Peugeot prepares heavyweight opponents for the Mini Cooper S, Polo GTI, Clio RS, Citroen DS3 and company.
It was in the frigid landscapes of a small Scandinavian village that our fellow Worldcarfans discovered the future Peugeot 208 GTI in development tests.
Although Peugeot has a huge sporting tradition when it comes to pocket-rockets, since the extinct 106 GTI and 106 Rally, the French brand has not launched any car for the segment worthy of its sporting heritage dating back to the late 90s and 80s It's not even worth talking about the 205 GTI is it?
The Peugeot 206 RC despite being powerful and well behaved did not have a memorable ride, and its successor 207 never managed to pinch the weights installed in the segment despite being recognized for its qualities. Apparently, Peugeot wants to reverse this situation with the new 208 GTI, a model that appears for the first time in these images disguised as a conventional version. In other words, no aesthetic changes that denounce that this is the “spicy” version of the new 208.
For the new 208 GTI, sportier bumpers are to be expected, with more prominent air intakes, and wheels exclusive to the model, among other changes in the exterior detail that will give it a more distinct appearance from the rest of the range.
But if in the aesthetic field we will have to wait to find out what the French brand has in store for us, in the field of mechanics sources close to the brand have already announced that the new 208 will assemble a 1.6l turbo gasoline unit, from the PSA group, already ours. known from the Peugeot RCZ but in a less “vitamined” version still developing a nice 158hp of power. However, it seems, the brand does not rule out the possibility of launching a more radical version of the model with a power greater than 200hp. Not bad…
In the chassis field, significant improvements are also to be expected compared to the base model, with the inclusion of ground links with a sportier character, and the presence of a self-locking differential (even if electronic) to manage the delivery of torque to the front axle. .
Text: Guilherme Ferreira da Costa
Source: worldcarfans