the year was running 1980 and the Pope Juan Pablo II was set to visit Lisieux on June 2, a small French town of 20,000 inhabitants in Normandy where the Basilica of Santa Teresa, built in honor of the Saint from whom it takes its name in 1937 and to whom the Supreme Pontiff was going to pay homage. For that occasion, instead of using his brand new Mercedes G-Class in Mystic White, the chosen one was aPeugeot 604 Limousine Heuliez with a 155 CV V6 PRV engine and some exotic 90 degrees between benches that would end up painted with a brush and forgotten in a winery, to finally occupy the place it deserves in the Peugeot Gallery.
The Peugeot 604 of Pope John Paul II, fruit of the passion of the French president
The fact that Pope John Paul II used a Peugeot 604 Limousine in that act was not the result of chance, nor of commercial interests, but of passion felt by the then President of the French RepublicGiscard d’Estaing, for the flagship of the lion’s firm, the Peugeot 604. In fact, it is rumored that he himself used to get behind the wheel very often of the unit that he enjoyed as the official car.
This is how he found out about the papal visit asked Peugeot for one of the 124 units of the 604 in its Limousine version bodied by the French specialist Heuliez, for which the brand took chassis number 10 in metallic smoked gray color from its fleet and sent it back to the bodybuilder with the aim of installing a series of modifications for its special purpose: a sliding roof so that the Supreme Pontiff could take his usual mass bath, as well as an internal grab bar and remove the folding seats to make room for a platform. The car returned just in time for its debut on July 2, in the absence of solving the homologation problem, which d’Estaing himself could have mediated, but which they solved by resorting to temporary registration plates.
From being painted with a brush to the Peugeot Gallery in San Gimignano
After its use as a papal car, it went to the Heuliez facilities for the third time, where it was restored to its original Peugeot 604 Limousine specifications and was once again incorporated into the brand’s fleet to its sale as a second-hand vehicle. Years later, already in the 90s, he ended up in Marseillesin the hands of a photographer who did not hesitate to paint it white using a brush and incorporate the so typical boomerang-shaped television antenna on the tailgate with the aim of turn it into a limousine in the purest style yankee. This is how this 604 went from transporting the highest representative of the Catholic Church to young newlyweds in a service low cost.
finally it was abandoned in the cellar of a small local champagne producer until one day it was discovered by chance, and after verifying that both its interior and its mechanics were in relatively good condition, it undertook its last trip to the Peugeot Gallery in Tuscany (Italy), where he shed his previous clothing and returned to his original state. However, no one there knew how special that unit was, and it was thanks to a member of the Peugeot 604 Clubthat after visiting Heuliez and studying his archives, he realized that the 604 Limousine with chassis number 10 exposed in Tuscany was the same one used years ago by John Pope II.
