DUVANT engine type 9VOS

DUVANT engine 9VOS

Duvant Engine Type 9 VOS Weight: 38 tons Cylinder capacity: 430 liters Power: 1600 hp at 400 rpm 4 valves per cylinder Turbocharger supercharging This industrial engine, built in 3 copies in 1962 by the Duvant Motors Company in Valenciennes, remained buried for half a century in the basements of the racecourse of Auteuil.

 This race track receives every Sunday tens of thousands of players and yet no one suspected its existence. With its 4 valves per cylinder and turbocharger and despite its membership in heavy industry, this fabulous engine was very modern design for its time.

 He was driving a huge alternator that had the capacity to supply electricity to the entire racetrack network. In 1990, the giant engine is definitely stopped and forgotten at the bottom of his pit. At the beginning of 2000, during work in the basement of the racecourse, Jean-François Lacanal and his friends from the Amicale des Vieux Moteurs association came back to the scene because the direction of the race course decided to get rid of of this imposing mastodon. 

In one month, it is completely disassembled, each piece is crossed and transported in the region of Toulouse. When you know that the bare engine block weighs 14 tons, a connecting rod 120 kg and the flywheel 3.5 tons, we can only admire the delicate handling work. In 2010, the giant comes out of his sleep in a hoarse rumble that shakes the ground, accompanied by the breath of the compressor and huge plumes of smoke.