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Details
1920/21 PEUGEOT 3 LITRE INDIANAPOLIS RACING TWO-SEATER
Engine No. 3
Dark blue with maroon leather interior
Engine: four cylinder monobloc with twin overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, dry sump, bore & stroke 80mm x 148mm, 2975cc.; Gearbox: four speed and reverse with right-hand change; Suspension: half-elliptic springs with friction shock absorbers front and rear; Brakes: external handbrake to rear wheels and footbrake to front wheels. Right hand drive.
Before the First World War it can reasonably be argued that the ancient French firm of Peugeot was more successful in motor racing than any other manufacturer. The other great firms of the era such as Panhard, Levassor, Mors, Renault, Fiat and Mercedes had their periods of success, or sensational triumphs, but none of these makers were there from the dawn of motor racing in 1894 and also there at the end for the 1914 French Grand Prix in the way that Peugeot was.
In the Paris-Rouen trial of 1894 a Peugeot shared the first prize, and although Georges Boillot's Peugeot did not win the French Grand Prix at Lyon in 1914, driver and car presented the victorious Mercedes of Lautenschlager with an outstanding competition in one of the great motor races of all time. In between these two events, Peugeot had won the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris Race (Levassor completed the course first and won the acclaim, but his car did not meet the regulations) and there were numerous other successes, not least the French Grand Prix wins for Peugeot in 1912 and 1913 and first place in the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in the latter year, together with many first prizes in voiturette races and in numerous other competitions. The fact that examples of the 1914 Grand Prix Peugeots went on to win the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup race and finished first at Indianapolis in 1916, as well as being successful in many other American events, further distinguished the Peugeot as a truly exceptional automotive design.
Peugeot's racing achievements from 1912 onwards were largely due to the development of twin overhead camshaft engines for their competition cars. Peugeot were not the first to make such an engine, but they were the first to fully exploit its potential for maximum power output from a given engine size. Much has been written about the genesis of the twin overhead camshaft (tohc) engine, but for Peugeot it was probably a team effort with their trio of talented racing drivers: Georges Boillot, Paulo Zuccarelli and Jules Goux together with draftsman-designer Ernest Henry and factory engineer Vasselot each making a contribution. Whatever the individual input, the result was a successful engine that spawned so many outstanding followers including Delage, Alfa Romeo and Sunbeam, and soon afterwards, Miller, Duesenberg, and Aston Martin. Indeed to this day there have been few successful racing engines that have been other than tohc units. Thus an enormous debt in the sphere of motor racing is owed to the Peugeot company for its pioneering work.
After the Great War motor racing spluttered back into action and a notable achievement for Peugeot was the winning of the 1919 Targa Florio by Andr Boillot (brother of Georges) at the wheel of a 2-litre tohc car that had been built for the 1914 Coupe de l'Auto that the outbreak of the war had prevented from taking place. Encouraged by this result and a win in the same year by Howard 'Howdy' Wilcox at Indianapolis in one of the old 1914 Lyon Grand Prix cars, for the 500 race of 1920, Peugeot commissioned their designer Marcel Grmillon to develop a car to meet the new 3-litre (183ci.) racing formula.
Inspired by the pre-war twin-cam engines, Grmillon took what seemed to be a logical step forward and designed engines with three overhead camshafts, five valves per cylinder and twin ignition from two separate magnetos. These four-cylinder engines were installed in new chassis that were upswept over the front axle, thus reducing the ground clearance compared with the 1914 cars, but in most ways they followed pre-war practice. Four cars were built, three being sent out to America for the 500 Mile Race, and one kept in reserve. Drivers were Andr Boillot, Jules Goux and Howdy Wilcox. Unfortunately, the cars did not come up to expectations even though there were two previous winners of the event in the team. Wilcox was the fastest Peugeot driver to qualify in 12th place at nearly 89 mph, some 10 mph down on Ralph de Palma's pole position with his Ballot. Goux, who knew the track well as a result of his win in 1913 and 4th place drive in 1914, only qualified in 19th position, running at a shade under 85 mph. In the race though, all three Peugeots retired. Whatever the theoretical advantages of the triple camshaft engine, it was not a success.
The cars were returned to France and Grmillon cut his losses and equipped two of his chassis with sleeve-valve engines. (Peugeot was in the process of developing such engines for production cars and competition versions were successful in all forms of motor sport throughout the 1920's and form a separate subject in their own right.)
The two remaining 1920 Indianapolis cars were also re-engined, reverting to a tohc layout. They were described in detail in The Autocar in April 1921 by that doyen of motor racing reporters, W. F. Bradley. He details that tohc engines of different dimensions were fitted to these two remaining Grmillon chassis. One was of 85 x 130 (2950cc), the other of 80 x 148 (2975cc). Furthermore, Bradley writes that the smaller engined car had a separate gearbox whereas the other had a unit engine gearbox. The first of these two cars was due to be driven at the brickyard by Wilcox, and the second by Jean Chassagne. Recent examination of this car has yielded the information that it has an engine and gearbox in unit, and, significantly, a cylinder stroke of 148mm. Thus, this is the car that Chassagne was designated to drive.
It is quite apparent that Grmillon did not throw away all that he had designed for his triple cam-shaft cars of 1920. He also drew on previous Peugeot experience in making a new engine for this car. The complete crankcase is clearly from one of the 1920 Indianapolis cars. It carries a plate that identifies the engine in typical Peugeot style as a model L3 (that is 3-litres), engine number 3, but also stamped irregularly into the aluminum crankcase is the legend: MOTEVR N 3. Perhaps more significantly, there are platforms ahead of the engine block for a pair of magnetos, which would have supplied sparks to the two plugs per cylinder with which the triple camshaft engines were equipped. This fact alone rules out the possibility that the engine could be one of the pre-Great War 3-litre voiturette units. The fact that the valve gear is completely enclosed reinforces this view. What the engine does share with the earlier Peugeot designs is the beautifully crafted, enclosed train of gears at the front of the cylinder block to drive the two overhead camshafts.
In the 1921 Indianapolis race the revised cars were again unsuccessful. In the early part of the race Wilcox held third place, but retired with engine maladies. Chassagne did start, but if the report in The Autocar is to be believed, he was driving a Sunbeam. Other sources do not list Chassagne as a Sunbeam driver on this occasion and US authorities and race records indicate that his race entry number was No. 19 and his car was listed as finishing in 18th place - and when he retired on lap 65 due to disqualification for having lost the bonnet (hood), his hands were on the steering wheel of the Peugeot.
After the 1921 Indianapolis 500 the cars returned to France, being ineligible for the two-litre formula that became operative the following year. When the Montlhry racing circuit just south of Paris opened in 1924, Chassagne's car was given by Peugeot to the driving school run by Boillot that existed at the track and it appears to have earned its keep there until the outbreak of the Second World War. There is a story that in 1940, in the wake of the German invasion of France, the car was driven at a high speed from Paris to Bordeaux ahead of the advancing forces. Certainly it was displayed for many years at the Bonnal Renaulac Collection in Bordeaux until this museum was dispersed in 1992.
In 1983 the Peugeot was purchased by a French enthusiast and recommissioned for use, appearing at a number of events over the years including the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 1998.
Close examination of the car reveals that, although restored, it is essentially original. The bonnet (apart from the panel below the exhaust system) is a replacement, thus supporting the story of Chassange's retirement at Indianapolis in 1921. The carburetor is a Solex instead of the original Claudel-Hobson, and only one magneto is fitted whereas two were in place for racing, one being a spare. These details apart, the car is basically a 1920 Indianapolis Peugeot with the changes made for 1921. The engine is a masterpiece of engineering, fully in the tradition of the twin cam Peugeots. From all the Peugeot tohc racing cars built, only two others are known to survive: the 1914 Grand Prix car owned by the Bothwell family in California and the pre-Great War 3-litre in the Collier Collection.
This significant motor car offers an opportunity to acquire a unique piece of racing history with a direct link to the first use of the twin overhead camshaft engine in motoring competition.
Engine No. 3
Dark blue with maroon leather interior
Engine: four cylinder monobloc with twin overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, dry sump, bore & stroke 80mm x 148mm, 2975cc.; Gearbox: four speed and reverse with right-hand change; Suspension: half-elliptic springs with friction shock absorbers front and rear; Brakes: external handbrake to rear wheels and footbrake to front wheels. Right hand drive.
Before the First World War it can reasonably be argued that the ancient French firm of Peugeot was more successful in motor racing than any other manufacturer. The other great firms of the era such as Panhard, Levassor, Mors, Renault, Fiat and Mercedes had their periods of success, or sensational triumphs, but none of these makers were there from the dawn of motor racing in 1894 and also there at the end for the 1914 French Grand Prix in the way that Peugeot was.
In the Paris-Rouen trial of 1894 a Peugeot shared the first prize, and although Georges Boillot's Peugeot did not win the French Grand Prix at Lyon in 1914, driver and car presented the victorious Mercedes of Lautenschlager with an outstanding competition in one of the great motor races of all time. In between these two events, Peugeot had won the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris Race (Levassor completed the course first and won the acclaim, but his car did not meet the regulations) and there were numerous other successes, not least the French Grand Prix wins for Peugeot in 1912 and 1913 and first place in the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in the latter year, together with many first prizes in voiturette races and in numerous other competitions. The fact that examples of the 1914 Grand Prix Peugeots went on to win the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup race and finished first at Indianapolis in 1916, as well as being successful in many other American events, further distinguished the Peugeot as a truly exceptional automotive design.
Peugeot's racing achievements from 1912 onwards were largely due to the development of twin overhead camshaft engines for their competition cars. Peugeot were not the first to make such an engine, but they were the first to fully exploit its potential for maximum power output from a given engine size. Much has been written about the genesis of the twin overhead camshaft (tohc) engine, but for Peugeot it was probably a team effort with their trio of talented racing drivers: Georges Boillot, Paulo Zuccarelli and Jules Goux together with draftsman-designer Ernest Henry and factory engineer Vasselot each making a contribution. Whatever the individual input, the result was a successful engine that spawned so many outstanding followers including Delage, Alfa Romeo and Sunbeam, and soon afterwards, Miller, Duesenberg, and Aston Martin. Indeed to this day there have been few successful racing engines that have been other than tohc units. Thus an enormous debt in the sphere of motor racing is owed to the Peugeot company for its pioneering work.
After the Great War motor racing spluttered back into action and a notable achievement for Peugeot was the winning of the 1919 Targa Florio by Andr Boillot (brother of Georges) at the wheel of a 2-litre tohc car that had been built for the 1914 Coupe de l'Auto that the outbreak of the war had prevented from taking place. Encouraged by this result and a win in the same year by Howard 'Howdy' Wilcox at Indianapolis in one of the old 1914 Lyon Grand Prix cars, for the 500 race of 1920, Peugeot commissioned their designer Marcel Grmillon to develop a car to meet the new 3-litre (183ci.) racing formula.
Inspired by the pre-war twin-cam engines, Grmillon took what seemed to be a logical step forward and designed engines with three overhead camshafts, five valves per cylinder and twin ignition from two separate magnetos. These four-cylinder engines were installed in new chassis that were upswept over the front axle, thus reducing the ground clearance compared with the 1914 cars, but in most ways they followed pre-war practice. Four cars were built, three being sent out to America for the 500 Mile Race, and one kept in reserve. Drivers were Andr Boillot, Jules Goux and Howdy Wilcox. Unfortunately, the cars did not come up to expectations even though there were two previous winners of the event in the team. Wilcox was the fastest Peugeot driver to qualify in 12th place at nearly 89 mph, some 10 mph down on Ralph de Palma's pole position with his Ballot. Goux, who knew the track well as a result of his win in 1913 and 4th place drive in 1914, only qualified in 19th position, running at a shade under 85 mph. In the race though, all three Peugeots retired. Whatever the theoretical advantages of the triple camshaft engine, it was not a success.
The cars were returned to France and Grmillon cut his losses and equipped two of his chassis with sleeve-valve engines. (Peugeot was in the process of developing such engines for production cars and competition versions were successful in all forms of motor sport throughout the 1920's and form a separate subject in their own right.)
The two remaining 1920 Indianapolis cars were also re-engined, reverting to a tohc layout. They were described in detail in The Autocar in April 1921 by that doyen of motor racing reporters, W. F. Bradley. He details that tohc engines of different dimensions were fitted to these two remaining Grmillon chassis. One was of 85 x 130 (2950cc), the other of 80 x 148 (2975cc). Furthermore, Bradley writes that the smaller engined car had a separate gearbox whereas the other had a unit engine gearbox. The first of these two cars was due to be driven at the brickyard by Wilcox, and the second by Jean Chassagne. Recent examination of this car has yielded the information that it has an engine and gearbox in unit, and, significantly, a cylinder stroke of 148mm. Thus, this is the car that Chassagne was designated to drive.
It is quite apparent that Grmillon did not throw away all that he had designed for his triple cam-shaft cars of 1920. He also drew on previous Peugeot experience in making a new engine for this car. The complete crankcase is clearly from one of the 1920 Indianapolis cars. It carries a plate that identifies the engine in typical Peugeot style as a model L3 (that is 3-litres), engine number 3, but also stamped irregularly into the aluminum crankcase is the legend: MOTEVR N 3. Perhaps more significantly, there are platforms ahead of the engine block for a pair of magnetos, which would have supplied sparks to the two plugs per cylinder with which the triple camshaft engines were equipped. This fact alone rules out the possibility that the engine could be one of the pre-Great War 3-litre voiturette units. The fact that the valve gear is completely enclosed reinforces this view. What the engine does share with the earlier Peugeot designs is the beautifully crafted, enclosed train of gears at the front of the cylinder block to drive the two overhead camshafts.
In the 1921 Indianapolis race the revised cars were again unsuccessful. In the early part of the race Wilcox held third place, but retired with engine maladies. Chassagne did start, but if the report in The Autocar is to be believed, he was driving a Sunbeam. Other sources do not list Chassagne as a Sunbeam driver on this occasion and US authorities and race records indicate that his race entry number was No. 19 and his car was listed as finishing in 18th place - and when he retired on lap 65 due to disqualification for having lost the bonnet (hood), his hands were on the steering wheel of the Peugeot.
After the 1921 Indianapolis 500 the cars returned to France, being ineligible for the two-litre formula that became operative the following year. When the Montlhry racing circuit just south of Paris opened in 1924, Chassagne's car was given by Peugeot to the driving school run by Boillot that existed at the track and it appears to have earned its keep there until the outbreak of the Second World War. There is a story that in 1940, in the wake of the German invasion of France, the car was driven at a high speed from Paris to Bordeaux ahead of the advancing forces. Certainly it was displayed for many years at the Bonnal Renaulac Collection in Bordeaux until this museum was dispersed in 1992.
In 1983 the Peugeot was purchased by a French enthusiast and recommissioned for use, appearing at a number of events over the years including the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 1998.
Close examination of the car reveals that, although restored, it is essentially original. The bonnet (apart from the panel below the exhaust system) is a replacement, thus supporting the story of Chassange's retirement at Indianapolis in 1921. The carburetor is a Solex instead of the original Claudel-Hobson, and only one magneto is fitted whereas two were in place for racing, one being a spare. These details apart, the car is basically a 1920 Indianapolis Peugeot with the changes made for 1921. The engine is a masterpiece of engineering, fully in the tradition of the twin cam Peugeots. From all the Peugeot tohc racing cars built, only two others are known to survive: the 1914 Grand Prix car owned by the Bothwell family in California and the pre-Great War 3-litre in the Collier Collection.
This significant motor car offers an opportunity to acquire a unique piece of racing history with a direct link to the first use of the twin overhead camshaft engine in motoring competition.
Sale room notice
Please note that there will be a Customs duty charge of 2.5 payable on the hammer price and premium. Further, we regret that the engine is not running at this time as 2 days ago a piston seized bending a con rod and damaging the block. For further information, please see a member of Christie's staff.