In the last decade of the 19th century, the first Peugeot racing cars were standard production cars hardly prepared to compete in the famous city-to-city races that were very fashionable at that time. The very first cars to win renown did so in the Paris-Rouen "horseless car contest" of 1894. Entrusted to the driver Koechlin and the mechanic Rubichon, a Peugeot was ranked first the following year in the first timed race in the world, the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris, in which three Peugeots ended in the first four positions.

The Grand Prix Peugeots came into being with the L 76. At the wheel, Georges Boillot won the Automobile Club de France Grand Prix contested in Dieppe in 1912. Boillot did it again in 1913 on the Amiens race track on board the 5.6-litre EX3 type; a victory enhanced by the second position of Jules Goux. These major successes would be followed by many others in France, but also in Sicily, Spain and Belgium.
The Peugeots were also record-breaking cars, as for example an L76 called "la Torpille" (torpedo) because of its streamlined bodywork and long tail. In April 1913, on the Brooklands racetrack in England, it beat the world speed record of 170 km/h previously held by an aircraft!

The exploit that would become most famous was the May 1913 triumph in the 500 Miles of Indianapolis. The winning driver, Jules Goux, was to become a hero! Technically ultramodern, the L 76 was powered by a 7598 cc monobloc unit with two overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. Provided with a hemispherical combustion chamber, a five-stage crankshaft and a dry sump, this large four-cylinder engine developed 148 hp, allowing the car to reach 190 km/h. In 1914 and 1915, the Peugeots of Arthur Duray and Mario Resta ranked second in the event, which Dario Resta was to win in 1916 with a 4.5-litre car that took part in the Grand Prix of the ACF run in Lyons in 1914. At the wheel of an identical car, Howdy Wilcox won again in 1919.

Leading international successes followed one after the other. In 1919, André Boillot won the Targa Florio at the wheel of a 2.5-litre L 25. And in Sicily again, Peugeot was to win the Florio Cup in 1925.

Peugeot also achieved brilliant results with its valveless-engine cars. In the 1923 Grand Prix of the ACF contested in Tours, the 176 S and 174 S types won in the two touring car categories, achieving the first three places in both cases! A 174 S was to win again in the same event run the following year in Lyons.