Car of the Week: Peugeot 205 GTI

Bit of an oldy but a goody this week. The build of the 205 GTI you see here was completed in 2006 but it still looks fresh today. Why? Because like all good builds it was done properly.

Peugeots 205 GTI was a watershed car for the company. Widely regarded as one of the best hot hatches ever built it’s become a bit of curse to Peugeot’s following models, none of which have quite lived up to the original. With such a solid foundation, this 205 has built on the cars strengths to take on the Gatebil racing series. In true racer fashion it has more power, less weight. It’s stiffer, meaner and angrier but still retains the delicacy and handling characteristics of the GTI.

Body mods have been kept to a minimum. A new front splitter, bonnet pins and tiny mirrors are the only changes. The shell has been stripped and repainted to a very high standard and all the plastic trim renewed. The 205GTI is a very pretty little hatch that really doesn’t need any visual changes.

Inside things are a little more serious. Dominated by a massive roll cage and racing buckets, it’s pure racecar in there. A carbon dash with kill switches and extra gauges completes the look. Inside it’s as clean as the outside. Just shows that this build was done right.

Under the bonnet is where the real work has been done. The feisty 1.9 8v has been retained but somewhat enhanced. Running Dual Weber 45′s with a carbon air box, you can just hear the bark. Inside it’s been ported, polished and had a Kent Cams competition camshaft installed. Helping the gasses exit is a specially built 4 to 1 manifold feeding a 2 inch exhaust.

Chassis wise, good old KW coilovers are in place, controlling a modified rear beam and front axles. Braking is taken care of by bigger 306 GTI slotted discs & callipers. All the brake lines are steel braided. The wheels are a bit special too. They’re rare PTS Speedline PL343 with Yokohama A048 trackday rubber.

What this car proves is that a good build is timeless. Get all the details right in the first place and you can simply refine the package.

In my younger days I owned a tired, high mileage 205 GTI. A lot of things about it would have been intolerable in other cars but because of how it drove, all the rattles and faulty gauges were forgotten, I bloody loved it. A lot of the handling traits that made these old hot hatches great have been lost in modern cars, partly due to weight, big wheels, refinement but mainly the chasing of big numbers in terms of power, acceleration and top speed. If you want to experience some good old fashioned driving thrills without risking your licence i’d highly recommend finding a good one and heading for some twisty roads.

If you can read Norwegian here’s the owners site – http://www.shinyracing.no/

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