The French Peugeot D4 B Ambulance Carrier from 1964
The Peugeot D3 and its successor, the Peugeot D4 were forward control panel vans sold by Peugeot from October 1950 till 1965. The van originated as a front wheel drive light van produced by Chenard-Walcker, whose business Peugeot had acquired by 1950.
The van, based on a wartime design, was relaunched, soon after the Liberation, in June 1946 as the Chenard-Walcker CPV. In this form it was powered by a two-cylinder water-cooled two-stroke engine of just 1,021 cc. Power output of 26 hp was claimed. Accepting that even by the standards of the time, this level of power was insufficient, in 1947 the manufacturers switched to using the 1,133 cc engine of the Peugeot 202, and claimed power increased to 30 hp.
The original two-cylinder engine had the merit of being very compact, and in order to accommodate the four-cylinder unit from Peugeot the nose of the van had to be extended, which compromised the clean frontal design of the original van and gave rise to frequent use of the «Nez de cochon» (“pig nose”) soubriquet.
Providing the van’s engine to Chenard-Walcker at a time when the business was short of cash left Peugeot as a major creditor, and therefore at the front of the line of any potential purchasers of the business as it became apparent that Chenard-Walcker could not survive independently. Peugeot’s acquisition of the business led to the van’s rebranding as a Peugeot, although it was January 1951 before the Chenard et Walcker CP3 (as their CPV had by now become) was formally discontinued.
