The Lion that conquered the hill

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After a lovely photograph turned up in the Archives de la Somme, we wrote about the Lion-Peugeots of the early 1910s a few years ago (click here). It prompted quite a few of you to comment. Information on these cars appeared to be somewhat limited, not helped by the fact that they were supposedly banned following changes to the racing regulations for the 1911 season. The fact is that their extraordinarily tall bonnets were required to accommodate V4 engines with an extremely long stroke, giving a capacity of up to 5.6 litres.

Or were the rules changed after the 1911 season? This photograph certainly shows one of the Lion-Peugeots in action and is said to have been taken at the 1911 Mont Ventoux hill climb. It cannot have been the easiest car from which to see where you were going on the straights, we would say, but anyway. It seems entirely possible that the cars were still being raced that year, perhaps in the hands of privateers. In 1910, Georges Boillot drove a Lion-Peugeot up that same treacherous mountain in southern France in 21 minutes and 30.4 seconds, setting the fastest time of the day. Could this be him again?

Words: Jeroen Booij
Picture: Eduardo Mendes

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