The Peugeot 905 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice in a row. It took the 1992 race, then swept the podium in 1993. In between, Peugeot also won the 1992 World Sportscar Championship, the last season that series ever ran.
It did not start that way. The car failed badly on its first try at Le Mans, and both entries were out before dark. Two years later, it was the team everyone else had to beat.
Here is what the 905 was, how it went from early retirements to titles and how the 1993 finish played out.
A Peugeot 905 built around a Formula 1-style V10
The rules shaped the car. Sports prototypes of the era ran under 3.5-liter engine rules shared with Formula 1, Autosport notes. That is why the 24 Hours of Le Mans organizer describes the 905’s 3.5-liter V10 as “similar to Formula 1 engines at the time.”
The details, however, came from a deep team. According to CAR magazine, the engine was a 3,499cc, 40-valve, 80-degree V10 with an aluminum block. It started at about 600 bhp at 12,000 rpm, and the 1992 spec sheet lists 640 bhp at 12,500 rpm. Jean-Pierre Boudy created the V10, while Robert Choulet shaped the body under technical director André de Cortanze, CAR says. Dassault built the carbon-fiber structures.
Jean Todt ran the program. CAR calls him “the architect of its success” and says he built a 120-strong team at Vélizy.
A rough start in 1990 and 1991
The 905 first raced in the final two rounds of the 1990 World Sportscar Championship, in Montréal and Mexico, according to DailySportsCar. Both races ended in retirement for the lone car.
The first win came in 1991, at the season-opening race at Suzuka. DailySportsCar’s results table adds victories at Magny-Cours and Mexico City that year. Even so, the outlet says Jaguar’s XJR-14 outpaced the Peugeots for much of the season.
Le Mans was the low point. The race organizer’s own history says Peugeot came back to the 24 Hours in 1991 for the first time since 1938. However, its two 905s “threw in the towel before nightfall,” according to the 24 Hours of Le Mans site. CAR blames fuel fires, electrical faults and gearbox failures.
The 1992 Le Mans win and the title
Peugeot returned in 1992 with three cars. The No. 1 905 of Derek Warwick, Yannick Dalmas and Mark Blundell won the 60th running of the race on June 20 and 21, the organizer’s records show. It was Peugeot’s first Le Mans victory. Meanwhile, the No. 2 car of Philippe Alliot, Mauro Baldi and Jean-Pierre Jabouille started from pole and finished third.
Still, the race was wet, and the field was thin. The organizer notes that Jaguar and Mercedes had left, so the grid held about half of the original entry list. Toyota took second, its first Le Mans podium, with Masanori Sekiya, Kenny Acheson and Pierre-Henri Raphanel. DailySportsCar lists the winning car at 352 laps, and CAR puts it six laps clear of the Toyota.
Then the championship followed. DailySportsCar states that both the drivers’ and teams’ titles in the 1992 World Sportscar Championship went to Peugeot. CAR adds that the 905 won at Silverstone, Le Mans and Suzuka in what it calls “the 40th and final running of the FIA World Sportscar Championship.” In addition, Autosport refers to Dalmas and Warwick as the “title-winning team-mates” in the No. 1 car at the Magny-Cours finale.
The Peugeot 905 sweep in 1993
With the championship gone, Le Mans became the 905’s only race in 1993. DailySportsCar says the car raced just once more that year. Peugeot made it count.
The organizer’s history records a 1-2-3 for the three 905s. The No. 3 car of Geoff Brabham, Éric Hélary and Christophe Bouchut won. Then came Thierry Boutsen, Yannick Dalmas and Teo Fabi in second, and Philippe Alliot, Mauro Baldi and Jean-Pierre Jabouille in third. DailySportsCar lists the top three at 375, 374 and 367 laps.
The winning lineup was an unusual mix. Autosport says Hélary and Bouchut were both 26 and had each raced the 905 only once before Le Mans. Brabham, by contrast, was 41, the eldest son of Jack Brabham and a four-time IMSA GTP champion. Their car was a 905 Evo 1 Bis, Autosport notes, and the crew’s habit of staying off the curbs helped it run without trouble.
Afterward, Todt left. According to Autosport, he called team orders during the race and then departed Peugeot to join Ferrari.
The Peugeot 905’s final record
In the end, the results add up neatly. CAR’s spec sheet credits the 905 with eight World Sportscar wins from 14 races in 1991 and 1992. Counting the two 1990 starts and the 1993 Le Mans win, DailySportsCar says the car “had participated in 17 races, and remarkably, won nine of them.”
An even faster version never raced at all. DailySportsCar says the 905 Evolution 2, nicknamed the “Supercopter,” went testing but never started a race. The 24 Hours of Le Mans site, meanwhile, counts the 1992 result as the first of Peugeot’s three overall victories at the race.
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