It's rare I get to drive other people's privately owned vehicles on the channel due to a variety of reasons but there are some cars you've just got to make an exception for. Everyone's heard of the Peugeot 205, more specifically, the GTI. It was one of those cars that managed to take the fight to Volkswagen's Golf GTI for the title of Hot Hatch King and managed to win and through this gained international acclaim. When you look at older French cars, typically they have soft suspension and are frankly, a bit weird with styling choices and switchgear placement but the 205 GTI was neither of these things. It was just the definition of amazing on four wheels. The 205 made such an impact that even now if you say the word Peugeot to someone, even if they aren't a car fan, likelihood is they'll respond with something along the lines of "The company that made the 205?". The 205 was a big deal for Peugeot, it saved the company from bankruptcy hence getting special graphics later on called the "Sacré Numero" which translated to English as "The Sacred Number".
Earlier this year, Joseph Lloyd held a Lloyd Vehicle Consulting Social at the Coach and Horses pub, Cadnam in the New Forest which meant viewers of his channel could meet up with himself and a few other YouTubers which included Me in my Mégane Classic, Mark Parr from Mark on Motoring in his Mégane Coupe and Ben and Annabel Quirk of Planet Auto in the MG HS Hybrid supplied to them by MG Motor UK to review.
David is a friend of the Quirks and made the journey down from Lancashire to Hampshire in his humble 1995 1.1 Peugeot 205 Mardi Gras 5 door.
I love simple cars, I love cars from the 90s as it's an era of motoring I grew up with and could identify the cars from. Many of these 90s cars survived into the 2000s and amongst them was the 205 which became a part of background life for many. Now in 2021. the 205 is getting harder to find, especially in good condition but David's 205 breaks the trend. This car is immaculate. There is no lacquer peel anywhere, no faded paint that is typical on red cars of this era, no rust on the bodywork. It even had original dealer plates. It was just perfect (I considered trying to say it was Peufect but i'm not sure it would have worked). The seats had an interesting pattern on them too, they look to have been inspired by the arcade game, Pac-Man. Speaking of the seats, these are the comfiest seats in the world without question. It was like falling into a bean bag. If the Princess from the fairytale "The Princess and the Pea" had used these to sleep on, she would never have known about the Pea and had a good night's sleep. The seats aren't the only comfy thing about this car, the suspension is typically French with a soft rebound which means even the sharpest of potholes will have a hard time getting you to notice them. The styling of the 205 was done by Gerard Welter in house at Peugeot and it is timeless and easily identifiable. Many people think the 205 is a Pininfarina design when actually, they only designed the cabriolet version.
The car weighs around 700kg which is not heavy by any standard so the 1.1 naturally aspirated engine has no trouble propelling it along, I was pleasantly surprised by its willingness. Obviously it isn't hugely fast, it isn't a sporty engine but what it is is economical. The low weight and small engine is great for that.
Making online car content has allowed me to have access to cars I normally would be unable to and the Peugeot 205 is one of those all time motoring greats that I'm glad to have had the chance to drive. I left the review wanting more. It was easy to see why so many adore this little French car.
It enabled Peugeot to be seen as company that was willing to push the boundaries a little of B segment car design and remove its reputation of being conservative compared to rivals from Citroen and Renault. It even inspired the design of Peugeot cars to come with many mirroring cues from the 205. The world would be a much more boring place without it.
Thank you to David for bringing this lovely example down to Cadnam for the social. Peggy is something truly special. So special in fact that she was the focus of the channel's 300 subscriber special video.
If you want to find out more about this particular car, my review of it is available to watch here.
That's it from me, until the next one, farewell!
Jake
Comments