Posts by Wing_Chun_Master

the 205 was the publicity car that saved Peugeot...the 205 gti and the wild t16 homologated car used the group B rally to drum up sales for the company. It worked well...VW never produced anything even remotely approaching the 205 t16. It's often slated that without group B and the 205 Peugeot would have gone under at that time. They weren't coping VW they were competing with Lancia's supercharged and turbocharged Delta and Audi's quattro S1. Personally I've always favoured the little 1.3 106 Rallye as being the best Pug hot hatch I've driven in terms of fun and satisfying drive.

As mentioned earlier I own a shed 1993 rover 2.0 turbo which is pretty much standard and running a little over 200hp with 12psi of boost.

I've had the car 8 years...the rover is my daily hack and I run it hard from cold every day, don't let it cool down after a good flogging...which is pretty much every day and so far have had no engine problems or blown/seized turbocharger.

All this, I'm a specialist in turbocharged cars and overstressed bollocks is a bit too much...

Seeing as people mention 80s cars they'll probably remember Ford making a 1.8 litre engine pushing about 500hp...perhaps the renault 5 maxi making 450hp from a 1.4 litre engine or even the 1.4 litre BMW cars making 1100hp. Now that's overstressed.

Since then the cars performance figures may not have increased so much but manufacturing processes and engine design has so 200hp from a 1.6 isn't so silly these days as to reduce reliability. Also the variable vane turbochargers mean that it isn't just point and squirt like in the old days.

I'd also still prefer any 80s group b turbo road car to any tarted up heavy modern pap.

Let's face it..the lightweight and fun original hot hatches will never be seen built again.

Looks like another wishy washy bag of shite that all car makers are producing these days..

the 205 gti was a nice car to drive..would probably trounce this thing on a track and can be picked up for a fraction of the price in mint condition.

I drive a 20 year old shed of a rover that does 0-60 in 6.2 and 150mph on paper...performance never seems to improve on all the so called modern hot hatches unless you want to spend around £30k and for that money I'd buy a second hand rs4 or something elegant.

'Back in the day' a phrase I hate which the author used, it was common knowledge that hot hatches were cheaper run about cars with performance of bigger saloons often owned by younger drivers thanks to cheaper insurance and price.

I just wish that someone like tata would make a real modern day hot hatch, the kinda car that weighs 800kg, looks mean instead of poncey, has no frills and is just a pleasure to drive.

rant over...send the rover owner flames at will :D