Peugeot 205 Gti Review

Overall Rating

handling is blinding. speed and acceleration is beyond most modern day machinery. It just doesnt rust. easily modified. and puts one big fat smile on my face everytime I put the foot down

brakes only adequate for standard cars. I think thats about it. oh and a poorly designed phase 1 dash :-)

I bought my first Peugeot 205 Gti back in August 2002. It was a 85 c reg 1.6 dimma in dimma blue (though whoever did the paint job needed shooting). my aim from the start was to modify it, and modify it I did. so where did i start? it has changed colour from horrible violet to peugeot racing colours (white, blue and red). Has been fitted with 1.9 mi-16v (160bhp standard) lump. which was great until I discovered that the 306 gti-6 (167bhp standard) lump fits also. so that went in and is now producing 240bhp of smiles. It has been modified with piper cams giving an extra 20bhp, a pipercross viper race filter giving an extra 5-10 bhp, a superchip upgrade to 220bhp and a full 4 branch manifold slipping into a 4 inch straight through omp rally exhaust system. The injectors have been modified to competition spec. All this tallys to 256bhp at the flywheel and 238bhp at the wheels. torque sits nicely at approx 220lb/ft. That is all mounted upon group A engine mounts. it has been completely stripped out and my bum now sits in cobeau revolution touring car seats with omp 6 point aircraft harnesses to keep me nice and snugg (whilst also confusing the missus). a multipoint weld in cage keeps the handling and safety aspects up to scratch. As for suspension, I have spax rsx's all round, allowing me to adjust height and damper rate and an omp alloy strut brace keeps it all in line. wheels are 16x8 compomotives or speedline comp 2's depending upon my mood. tyres are toyo prox's t1-s's. the bodywork remains wide arched and is complemented by a morrete twin headlight conversion, a gutman mess grille, dtm mirrors and rover metro bonnet vents to help with cooling along side a massive alloy oil and water cooler. As I said in my review, the 205 gti had great brakes if you kept it reasonably sensible with the power, but for me it wasnt enough. I opted for the 306 gti-6 brakes as an added extra, they are 3 pot equivalents and will stop a truck if you want it to, the rear discs are from a 309 gti including the beam. all these modifications were completed in a standard garage with limited tools by myself. all except the chip tuning and painting. so it goes to show that these cars aint complicated. im only 22. there are photos floating somewhere around the web, but I have yet to create a site of my own. Im not particullarly keen on paying some company my hard earned cash just so that I can flaunt afew photos. any free sites around? feel free to send me an e-meither: niacuk@yahoo.co.uk

Members' Comments onniacuk's Review

• Simmy on 18th Jun 2004

  Although you're correct to heavily praise the 205gti, I must say your power claims are far too overrated and I have to tell you now that you simply don't have 256bhp, not too long ago there was a USED engine producing 293bhp @ flywheel going for £10,000 which included modifications such as Throttle bodies, complete new ECU and full remap, heavily ported and polished big valve head, basically full race/touring spec.
  
  I would be inclined to say your engine won't be pushing any more than 185bhp... pushing high power figures is gonna require porting and polishing of the head along with plenty of money, i'm sorry to say you simply can't take the base power figure, add 10bhp for an air filter, 20bhp for cams, etc etc...
  
  If you get your car professionally rolling roaded you will be given a better idea of power output, and i'm sorry to say you may well find yourself quite dissapointed.

• kevf205 on 7th Aug 2004

  I fully agree with Simmy. There are so many companies who make false claims about power outputs from 'bolt-on' upgrades. If u ask a professional race engine builder to give you over 200 bhp he will do most of the work on the head ( larger valves with carefull porting and pollishing etc.) and complement this with throttle boddies and a custom mapping of the fuel and ignition using a rolling road. you will be charched at least £2000 but it will be a genuine increase in power and torque. To get 250 bhp will require further work on the valves and ports to optimise power at very high rpm matched with high lift, long duration cams and stronger valve springs. The high revs will require strengthenning of the bottom end also, which is expensive. All up, you will have spent about £4000. the claim of 220 lbft of torque is the most fishy and i believe that some companies have intentionally inacurate rolling roads to 'prove' to their customers that there products are giving more power.
  
  As a guide, the 2.0l rover k series engine in the caterham R500 evo produces 250 bhp at over 8000 rpm and 190 lbft of torque. This is a very highly tuned engine and and is about as far as is possible to take a 4 cylinder engine that is to be used on the road.
  
  I feel my comments may not be appreciated and I can assure you it is not because I am envious. However, I do want people to know what to expect when they modify their engines.