{"id":2665,"date":"2005-12-07T03:20:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-07T08:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/12\/heart-of-lion\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:04","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:04","slug":"heart-of-lion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/12\/heart-of-lion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Heart of the Lion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Peugeot<\/a><\/p>\n

Peugeots and I go back a long way. The year I graduated from elementary school, my parents bought a new
\nPeugeot 403<\/a>, one of the
\nfirst imported<\/a> to the USA. When I got my driver’s license almost three years later, I was allowed to drive it on special occasions (my everyday wheels being either the
\nNash Rambler<\/a> or
\nDeSoto<\/a> you’ve seen in earlier CarPort installments). The 403 remained in the family until it rusted voraciously away.<\/p>\n

The French have a way with car design: utterly unconventional by American standards, but resulting in excellent handling with a very comfortable ride. This has been true of all our subsequent Peugeots, a
\n1979 504<\/a> diesel sedan that my wife Jill bought in 1986 and the
\n1985 505STI<\/a> and
\n1987 505STX<\/a> that succeeded it (the latter with the bulletproof
\nPeugeot-Renault-Volvo V6 engine<\/a>). These later Peugeots have been reliable, too, the 505s recording over 200,000 miles each. Peugeot’s
\nrearing lion mascot<\/a> is well chosen.<\/p>\n

I have not, however, had much experience with prewar Peugeots, so I was anxious to sample the 402 berline owned by my friend
\nVictor Lane<\/a>. Victor, an American living in Wales, is an eclectic collector, the inhabitants of whose garage are constantly changing, and a person who enjoys sharing his treasures with his friends. An afternoon with Victor is a car person’s delight.<\/p>\n

The
\nPeugeot 402<\/a> was manufactured from 1935 until production halted during World War II, nearly 80,000 cars in all. Looking akin to a
\nsmall Chrysler Airflow<\/a>, the 402 is streamlined and
\ndistinctive<\/a>, one of its hallmarks being
\nbehind-the-grille headlamps<\/a>. It turns out to be, interestingly, the comsummate car for touring in Europe. Nimble on its Michelin shoes, it also boasts the French standard for
\ncomfort<\/a>. A
\n2-liter engine<\/a> provides plenty of forward movement, through gears stirred with another French innovation, the
\npush-pull-and-twist shifter<\/a>. This odd-looking device is nowhere near as clumsy as it looks.<\/p>\n

The ultimate Peugeot 402 is the Eclipse Décapotable<\/a>, a retractable hardtop anticipating the
\nFord Skyliner<\/a> by over two decades (here’s a
\nsimilar body<\/a> on the 1934 601 chassis). Eclipses are understandably rare, but “ordinary” 402s are frequently available and for less than a king’s ransom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not all Peugeots are wonderful. I suffered a long year with a notoriously unreliable
\n405<\/a>, the model that pretty well ended Peugeot’s presence in North America. In a way I miss it. Though underpowered and inappropriately geared, it, too, had nimble handling and the most comfortable seats of any automobile I’ve ever owned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peugeots and I go back a long way. The year I graduated from elementary school, my parents bought a new Peugeot 403, one of the first imported to the USA. When I got my driver’s license almost three years later, I was allowed to drive it on special occasions (my everyday wheels being either the….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3409,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665\/revisions\/3409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}