title: Lion-Peugeot Type V4C3
text: # Lion-Peugeot Type V4C3
  
  The Lion-Peugeot Type V4C3 was a motor car produced near Valentigney by the French auto-maker Lion-Peugeot between 1912 and 1913. It was the manufacturer's first car with a four-cylinder engine. 653 were produced.
  
  The V4C3 was propelled using a four-cylinder 1,725 cm³ four-stroke engine, mounted ahead of the driver. This was the first, and till now (2012) the only Peugeot to feature a V4 engine. A maximum 9 hp of power was delivered to the rear wheels.
  
  The car was the first of several Lion-Peugeot models that became known as a Lion-Peugeot 10 hp. This was a reference to the car's fiscal horse power, applying a system of car classification for taxation purposes then being established in France. Tax horsepower then, and for several decades to come, was defined purely as a function of the combined surface area of the engine's cylinders, this being far easier to assess consistently and accurately than the actual power produced by an engine. At this stage fiscal horse-power tended to equate approximately to actual horse-power, although the two would diverge subsequently, as engines became more efficient at extracting power from a given sum of cylinder diameters. Eventually, in the second half of the twentieth century, more complex (and less internationally consistent) definitions of fiscal horse power would replace those defined only by cylinder diameters.
  
  The V4C3 shared its 2,250 mm wheel base with the manufacturer's models from the previous year such as their twin-cylinder Type V2C3. The 3,200 mm (approximately) body length provided space for between two and four people depending on the body specified. The wide range of different body types offered followed a pattern that by now would have been familiar to many Lion-Peugeot buyers. It included a Phaeton, a Torpedo, a Limousine, a Landaulet, a “Touring Car”, a Coupé, a delivery van and a sports car.
  
  ## Lion-Peugeot and Peugeot: the difference
  
  “Lion-Peugeot” is the name under which in 1906 Robert Peugeot and his two brothers, independently of their cousin Armand's "Automobiles Peugeot" company, established a car manufacturing business at Beaulieu near Valentigney. Ten years earlier the automobile pioneer Armand Peugeot had split away from the family business after a long-standing disagreement over how intensively the company should diversify into larger scale automobile production. An agreement had at that time been entered into between Armand's “Automobiles Peugeot” company and the residual Peugeot business that the residual business should concentrate on its established metal tools and components businesses along with its successful bicycle manufacturing activities, while Armand would have Peugeot branded powered vehicles to himself. During the ensuing ten years Armand's automobile business had grown rapidly, although it appears that the residual Peugeot business had probably not entirely avoided producing powered vehicles. In any event, under a new agreement signed in 1905, the residual Peugeot business made Armand an annual payment in return for which Armand consented to the residual business itself producing motor cars under the “Lion-Peugeot” name. The arrangement continued until 1910 after which (the death of Robert Peugeot's father Eugène having apparently removed a major impediment to the idea) the Lion-Peugeot business and the Peugeot automobiles business were merged into a single company. Nevertheless, some smaller models continued to be branded as “Lion-Peugeot” until 1916.
  
  ## Sources and further reading
  
  * Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader: Die große Automobil-Enzyklopädie, BLV, München 1986, ISBN 3-405-12974-5
  * Wolfgang Schmarbeck: Alle Peugeot Automobile 1890–1990, Motorbuch-Verlag. Stuttgart 1990. ISBN 3-613-01351-7
  * ↑ Musée de l'Aventure Peugeot. The exhibit label (2012) states: «Voiturette LION Type V4C3: ....seule Peugeot encore à l’heure actuelle à être motorise par un 4 cylindres en V. »
  * ↑ Armand Peugeot and Robert’s father, Eugène Peugeot, were both great grand-sons of Jean-Pierre Peugeot jr (1768 - 1852), who himself was the son of the similarly named company founder Jean-Pierre Peugeot sr 1734 - 1814. Therefore Robert Peugeot and Armand Peugeot were second cousins once removed to one another.
  
  vtePeugeot road vehicle timeline, 1889–1944 — next » :
  
  Type
  
  1890s
  
  1900s
  
  1910s
  
  1920s
  
  1930s
  
  1940s
  
  9
  
  0123456789
  
  0123456789
  
  0123456789
  
  0123456789
  
  0123456789
  
  01234
  
  Supermini
  
  1
  
  2
  
  3 / 4
  
  5 / 6 / 7 / 8
  
  21 / 24 / 30 / 31
  
  37
  
  54
  
  57
  
  69 "Bébé"
  
  B P1/ B3/P1 "Bébé"¹
  
  161/172 "Quadrilette"
  
  5CV
  
  190
  
  26 / 27 / 28
  
  48
  
  56
  
  58
  
  126
  
  201
  
  202
  
  Small family car
  
  14 / 15 / 25
  
  56
  
  58
  
  68
  
  VA/VC/VY¹
  
  V2C/V2Y¹
  
  VD/VD2¹
  
  159
  
  163
  
  301
  
  302
  
  33 / 36
  
  63
  
  99
  
  108
  
  118
  
  125
  
  173 / 177 / 181 / 183
  
  Family car
  
  9 / 10 / 11 / 12
  
  16 / 17 / 19 / 32
  
  49/50
  
  65/67
  
  77
  
  78
  
  88
  
  127
  
  143
  
  153
  
  153 B/BR
  
  176
  
  401
  
  402
  
  18
  
  39
  
  43/44
  
  61
  
  71
  
  81
  
  96
  
  106
  
  116
  
  126
  
  138
  
  175
  
  601
  
  Large family car
  
  23
  
  42
  
  62
  
  72
  
  82
  
  92
  
  104
  
  112/117/ 122/130/134
  
  139
  
  145/146/148
  
  174
  
  66
  
  76
  
  83
  
  93
  
  135
  
  156
  
  184
  
  Executive car
  
  80
  
  103
  
  113
  
  141
  
  147/150
  
  85
  
  95
  
  105
  
  Cabriolet / Spider
  
  91
  
  101/120
  
  133 / 111/129/131
  
  136
  
  144
  
  Panel van
  
  13
  
  22
  
  34/35
  
  Minibus
  
  20 / 29
  
  107
  
  $^1$ These cars were marketed as "Lion-Peugeots", produced by what was till 1910 a separate Peugeot company, run by cousins of Armand Peugeot, then in charge of the principal automobile business.
  
  In 1910, Armand having no sons of his own, it was agreed that the two branches of the Peugeot business be reunited. :
  
  