoes. I have never seen a woman wear such an outfit to the beach _ Model in the car is wearing jeans. Again, I have never seen a woman go to the beach wearing jeans The last picture looks like that teal and yellow didn't hold up real well for NOT being in the sun as it was intended

Like Reply
- DungBeetle62 on Sep 29, 2021
  
  ...but perfect for loading up Scooby to go solve some mysteries
  
  Like
Cicero on Sep 29, 2021

I guarantee that the woman with the surfboard had never seen one of those things in her life before the photographer made her stand next to it.

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Bouzouki Cadillac (aka GM!!) made so many mistakes over the past 40 years, right up to today, one could make a MBA course of it. Others have alluded to them, there is not enough room for me to recite them in a flowing, cohesive manner.Cadillac today is literally a tarted-up Chevrolet. They are nice cars, and the "aura" of the Cadillac name still works on several (mostly female) consumers who are not car enthusiasts.The CT4 and CT5 offer superlative ride and handling, and even performance--but, it is wrapped in sheet metal that (at least I think) looks awful, with (still) sub-par interiors. They are niche cars. They are the last gasp of the Alpha platform--which I have been told by people close to it, was meant to be a Pontiac "BMW 3-series". The bankruptcy killed Pontiac, but the Alpha had been mostly engineered, so it was "Cadillac-ized" with the new "edgy" CTS styling.Most Cadillacs sold are crossovers. The most profitable "Cadillac" is the Escalade (note that GM never jack up the name on THAT!).The question posed here is rather irrelevant. NO ONE has "a blank check", because GM (any company or corporation) does not have bottomless resources.Better styling, and superlative "performance" (by that, I mean being among the best in noise, harshness, handling, performance, reliablity, quality) would cost a lot of money.Post-bankruptcy GM actually tried. No one here mentioned GM's effort to do just that: the "Omega" platform, aka CT6.The (horribly misnamed) CT6 was actually a credible Mercedes/Lexus competitor. I'm sure it cost GM a fortune to develop (the platform was unique, not shared with any other car. The top-of-the-line ORIGINAL Blackwing V8 was also unique, expensive, and ultimately...very few were sold. All of this is a LOT of money).I used to know the sales numbers, and my sense was the CT6 sold about HALF the units GM projected. More importantly, it sold about half to two thirds the volume of the S-Class (which cost a lot more in 201x)Many of your fixed cost are predicated on volume. One way to improve your business case (if the right people want to get the Green Light) is to inflate your projected volumes. This lowers the unit cost for seats, mufflers, control arms, etc, and makes the vehicle more profitable--on paper.Suppliers tool up to make the number of parts the carmaker projects. However, if the volume is less than expected, the automaker has to make up the difference.So, unfortunately, not only was the CT6 an expensive car to build, but Cadillac's weak "brand equity" limited how much GM could charge (and these were still pricey cars in 2016-18, a "base" car was ).Other than the name, the "Omega" could have marked the starting point for Cadillac to once again be the standard of the world. Other than the awful name (Fleetwood, Elegante, Paramount, even ParAMOUR would be better), and offering the basest car with a FOUR cylinder turbo on the base car (incredibly moronic!), it was very good car and a CREDIBLE Mercedes S-Class/Lexus LS400 alternative. While I cannot know if the novel aluminum body was worth the cost (very expensive and complex to build), the bragging rights were legit--a LARGE car that was lighter, but had good body rigidity. No surprise, the interior was not the best, but the gap with the big boys was as close as GM has done in the luxury sphere.Mary Barra decided that profits today and tomorrow were more important than gambling on profits in 2025 and later. Having sunk a TON of money, and even done a mid-cycle enhancement, complete with the new Blackwing engine (which copied BMW with the twin turbos nestled in the "V"!), in fall 2018 GM announced it was discontinuing the car, and closing the assembly plant it was built in. (And so you know, building different platforms on the same line is very challenging and considerably less efficient in terms of capital and labor costs than the same platform, or better yet, the same model).So now, GM is anticipating that, as the car market "goes electric" (if you can call it that--more like the Federal Government and EU and even China PUSHING electric cars), they can make electric Cadillacs that are "prestige". The Cadillac Celestique is the opening salvo--$340,000. We will see how it works out.
Lynn Joiner Lynn JoinerJust put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?
Lynn Joiner Just put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?
Ollicat I am only speaking from my own perspective so no need to bash me if you disagree. I already know half or more of you will disagree with me. But I think the traditional upscale Cadillac buyer has traditionally been more conservative in their political position. My suggestion is to make Cadillac separate from GM and make them into a COMPANY, not just cars. And made the company different from all other car companies by promoting conservative causes and messaging. They need to build up a whole aura about the company and appeal to a large group of people that are really kind of sick of the left and sending their money that direction. But yes, I also agree about many of your suggestions above about the cars too. No EVs. But at this point, what has Cadillac got to lose by separating from GM completely and appealing to people with money who want to show everyone that they aren't buying the leftist Kook-Aid.
Jkross22 Cadillac's brand is damaged for the mass market. Why would someone pay top dollar for what they know is a tarted up Chevy? That's how non-car people see this.