The featherweight, Peugeot 205 Rallye.

(this is an old post of mine, i’m re-uploading because it didn’t have a cover image)

In this article we will talk about the 205 Rallye from Peugeot, made from 1987 to 1992. This car was the cheap option to do the things you couldn’t do unless you were hired by Peugeot Talbot Sport or just had a lot of money laying around to buy one of the 200 made Peugeot Turbo 16.

The 1980’s was, without doubt, the golden era for hot hatches. Perfect for young people; reliable, affordable and fun to drive. It gave us exquisite cars such as the Golf GTI MkI, the Renault 5GT Turbo, the Ford Fiesta XR2, the Peugeot 205 and all it’s (many) variants, and plenty more.

There were alot of 205 variants made. But what makes the 205 Rallye special?

The 205 GTi was without doubt a great car. It delivered great driving characteristics. It had a XU 5J block, which delivered 113 bhp to the front wheels, and very luxurious equipment for the time. The styling was nothing short of 80s, very boxy dials, very boxy dash, very boxy everything, plus those red stripes around the whole car.
The 1.6 Gti costed around £12,300 at launch.

Now going off to the Rallye variant. The first thing you need to know is that this car isn’t about displacement or power, (If you want that you can check the American Market) but rather, about the experience. Peugeot wanted to make a an affordable car to race in promotional rally cups. And they sure made it affordable (for an almost ready-to-race car), costing around £8,600 at launch.

What Peugeot did here, was taking a 205 Gti, make it 120kg lighter, and fit it with almost race-spec parts. It had a TU24 block, just as the Citroen AX Sport, which gave it a little over 90bhp, but cleverly using Twin Weber 40 DCOM carburetors, Peugeot got it to 103 bhp.

Since Peugeot decided to make it an almost ready-to-race rally car, It was less fragile than the GTi, it also had a smaller gearbox ratio, front ventilated brake discs, and stiffer suspension. Making it perfect for backroad shenanigans. All of this, while still being £3700 cheaper? yes, £3700 cheaper!

The styling was pretty race inspired, trying to make it as close to a rally car. Getting rid of that plastic back cover, Peugeot Talbot Sport stripes on the grill, super light wheels and wheel arches. The seats were lighter and had the Talbot Sport logo etched into them. They also got rid of all the acoustic insulation and any luxury or unnecessary equipment in the car. Basically, it’s a GTi with weight reduction… for cheaper (and they wanted you to rally with it), isn’t this the best deal ever?

The Rallye is one of the many examples of driving experience. Sure, you can get a really normal car, automatic, very comfy seats with heaters and cameras, not have to engage in the drive just because you don’t care about the drive, you care about getting to your destination, but being honest, do you really want to?