Peugeot Quasar

Peugeot has had a number of attempts at building out and out sports cars with little success of them moving from concept to production. In 1984 this was their attempt to wow the buying public and lift the image of the company hot on the heels of the success of the 205 GTI. To be fair Peugeot let its designers think out of the box when they built this image of the future.

Peugeot 205 T16

GroupB the very name sends tingles through the nervous system of all true petrolheads. The closest thing us mortal drivers can get to one of these insane monsters is also the reason why they were allowed to compete in the first place, homologation. That means 200 had to be built by the factory and sold.  Now in Peugeot’s case it was the 205 T16. Although apart from the name, the front lights and maybe some of the interior this car bears virtually no resemblance to the car on which its based upon.

Random Picture- More than the sum of its parts!!!!!

I posted this over on the Retrobeutes Facebook page and it created quite a stir, mainly trying to work out how many different cars were in it!!!!!

Peugeot 405 Turbo 16 GR

Before the rebodied 406 Coupe, a version of the 405 was produced. I’m sure you’ve never heard of it because only 4 were built all with one purpose, rallying. Mid engine with a 1.9ltr turbo engine producing 245 bhp and permanent 4 wheel drive taken out of the 205 16GR, the only thing they had in common with their production counterparts was the front end styling and a badge.

Peugeot Oxia

The terms Peugeot and Supercar are not likely bedfellows, but in 1988 Peugeot debuted its Oxia concept car at the Paris Auto Show. The difference with the very modern looking concept was its actually worked!!! Powered by a twin turbo mid mounted V6 producing 670bhp powering all 4 wheels, all this in what turns out is a Supercar looking GT cruiser , but when its teased would keep going upto 187mph. It even had 4 wheel steering, a early satellite navigation system, a built in phone and even CD player!!!!

Peugeot 306 Rallye

So what was the quickest 306 of the all, the GTI-6, with its 6 speed box linked to the 167bhp 2ltr engine? It came with all the toys you’d expect from the top spec sports version, electric heated seats, electric windows, leather, fog lights, and electric mirrors. A real contender in the hot hatch arena, however the GTI-6 had a, as Peugeot would put it, more hardcore brother the Rallye. Coming with the same engine and gear box and therefore power it beat the GT1-6 to 60, how it went on a diet, losing all the luxury list above, it weighed in 52kgs lighter which boosted the performance, add into the mix a cheaper price tag and it should have been a winner. However, and I’m guilty of this, it was always seen as the poor man’s GTI-6 rather than the more hardcore version it should have been.