History of the “Charlatans” and the Peugeot L76

The speed challenge
At the start of the 20th century, the automobile had to reflect its times, a century that was starting very quickly. Peugeot wants to reach 150 km/h at a time when the cars sold only reach 50-60 km/h. To do this, Peugeot and the “Charlatans” invented, designed and manufactured a revolutionary engine, the engine of the Peugeot L76.

The context
From 1906, Robert Peugeot (nephew of Armand Peugeot) engaged his company “les Fils de Peugeot-Frères” in the construction of small-displacement cars, carts. A team of engine builders and drivers is created to participate in cart races. These are the “Wizards”. Gratien Michaux and Louis Verdet will be the engine designers. Jules Goux, Georges Boillot, from Valentigney and Giosuè Giuppone, Italian motorcycle champion, will pilot the cars imagined by the Wizards. They won many races in France and Europe. In 1909, they won all the victories! In 1911, after the fatal accident of Giosuè Giuppone, Paolo Zuccarelli replaced him, after his departure from the Hispano-Suiza team.
In 1910, the automobile branches of the Automobiles Peugeot and Fils de Peugeot Frères companies merged and the Sorciers pilots felt themselves growing wings. They want to compete with real cars and move away from carts.
In 1911, the international sporting season looked uncertain and everyone (car manufacturers and drivers) agreed that they had to react. The renewal, not to say the revolution, will come from Peugeot and in particular from the “Charlatans”…

The “Charlatans” and the first modern racing car
It was Jules Goux who presented the project to Robert Peugeot: “We must compete for the ACF Grand Prix which will be run in Dieppe on June 26, 1912. We will have to manufacture 3 cars at a cost of 100,000 francs each “. Jules adds that suppliers of special steel and aluminum are enthusiastic to take up the challenge!
Faced with this well-prepared file, Robert Peugeot allowed himself to be convinced. He added an engine builder to them, the Swiss Ernest Henry. Robert Peugeot intends to win this Grand Prix, so he is putting another team in competition. He asked Ettore Bugatti, with whom he collaborated for the future Bébé Peugeot, to design, for his part, a high-performance car. It will be a 5 liter displacement, with an overhead camshaft. In fact, it will be 10 HP and 10 km/h lower than that of the Jules Goux team, the “Charlatans”. We owe this nickname to Louis Verdet, the Wizards’ engine designer. After Robert Peugeot’s decision to give carte blanche to the drivers, he called them “charlatans” before resigning!
This young team, made up of Georges Boillot (27 years old), Jules Goux (26 years old), Paolo Zuccarelli (25 years old) and Ernest Henry (26 years old), quickly got to work in the Paris region. Ernest designed the engine, Paolo the gearbox, Jules the suspension and the rear axle and Georges the bodywork and wind tunnel tests.
Thanks to their talents and enthusiasm, they created THE racing car that everyone was waiting for, the Peugeot L76.
Its chassis is classic but very light compared to the competition’s spar structures. The engine is a 4-cylinder monobloc of 7,600 cm3, given at the time for a power of 148 horsepower at 2,200 rpm. But what makes this vehicle truly exceptional is its engine’s unique distribution system.
DOHC engine (double overhead camshaft), hemispherical cylinder head, 4 valves inclined at 45° per cylinder. The valves being controlled when going up and down, this desmodromic control makes it possible to increase the rotational speed of the engine and therefore to increase its power with a lower displacement. The engineers of the time already stated: “There will be before and after L76”.
This engine is neither the first “4 valves per cylinder” nor the first “double overhead camshaft”, nor the first hemispherical cylinder head, but it is the first in the world to combine the three techniques. Thus, the Charlatans gave birth to the world’s first truly modern racing car. Maximum speed: 190 km/h!