One of the most successful cars produced by the French Peugeot company is for sure the 404. It was the successor to the 403, and was also designed by Pininfarina. It was presented in 1960, and contrary to current practices, the outside dimensions of the car were actually smaller than those of the 403. It was technically a conventional desing, with a front engine driving the rear wheels, independent suspension at the front and a coil sprung live axle at the rear. The most interesting feature was the position of the engine, located at 45 degree angle. Various engines were available including an 88 bhp fuel injection version. This made the 404 the first car that had the TI suffix added for an injected engine. In 1963 a two litre diesel was offered as well.
Although motorsports was not in the mind of the Peugeot engineers when they designed the car, it proved to be an extremely strong car that excelled in events like the East African Safari Rallye.
The car was also produced in other Peugeot factories in Argentina and Afrika. Pininfarina further designed a cabriolet and a coupe version, which were sold in not such great numbers and have become very rare because of rust problems. The other main body variant was the break, of which 400,000 examples were made.
When finally the end came for the sedan in 1975 1,632,195 cars were produced. The popularity of car can also be shown from the fact that the cheaper versions were kept in production as an entry model for those who thought the 504, introduced in 1968, was too expensive.
Shown here are an elderly sedan and a Safari Rallye Car replica, shown at Interclassics in Maastricht in 2005
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