The story
History
In July 1921 The Motor-Owner published its test of a tandem Quadrilette, driven for about a hundred miles, and its tester admitted that he had set off with some trepidation. The car looked curious, its track was very narrow, and his route crossed a great many tramlines. The worry, he found, vanished within minutes at the wheel.source 2
The tiny four-cylinder water-cooled engine is as lively as a cricket and wonderfully responsive, having in view its microscopic dimensions. The whole power unit… is about as big as a 7 lb. bully beef tin.
A car for a tax class
After the First World War Peugeot needed a cheap car to mend its finances.source 3 The French finance law of 30 July 1920 gave it a target: a cyclecar class for vehicles of three or four wheels, at most two seats, at most 350 kg bare and at most 1,100 cc, taxed at only 100 francs a year. The class grew fast: 814 cyclecars paid the tax in 1920, 3,191 in 1921, 9,621 in 1922, 20,426 in 1923 and 29,542 in 1924.source 4 Peugeot was one of the few makers that built its cyclecars entirely itself instead of assembling bought-in parts.source 4
The car was shown at the Brussels motor show in 1920, where it was nicknamed the Quadrilette, and went on sale in 1921.source 3source 1 It succeeded the Bébé that Ettore Bugatti had designed for Peugeot in 1913, and was smaller still.source 5source 3
The Type 161
The Type 161 had a water-cooled side-valve four of only 667 cc, 50 × 85 mm, giving 9.5 hp at 2,450 rpm, with three speeds and a shaft to a worm-driven rear axle.source 2source 6source 1 It was 2,954 mm long and 1,166 mm wide, and its rear track was only 750 mm, against 926 mm at the front: so narrow that the axle needed no differential, and the two seats had to go one behind the other.source 1source 6 It weighed 345 kg, inside the limit, and was frugal, at roughly 5 litres to the 100 km (56 mpg).source 6source 3 In France it cost 9,900 francs with a hood, acetylene lamps and a spare wheel, or 9,400 francs without; the Amilcar CC, its rival in the class, cost 9,200 francs in October 1921.source 3source 7source 8 Later in 1921 came the 161 E, with the seats staggered side by side, the passenger set slightly back to give the driver room for the pedals.source 3
“An Interesting Alternative”
Britain had it too. Peugeot (England) Ltd of Brompton Road advertised it to country residents at £275 in September 1921, and at a reduced £250 from December.source 9 In April 1921 The Motor-Owner reported that the head of Peugeot’s London business drove one between his home in Putney and Brompton Road, and found it remarkably nippy.source 10 Its tester of July saw it less as a small car than as something better than a motorcycle and sidecar. The seat was remarkably comfortable, the quadrant gear change simpler than many gate changes, and the hood and windscreen kept the weather off far better than a sidecar did. It was not a car to stay in top gear: a halt in traffic or a steep hill meant second, where the little engine would rev and pull splendidly. It ran, he said, smoothly and silently all day at 40–48 km/h (25–30 mph).source 2
Taken all in all, the Peugeot is an honest, sound attempt to provide something superior in the way of comfort to the usual unmechanical motor-cycle combination, and as such we recommend it.
In Belgium, the magazine Moto wrote on “La quadrilette Peugeot” on 1 September 1921.source 11 The flat-out speed is given as 60 km/h (37 mph); German Wikipedia’s 40 km/h is perhaps the cruising speed.source 3source 6source 1
The Type 172, and the 5 CV
The Type 172 followed with few changes, still with three speeds and a worm-driven rear axle without a differential, and with brakes on the rear axle only, the right worked by the pedal and the left by a hand lever.source 6 French Wikipedia dates it to 1922; English Wikipedia says the changes came in 1923 and the car was launched during 1924, with a wider track for side-by-side seats, a shorter wheelbase and more room for luggage.source 6source 3 The sporting 172 BC and 172 BS, the Quadrilette Grand Sport, came in 1924 with a 720 cc engine.source 3 Confusingly, the Type 172 carried both the Quadrilette name and that of its successor, the 5 CV; the two were sold side by side in 1924, and then the Quadrilette name ended.source 3 Pierre Dumont notes that its platform chassis took well to conversion into racing cars.source 12
English Wikipedia counts 12,305 Quadrilettes over three years, 31 per cent of Peugeot’s output.source 3 The 5 CV, as the Type 172 R and then the 190 S, ran on to 1929–30, and the whole family came to 94,948 cars by Georgano’s count. It was the line that made Peugeot France’s maker of small, cheap cars in the 1920s.source 13source 3
The Austin Seven story
The Quadrilette is sometimes called an ancestor of the Austin Seven. Clutton and Stanford linked the Bébé and the Quadrilette to the Austin design in 1959, but Georgano calls the Quadrilette only an alleged ancestor, and writes that the car said to have been inspired by it had little in common with it. It is best treated as a story, not a fact.source 5source 14source 13




































