If proof were needed that a car doesn’t need to be the fastest, the rarest, the most valuable or the best-looking in order to be truly great, then Peugeot’s 504 is it. Unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in September 1968, its Pininfarinastyled bodywork was certainly more modern looking than that of the 404 it replaced but, while attractive enough, it was far from being revolutionary.
Things were pretty ordinary beneath the skin, too: a longitudinally mounted, fourcylinder engine driving the rear wheels via a four-speed gearbox and torque tube to give the car a top speed of around 95mph. What was special about the 504, however, was that it was built very, very tough.
In the tradition of French cars designed to cope with less-than-perfect roads, it benefited from…
