Peugeot 404 Diesel Record: The car that revolutionized diesels celebrates its 60th anniversary

Diesel seemed to be the fuel of the future in 1965. Trucks, vans, tractors, and other heavy vehicles used diesel engines, but their use in conventional passenger cars was practically negligible, as diesel engines were considered slow, noisy, and ill-suited for powering a car. Diesel engines were not used in the early 1960s, but diesel engines were not used in the early 1970s, as they were not used in the early 1980s, as they were not used in the late ...

Peugeot believed in the potential of diesel for passenger cars before anyone else, so it developed a prototype called the 404 Diesel Record, the aim of which was to demonstrate the potential of diesel engines. The Peugeot 404 Diesel Record was a single-seat model designed by the French coachbuilder La Garenne, using the base of a 404 Cabriolet or convertible and modifying it to accommodate a 2.1-liter diesel engine and a final weight of 1,135 kilograms.

On June 4, 1965, Peugeot tested its prototype on the Montlhéry circuit, a former oval south of Paris, with a team of five drivers to provide necessary shifts, a total of 25 mechanics, and two engineers specializing in the diesel engine, called La Indenor. The Diesel Record ran for 31 consecutive hours, covering 5,000 kilometers at an average speed of 160 km/h. It had become clear that the diesel engine was reliable, robust, and fast.

Just a week later, on June 11, 1965, Peugeot tested its prototype again, but replacing the 2.1-liter Indenor engine with a smaller one, called the XD88, with a 1,948 cc engine and a nominal power of 68 hp, a sufficiently significant figure 60 years ago. The challenge – also successful – consisted of driving for 72 consecutive hours, covering 11,000 kilometers at an average speed of 161 km/h, obtaining a final consumption of 12 l/100 km, a fairly decent figure if we take into account that the Peugeot 404 Diesel Record was running at full throttle almost the entire time.

The Peugeot 404 Diesel Record's experience was more than positive, and it helped break several world records associated with diesel cars, such as top speed and distance traveled. The model, which is still preserved today in the brand's museum in Sochaux (France), definitively paved the way for diesel engines within the European industry, although their use didn't become widespread until the 1980s and especially the 1990s. Its emergence coincided with modern turbodiesel engines, which allowed for higher power outputs and lower fuel consumption than gasoline-powered cars of the time.