Peugeot 402

Make	Peugeot
Years of production	1935 to 1942
Production	75 068  built
Class	motor car
Engine	4-cylinder gasoline
Displacement	1,991 to 2,142 cm
Maximum power	55 to 63
Unloaded weight	1 110 kg
Maximum speed	115-125 km / h
Mixed consumption	8.7 L / 100 km
Body types	Sedan,Coupé,Cabriolet
suspensions	Hydraulic
Length	4850  mm  5 000 mm 4 470 mm
Width	1 640 mm
Height	1 580 mm
wheelbase	3 150  mm 3 300  mm 2 880mm

The Peugeot 402 is a car of the French Peugeot brand , produced between 1935 and 1942 ,

History

During a period marked by the Second World War and the resulting budget restrictions.It was at this time that new currents of automobile design emerged, notably American, like the Chrysler Airflow of 1934 applying the ideas of the Streamline Modern . European manufacturers are therefore eager to follow the example of the Americans, and the Peugeot 402 will apply, like the Simca 5 , aerodynamics, giving more fluid curves. It replaces both the Peugeot 401 and the Peugeot 601 .

In times of war and economic crisis , French automobile production suffered a sharp slowdown, with sales rising from 230,000 to 179,000 sold between 1930 and 1935. Europeans then apply the same ideas, on the aerodynamics applied to cars, in order to reduce the consumption of vehicles. At the Paris Salon of 1933 , most manufacturers have automobiles to very round shapes and sloping windshield. The Peugeot 402 is the most iconic European automobile of these new cars. Very inspired by the latest American achievementshis silhouette is very modern.

The first appearance took place at the Paris Salon of 1935 , barely a year after the Chrysler Airflow . The design is virtually identical for most vehicles of this era: a rounded grille, inflated wings, a very long six-piece bodywork and a two-part windshield windshield. Nevertheless, the particularity of the 402 is its headlights integrated into the grille, a first in the automobile, that Peugeot will apply again on future models. This tapered signature of Peugeot models is referred to as the "Sochaux time zone" .

The revolutionary looks for the 402 conformed to prevailing French ideas on middle-class family sedans the 402 was stream- lined, with a short beetling hood of the type that had recently adopted by Fiat. But where the Fiat hid its headlamps in the wings, the Peugeot's were tucked away between grille and radiator, a location shared by the battery.

It had a big 56 b.h.p. 2- litre four-cylinder engine, now with o.h.v. The standard gearbox was of three-speed synchromesh type, and in long-chassis form the car measured 130 ins. between wheel centres. Adequate power made for a civilized top-gear ratio of a welcome change from earlier seven-passenger cars. Brakes were mechanical, and at the rear cantilever springs gave a good ride.

A wide range of 402s was offered, including light commercials, an 'electric coupé' (or convertible with power-operated, disappearing steel top), and sports model, the 402DS with 70 b.h.p. engine and wind-down retractable windscreen, which was good for 80—85 m.p.h top speed.All passenger models were available to order with a four- speed electrically-selected gearbox incorporating an overdrive top.The 402 Lég&re, a hybrid combining the 402 engine with the chassis and body of the smaller 1.7-litre 302.

The design of a new car, the 402, meets two needs. The first is to replace the aging models that are the Peugeot 401 and the 601 . The second is to face growing competition. Indeed, Citroën has just produced the first models of Traction Avant and Renault is well established in the automotive market with its models: the Vivaquatre and the Primaquatre . The design supervisor of the Peugeot 402 is the head of the Bodywork Studies Department, Henri Thomas.

Peugeot's engineers are developing a technically classic car. The chassis is type "Bloctube", very rigid, having already proven itself on previous models. Four rope drum brakes, double-acting lever dampers and box steering are installed. The suspensions use a system of transverse leaf springs to be able to use independent wheels . The gearbox has three gears, the second and third of which are synchronized. The engine is a four-cylinder tumble of 1 991 cc with 55  hp.

The 402 is a great success due to its attractive aesthetics, its good performance and a superior running smoothness to the average of the period . After five years, the production of the 402 stops in 1940 due to the Second World War . As for most builders in Europe , the factories are ravaged by war, totally devastated and all the machine tools needed to build the 402 have to be rebuilt. Since it will be necessary to wait until 1949 so that the production and the sales of Peugeot return to a respectable level, the Peugeot 402 does not survive and finishes its career in 1942. However, a new version of the 402 was designed in 1936 to be sold in 1940, known as 402 Andreau. It is a Saint-Cyr engineer , Jean Andreau , who draws a prototype of this version, remarkable for an important Cx for the time - 0.34 versus 0.68 for the sedan - which is distinguished aesthetically by more curved sidewalls, doors without studs and a panoramic windshield. Originally planned with a V8 18 HP, the prototype made in 1936 is finally equipped with a four-cylinder base model . It will hardly be marketed .

As of commercialization in 1935 , the 402 is available in two chassis lengths and eight body configurations: a six-door sedan, a wagon, a coach, a convertible, a roadster, an Eclipse, a commercial and a taxi. A shortened version, first sold under the name of 302 , will be renamed 402 light in 1938, before becoming the light 402 B by combining the bodywork of the 202 with a 402 engine in 1939.

402 B - 1939 

In October 1938 , the 402 is called 402 B . Its mechanics now offers 12 tax hp ( 63  hp ) for a displacement of 2 142  cm ³ and a maximum speed of 125  km / h . Aesthetically, its grille is more prominent, and to allow more loading, the volume of the trunk is increased. The spare wheel is now housed inside it. In 1939 , a better light 402 B Light comes to enlarge the range: it combines the heavier and shorter body of the Peugeot 202 with the engine 2 142  cm ³from the 402, thanks to which it can reach 135  km / h . In May 1940 the German occupation permanently interrupts the manufacture of Peugeot 402 B .

In addition, in order to replace gasoline , rationed from November 1940, the Peugeot 402 is equipped with alternatives. The gas system is one: this technique is not new, it is already used in the thirties. The principle of the gasifier is to graft on the vehicle an installation allowing the combustion of wood , thus providing a poor gas. Once filtered, it enters a mixer equipped with an air intake installed above the carburetor. You must light the fireplace and wait for ideal combustion to obtain a steady stream of gas. A 402 B equipped with the patented Gohin-Poulenc "polycombustible" gasifier painfully reaches 75  km / hwhile consuming 20 to 30  kg of charcoal per hour on average with a low autonomy.

Eclipse 402 - 1936

Peugeot is the first manufacturer to put into production the principle of the retractable sheet steel roof in the trunk of a car. Patented in 1933 , this invention is the work of Georges Paulin , dentist and amateur draftsman passion . Émile Darl'mat owns a major Peugeot dealership in Paris . He knows that a wealthy clientele is willing to pay more to ride in a different model of the series. He gets bare chassis at Peugeot and bodybuilder Marcel Pourtout transforms the car designed by the designer G. Paulin. In 1936 , the 402 Eclipse is equipped with the roofPower will be abandoned next year in favor of a deemed reliable manual system and less energy. It will take the opportunity to abandon the normal frame of 3.15  m wheelbase for that of the family series of 3.30  m  to carry six people. The windshield becomes flat, in one piece without central division and the spare wheel, previously external, now integrates the trunk. During the summer of 1938 , the 402 received Michelin Pilote wheels with flat sticks. From September 1935 to September 1940 , some 580 Peugeot 402 Eclipse will be produced .

402 Darl'mat 

There is also a coupe model bodied by Darl'mat . It is delivered on December 16 , 1938at the Grands Garages de Champagne in Reims . Three Darl'mat committed to the 1937 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished 7 ^th , 8 ^th and 10 ^th 10 . The identity of the first owner is still unknown, but we know that it was acquired in 1945 by an American soldier . The latter goes back to the United States with the car and keeps it for twenty years. He then gives it to an amateur, who, after rolling it, handing it in a barn near Seattle. The circumstances in which the car was found are not trivial. Coming to Paris to improve her work, a young woman working for Peugeot in New York becomes the trainee of Philippe Boulay, himself a Darl'mat collaborator for more than forty years. Revenue in the United States, the young woman called Philippe Boulay few years later to tell him the presence of a Darl'mat in a barn .

At first somewhat skeptical because scalded in the long run by this type of affirmations rarely confirmed, Philippe Boulay gives in front of the evidence provided: the presence of round decorative motifs on the sides of the hood and the back plate in the shape of a heart. Repatriated in France , the convertible arrives in Le Havre in 1989 . The car has suffered a lot, but it is complete. It is exposed as is to Rétromobile the following year, before undergoing a complete restoration. The car is powered by a four-cylinder in-line engine valves in head 55  c , which passed more than 60  c with 402 B.Cotal electro-magnetic semi-automatic gearbox equips the 402.

However, its very high cost does not allow serial production. Of the 32 Darl'mat cabriolets built, there are few copies left today - about half a dozen. A total of 105 Darl'mat were manufactured, 20 coupes and 53 roadsters. However, this 402 sports has been used by Peugeot for the occasion of car shows (at the Grand Palais), to prove the quality of Sochaux productions.

402 utilities

The utilities 402 are called SK3 (cab 402, engine 302), SK4 (cab 402, engine 402), MK4 (cab 402, engine 402), MK5 (cab 402 B, engine 402 B) and DK5 (cab 402 B, 402 B engine, twin rear wheels) . The latter was produced until 1941 and used on the Eastern Front by the German Army .

Berliet Dauphine 1939

The Berliet Dauphine 1939 takes over the body of the Peugeot 402B, with a grille and lighthouses, inspired by American productions of the time. Its production will be stopped by the war and it will be the last automobile of the Berliet brand, which will then devote itself to the manufacture of heavy goods vehicles.

By 1939, 402s had been given new 83 x 99 mm (2,142 cc) power units developing 63 b.h.p. They also had theMichelin Pilote wheels with 'starfish' type spokes A total of 58,748402s (including some three thousand taxis) were made up to the end of 1941.