If in the past it was said that a front-wheel drive couldn't handle more than 250 horsepower, today we have a mega-hatch with more than 300 horsepower. And they are capable of conquering the Nürburgring, in a controlled and effective way, with just the driven front axle. It even seems to be easy…
But what about this? It appears to be a Peugeot 106 Maxi Kit Car, the competition version of the small French SUV, which took part in numerous rallies at the end of the last century. This model used a 1.6 atmospheric 180 horsepower engine and weighed just 900 kilos.
But the Peugeot 106 in this video adds a turbo to the 1.6 engine, resulting in 500 horses and in a fire-breathing machine. The front axle just can't handle that many horses. There is no self-blocking device that can withstand it.
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We can see the pilot's difficulty in putting all the horses on the ground, in a constant battle with the steering wheel, even with the “soft” step on the accelerator. The video starts at two minutes, where we can already see the pilot's work in an attempt to dominate the machine.
Towards the end, there are exterior scenes, where you can see how difficult it is to keep the car pointing in the right direction, even in a straight line. And the flames are epic.