Peugeot 403

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The replacement of the fastback Peugeot 203, the first post-war Peugeot design, was the boxy 403, which looked totally different. Yet the body had been designed in cooperation with Pinin Farina, more with space in mind than fluent lines.
The 4-door body offered place for 6 persons, more than the 203 could do. The 403 was presented in 1955, but both models (which shared many technical components) remained in production together for another 5 years when the production of the 203 was finally stopped.
The 403 had a 1500 cc engine giving 65 bhp, with a resulting top speed of 135 kph. Later a diesel version (Peugeot’s first foray into that segment of the market) was introduced in 1959. When the production of the 203 stopped its 1300 cc engine also became available for the 403.
As happened with the 203, the 403 continued to be in production long after its successor, the 404 was introduced in 1960. Production only stopped in 1966, after almost 660,000 had left the factory.
There were also break and commercial (truck) versions of the car, and the Familiale had a 24 cm longer wheelbase, allowing for a three row seating arrangement. About 155,000 of these variants were made.
By far the most well know version of the car is the 2-door cabriolet, which was in production form 1956 to 1961. Only 2050 of these were produced and of course the car has been immortalized by Peter Falk in his role as Lt. Colombo.

Shown here are the prototype 403, as presented by Pininfarina during the 2005 Villa d’Erbe display of Pinin Farina designs, as well as a 403 Cabriolet shown earlier this year at Retromobile in Paris. Furthermore in 2006 several special bodied 403s were on display during Retromobile, so here is a Darlmat Coupe, a Radovitch Cabriolet and another Coupe by Rene Bernard.