Bought a new (old) thing!
 

That's a blast from the past

I can remember when they were everywhere!

1.9 or 1.6?

Looks tidy

Thanks mate. Its pretty cool :)

1.6

Plenty of people say it's a sweeter drive than the 1.9 but I'm sure the 1.9 owners say the opposite...

Nice car either way

Whereabouts in Sussex are you?

I don't recognise the house

It would be weird if you did recognise the house!!

I had a 1.9 about 15 years ago, but of course its impossible to compare now. At the time the 205 was about the quickest thing I'd driven, but by todays standards its barely even brisk. Throttle response is incredible though!

Gad, s2Bray -> Sussex meet

(Sorry to hijack!)

Saw one at donny like that. Looks minty.

Never driven one, the only hot hatches of that era i did were the RS Turbo Excrote (great chassis, pish engine) and the Astra GTE 16V (Reverse the above)

BiL had one and almost spunked over the one at Donny

we also looked under the hood of some Datsun Zs.. simple and elegant cars with quite a chunky motor :). Different era, horsepower is king now, response is buried by "intel inside" bollox

Does look very tidy indeed - many are sheds.

A colleague had one years ago - might have been a 1.9 - and reversed it through a roundabout. Trailing arms, wide tyres and a short wheelbase could make for some interesting handling.

From the days when Pininfarina and Peugeot could really design cars...

I am weird and I know Sussex pretty damn well
West Sussex anyway
East Sussex is a bit rough...;)

I had a 1.9 as my first car, it had Yamaha R1 bike carbs on it(the early R1s were carbed). I don't think it did much for the power, but it sounded awesome. I sold it to a guy who was planning on turning it into a track/rally effort as it had absolutely no chance of getting through emissions at MOT time, it was off the chart. The guy who built it clearly had a friend in an MOT station!

My friend had a stripped out 205 gti with a 2 litre turbo lump from a newer larger peugeot( 406 I think). It felt pretty mental at the time, and with no sound deadening, made all the right turbo noises. Very unreliable though, went through a couple of turbos.
He's a bit of a fiend for stuff like that, having recently sold on a clio RS that had a Megane RS motor pushing 290bhp, and for a Clio, very abnormal amounts of torque.

Mi16 conversion - very populat at the time. (edit - that was out of the 405 )

I'm half tempted to put gti6 engine/brakes in/on it, but equally sedecued by keeping it standard and honest. It doesn't really need to be quick after all. But then, 'surprisingly quick' is a nice position to occupy....hmmm

A question for another day though. I have a host of electrical gremlins to hunt down, and a horrendously loud exhaust to replace before I start worrying about the future plans

I thought there was a 309 like that? Or was it a 306.

Probably still a bargain compared to a 205, which now ought to be left original.

If you want to ruin it, hard-park it!

there was

309 GTi

Hard-park??

...in its original hedge-finding sense, not the JDM-ricer lookalikey 1.4 Civic school sense of scraping the exhaust on the way into MaccyDs.

Awesome
 

My first hot hatch was a 205 1.6CTi the cabrio version. It was an absolute blast, infinitely chuckable at everyday speeds with an even lower centre of gravity it was my favourite for over a decade until I finally got an S2. I bought a 306 afterwards for more space and always regretted saying goodbye to my rustbucket CTi.

I'm personally don't think sympathetically transplanting a slightly newer/more powerful Peugeot heart in constitutes ruining, but each to their own of course.

I think it only rarely matters

For example, when someone is making extravagant claims, such as how they 'embarrassed' a supercar

It's only right to point out that their Nissan Micra has a GTR lump under the bonnet

I don't think you can ruin a car

Some are prettier than others but they are just lumps of metal to me

Once people start talking about them as works of art I reach for a sick bag or shotgun

Trouble is, that old chestnut of value gets in the way and an original 205GTi will be dragged up with the market. Originality/patina's in vogue ATM.

OK, it's a 205, not Bitcoin, but it's a consideration to many.

You can do what you like to your own car, but go in fully aware.

Also, I do wonder if it's slightly missing the point of the car? It's no longer a 205 GTi 1.6 but something else entirely.

Art is in the eye of the beholder, but when people start paying 10-20 million for a pretty (old) bag of shite, I find I lose interest in them anyway.

Where one places oneself between to two extremes, is a matter of choice.

Quite.

Of course there is the argument that an original example will be worth more money. I don't doubt it for as second. But not everything has to be about profit. I prioritise personal value/reward over financial.

you wouldn't notice a big financial difference unless it's done 10k miles or something, collectors cars are silly money but the rest are just.. the rest.. as you know given what you paid for it

i wholeheartedly agree, delight in an analogue car :D

I've had most engine options in a 205 including a 230 bhp 2.1 gti6 on throttle bodies but I'd say if you can find a decent Mi16 go for that.

The alloy block 1.9 Mi16 is lighter over the front end and handles so much sweeter than a Gti6.