Maurice Bienvenu Jean Paul Trintignant
Born 30 October 1917 Sainte-Cecile-les Vignes, Vaucluse, France
Died 13 February 2005 (aged 87) Nimes, Gard, France
Maurice Trintignant was one of France's national heroes. He raced on the Formula One and sportscar circuits for nearly three decades from the early 1930s onwards, competing in 82 Grands Prix. Maurice was born in Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes, Vaucluse in France, the youngest of the five sons of a prosperous vineyard owner. Maurice learned to drive at 9
( Maurice Trintignant was piloting a Bébé Peugeot around his father's vineyard in the Vaucluse at the age of nine) on the family estate and followed three of his brothers into racing. One of them was Bugatti driver, Louis Trintignant, who was killed in 1933 while practicing on the Péronne racetrack in Picardie, he was also the uncle of renowned French film actor, Jean-Louis Trintignant.
Peugeot in Russia - Bebe
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Anyone who has ever been in the automotive department of the Moscow Polytechnical Museum, will remember a small green avtomobilchik Peugeot Bebe, modest standing in the exposition. This is the oldest car in our country, of those that are in private collections. The fact that Bebe only exhibited in the museum, and it belonged to Alexander Hlupnovu. First owner of the car was his father, who bought it in 1940. The idea that the family has a rare monument of technical history, then anyone and would not come. Yes, and to repair its acquisition Hlupnov Sr. did not have time: the war began. |
All plans had to be postponed until better times, and they came almost 20 years! When the machine has regained operating state employees of the State Automobile Inspectorate, referring to her advanced age, refused to issue a technical certificate and number. It was then on heirloom had to look in a different way - as a monument to art. The owners contacted by Peugeot and received from it all the necessary technical information about the car and a few photos, using which managed to hold true restoration of the car - this time already as a monument to art. All the work was completed by 1977, and Bebe became very similar to the car that was once one of the plants left the firm in 1913.
However, the interested public had the opportunity to meet with a rare car a little earlier - in 1966, when Alexander Hlupnov with his father participated in the first festival in Moscow lovers of vintage cars. Since then, the car was an ornament of all, without exception, antique art exhibitions. Among other things, Bebe did in the Soviet Union movie star career - to his credit more than a dozen roles in various films and television productions.
It is not surprising that around this particular Bebe was born a legend: for some reason, many believe that Hlupnovy own a car Tsarevich, although the owners themselves, and museum staff have always stressed that it is not.
As for the true car Tsarevich Alexei, the government garage because of its popularity miniaturization he did not use for a long time and just stood there doing nothing, because no self-respecting major Soviet official could not appear in the city on the "child" car. Eventually Bebe written off, and he was in the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers, where it received the driving skills of the future than a dozen Soviet motorists. And everything ended in the military in 1942, when the building of the palace was bombed and the car was killed under its ruins.
As you can see, the popular rumor was wrong. Nevertheless, the legend that in the Moscow Polytech can be viewed on the machine Tsarevich Alexei, still lives ...
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And since we are talking about museum exhibits, it is worth noting that we have described near Bebe at the Polytechnical Museum and the chassis of the vehicle is Lion Peugeot 1906 release. He single-cylinder (785 cu. Cm, 9,5 l. With.) Water-cooled engine. The car was purchased by the museum from a resident of Tula Gurevich. Who owned the car before it, now it is impossible to establish. One thing is clear: in the Russian province with poor roads, in appalling conditions and almost no service could survive only the hardiest cars.
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Parades of ancient art in Moscow in the 70s you could meet other Peugeot. Not once there had guests from Tallinn Valery Kirs, who came on pretty, carefully restored Quadrilette (4 cylinder, 667 cu. Cm, 9,5 l. S.). Seats located in tandem on it, and the rear track was very narrow - only 750 mm. The rear axle was a worm and had no differential. A car weighed about 380 kg.
Photo: Peugeot Bebe AI Hlupnova after the final restoration (mid-80s). Next to the car - VI Dubovskoy author of "Car & Motorcycle Russia 1896-1917" Moscow. "Transport" 1994.
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As you can see, Peugeot contacts with our country until the early 90-ies were sporadic. Nevertheless, it is worth remembering a large contract for the supply of industrial equipment for the party automobile plants of the USSR. But car exports to the Soviet Union for several decades there was virtually no unless, of course, not counting machines that were purchased for the study of scientific car agencies.
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The Peugeot Bébé or Baby also known as Peugeot BP1 B3P1 or B4P1
The Peugeot Bébé or Baby was a small car produced by Peugeot
from 1905 to 1916 and were technically known as the Type 69 and the Type BP1.
The original Bébé Type 69 was presented at the Paris Motor Show in 1904 and stole the show as a modern and robust creation that was cheap, small, and practical. It weighed 350 kilograms (770 lb) and was 2.7 metres (110 in) long. These tiny dimensions meant that its small engine could propel it to 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph). Though the selling price was deliberately kept as low as possible, technologies like rack and pinion steering and a driveshaft instead of a chain were included in the vehicle. Production began in Audincourt in 1905, and the car proved to be popular. Bébé sold 400 units in the first year, or 80% of Peugeot's production. It was also exported, particularly to Britain. The Type 69 was sold until 1912.
The Type BP1 Bébé was a design by Ettore Bugatti, initially for the German car firm Wanderer, then also built under license by Peugeot for the French market. Peugeot displayed it under their marque at the Paris Motor Show in 1912. Production began in 1913 following discontinuation of the Type 69. Wanderer built their car with Bugatti's own 4-speed transmission, but in order to keep production costs down for the French version, Peugeot fitted a 2-speed gearbox initially, which was then replaced by their own 3-speed. The engine was also Peugeot's own, a tiny straight-4 that produced 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) at 2000 rpm, which gave the small car a top speed of 60 kilometres per hour (37 mph). Weight was again below 350 kilograms (770 lb), though the track was wide enough for two to sit abreast. Bébé scored some racing success among small car classes, notably at Mont Ventoux in 1913, where it won in its class.
This model ran until 1916. Advertising promoted its qualities as an economy product, in one case highlighting the comparison with more conventional transport in the case of a rural doctor, needing to cover approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) per day, for whom a Bébé would replace a team of two horses, while costing no more than one of them. With a total of 3,095 produced, and despite the dire economic conditions created by the War the Bugatti-designed Bébé was the first production Peugeot to breach the 3,000 units threshold.
Peugeot Bebe
By G.M. Baln - Lyttleton
The year is 1913. The Great War is only months away.
On opposite sides of the world, two young men are proudly taking delivery of
their first motorcar - 1913 model Bebe Peugeots.
Designed by the famous Ettore Bugatti, and taken up by Peugeot, the Bebe was
a true miniature car, quite unlike the crude cyclecars which were then a popular
form of small vehicle and often powered by a motorcycle engine.
The Bebe featured an 856-cc monobloc engine with LION PEUGEOT proudly cast
into the engine side covers. The chassis used the first ever application of the famous Bugatti reversed quarter-elliptic springs, and the well constructed coachwork was of
ample size for two people. The car had a novel system of providing different gear ratios, with two crown wheels in the rear axle, the required ratio being selected by engaging the moveable pinion with whichever was needed.
In Sydney, Australia, the son of a grazier took delivery of such a car while ten
thousand miles away, in Ayreshire, Scotland, a similar car was being delivered to
an equally delighted young man.
It was only months however before war broke out and the young Scotsman enlisted
for active service. Before leaving home he dismantled his little car and carefully
stored the components at the family farm.
Sadly, he did not return - killed in action. The parts of the car were never reassembled
and while some pieces were used for repairs to broken farm machinery, the body, engine, radiator and wheels remained where he had put them until discovered in the late 1980's.
What happened to the Australian car is not known, but by the 1940's it was mounted
20 feet up a pole, painted bright yellow and spotlit at night to advertise a wrecking yard in Sydney. Over a period the bodywork rotted away and eventually the mechanical parts were rescued by a vintage car enthusiast. Several owners later, the still unrestored parts were purchased by the present owner and shipped to New Zealand.
The task now was to find an original car which could be photographed and measured to enable the building of a new body, and as luck would have it the existence of the Scottish parts came to notice and these were eventually purchased, crated and shipped to New Zealand.
The body proved to be wonderfully preserved after its years in the Scottish barn, even to having the original glass in the windscreen and the Ayreshire registration number painted on the rear panel.
Restoration is underway, with the chassis, front axle and steering all completed, and the original Scottish and Australian owners would never have imagined that their little car would survive two world wars and over 80 years to be reborn in New Zealand a lifetime later.
RACING THE BEBE PEUGEOT
DOWN the years we have published quite a lot of complimentary articles about the pre-1915 Ettore Bugatti-designed Bebe Peugeots. They were excellent little motor cars and the forerunner of later baby cars.
But with a T-hcad 856-c.c. engine and, in their earlier form, only two forward speeds, One would hardly contemplate racing them. Indeed, Kent Karslake, who used to own one of these small Peugeots and even went touring on the Continent in it, put their maximum speed at about 35 m.p.h. in open form, although admitting that his Peugeot once attained a full eto m.p.h.—with a strong wind behind it. Karslake., discussing the coupe-bodied Bebe Peugeot owned by Peter Hampton, put the top pace of this one as 27 m.p.h., although Hampton has recently told me that it now gallops along at 33 m.p.h. on occasions. Not, however, a car that one would wish to race! Yet these little Peugeots were raced, in their native country. One of them was raced also in this country, and the other day I found it no hardship to drive down to the South Coast in that excellent car, the B.M.W. 2002, to chat with the person who did this, none other than John Leno, son of Dan Leno, the great Edwardian music-hall comedian. Lena's story is interesting. He entered the Motor Trade as a premium apprentice of the Premier Motor Co. of Aston, Birmingham, in 1907. Ex-cycle makers, they were experimenting with motorcycles and Leno rode their 3i-h.p. belt-drive Premo, prepared by chief mechanic Briant, in the 1909 T.T. The story is that its two-stroke engine had been given ports the size of those found on a Triumph four-Stroke of equivalent horse power. Consequently it refused to throttle down. A few were sold but it was the Levis cycle shop down the road that reaped the benefit, by copying the Premo engine on a smaller scale, which was eminently successful.
After three years with Premier Leno joined Rose & Hollibone in Frith Street, Soho, as a mechanic. They mere agents for the French Le Gui and the Italian Diatto, the former using a Chapuis-Dornier engine and a proprietary gearbox. He gained his first experience of Brooklands, working on racing versions of these cars for the Manager, Billy Meyer, one of them a 1909 single-cylinder Coupe des Voiturettes Le Gui. Leno's next move was to apply for the post Of Sales Manager and Demonstrator to Peugeot (England) Ltd., at so, Brompton Road, Knightsbridge. At this time the English firm was a branch of the famous French Company and apart from Leno they employed only one other Englishman, all the other personnel being from France under the General Manager, H. Boissy. At this time, 1910, they were making a range of much-respected touring cars and at Olympia that year showed a 10/14 demonstration chassis, a 12/t5 Million-Ginet torpedo tourer, an 18/24 Windover limousine-landaulette priced at ,C800, and a tee-twin 16-h.p. Lion-Peugeot two-seater which you could have bought for £290. The Bebe was introduced here in 1912 and it was Leno'S task to bring it to the notice of British motorists. He had a strenuous time doing this, competing in various events from speed trials to Scottish Six-Day Trials. For one of the latter a Bebe with an enormous windscreen was borrowed from the Wadham brothers, trading at Waterlooville, after tests up S. Harting hill. Leno took the car by train to Edinburgh, rebuilt its clutch, and somehow coaxed the underpowered to-b.h.p. Peugeot round the route. When the Brooklands :authorities announced their first Sidecar and Cyclecar Handicap, to take place at the 1913 Easter B.A.R.C. Meeting, this was regarded as an essential public appearance for the smallest Peugeot, slow though it was, and Boissy entered Leno for the race. He got round at 43 m.p.h. The First Cyclecar Handicap followed at Whitsun and again Leno ran, now lapping at 44.07 m.p.h., which was no match for the G.N.s and slower than the one-pot Chota, but handsomely quicker than the speed of the twin-cylinder Arden! Perhaps this discouraged Mon. Boissy, or more likely he did not wish the Bebe Peugeot with its 55 >, 90-mm. 4-cylinder engine to be classed as a eyclecar; at all events, the Bebe wasn't entered for the Second Cyclecar Handicap. Up to this time drivers at the Track had worn jockey's silks (Leno was allocated dark and light blue, halved) but when colours of the cars themselves were declared, in 1914, Leno hit upon the idea of painting his little Peugeot yellow, perhaps realising the need to court publicity when racing at his not very exciting speeds. At Whitsun the 8.3-h.p. Baby Peugeot appeared with its engine enlarged to 58 90 mm. (951 c.c.), which increased the lap speed to 52.89 m.p.h.—but Leno needed his start of 122 sec., for Haywood's Singer Ten could lap at nearly 74,!! m.p.h. However, with an engine of 60 >90 mm. (t,618 c.c.) Leno assayed a 75-m.p.h. Short Handicap—lap speed, 53.21 m.p.h.before war broke out and immediately disbanded the Peugeot staff. He and Leadbetter tried to cope with running things for a time, the Admiralty having shown a liking for the 20130 Peugeot chassis, but in the end Cpl. Leno found himself in France with a corps of RollsRoyce armoured cars, which, because of the mud, stayed in one place for something like a year. While he had been at Peugeot's he had met most of the well-known racing drivers, going to the Track with ace Georges Boillot and aristocrat Jules Goux, and being driven down from Carlisle Place to Brooklands by Andre Boillot in the 5912 Coupe de ('Auto Peugeot. He was asked by the Directors to produce a publicity booklet .about Peugeot racing successes, which covers the cars mentioned in our recent articles "Where Have All The Peugeots Gone ?". It was not only the Bebe that Leno demonstrated. He remembers the great 40150' 120 x 200 mm. I61-litre Peugeot, a car able, under favourable conditions, to do 90 m.p.h., and of how Lord Exmouth expressed an interest in it. A run against his Alpine Eagle Rolls-Royce was duly arranged, from the foot of Fitzjohn's Avenue to the gates of Hatfield House. The Peugeot arrived first, but his Lordship remained faithful to the British make. Incidentally, a staunch customer prior to the war had been Mr. W. J. Menzies, father of Mrs. Stewart-Menzies who afterwards raced a 1913 G.P. Peugeot. He lived at Liss and had bought five Peugeots between 1911 and 1913. Towards the end of the 1914/ t8 war Leno found himself in Scotland in charge of all the canteen lorries, with a fine Cadillac tourer as his personal transport. William Morris, searching for agents for his small tar, had come to Stewart & Arden Ltd. Stewart was keen, Arden thought the agency suicide and left the firm. After the Armistice Leno became one of the staff but found it required no initiative to sell Morris cars in those motor-impoverished days. Upstairs "the Directors Were in their shirt-sleeves, cashing the cheques"! He was encouraged momentarily when a lady customer couldn't decide between a Morris coupe and a Talbot 8/1-8 coupe in Warwick Wright's showrooms down the road. He persuaded her to have the Morris but she later asked for her cheque back, which to Leno was the last straw. He left and went to Stroud to sell Hamptons, which Bill Milward from the London Motor Garage (Charron) had been called in to re-design. For a time all went well, cars being supplied to the individual requirements of professional people, at the rate of some 300 a year. But the slump killed off the more expensive small cars and, almost overnight, Hampton folded up. Leno never re-entered the Motor Trade. Peugeot had not attracted him after leaving in 1923, because after the war the English CompanY. was no longer a branch of the parent factory, being simply an agencYi run for a time by Tom Knowles, as it remains to this day. Down the years Mr. Lem has owned some interesting cars, commencing with a Sizaire-Naudin, and including quite recently a sleeve-valve WillysKnight and big Vauxhall; he now runs an Issigonis Wolseley Hornet. But the racing story of the Bebe is not quite over. After the Armistice Leno sold the pre-war racing two-seater to Percy Topping. lie entered it for the 1921 J.C.C. zoo-Mile Race, Leno going as mechanic, both attired in yellow overalls. All was well for 43 laps, when a bigend parted and the power unit was completely wrecked, not even the clutch escaping. The little car was never rebuilt. . . .—W. B.
At the time of the 1913 Paris Show The Light Car and Cyclecar reported: 'The tiny Baby Peugeot which is already a great favourite on the Continent for running about town is fitted with a three-speed gear for next season. … During our visit to the Salon we noticed more Baby-Peugeots on the road than any other make of miniature car or cyclecar. They seemed extra-ordinarily tractable in the Paris traffic.' Kent Karslake who owned a Bébé in the early 1950s and wrote about it in that excellent motoring history book From Veteran to Vintage agreed that the car was tractable and highly practical, with a top speed of about 35mph, but drew attention to a weakness that he perceived: 'any connoisseur who thinks that Ettore Bugatti never designed a chassis which did not steer perfectly ought just to try a Bébé Peugeot if he wishes to be disillusioned. The car has no directional stability whatsoever and one holds a straight line by main force and ceaseless vigilance.' Certainly the steering is very direct, but one wonders if the Karslake car was not more than a little tired and really needed its suspension and steering bushes renewing.
Over thirty examples are recorded as surviving worldwide, with half a dozen or so in the UK, where the Bugatti Owners' Club keeps a fatherly eye on them.
