My 1.9 Gti

[Joehow12]

Morning All,

I thought I would stick a thread up documenting the ups and ups of life with my little 205 gti.

I purchased the car in the winter of 2008 after owning a series of peugeot hot hatches - s1 rallye, TB'd XSI, s2 rallye and immaculate GTi6 ( some numpty crashed into this).

I found a lovely pre cat 1992 1.9, it was fantastic on the test drive and it looked a gem with its lovely 'Goodwood' style speedlines. Upon getting it home it soon started to throw oil around and it seemed a rebuild was needed.

Forum searching bought LAD motorsport to the fore as a company who had great experience in building uprated versions of the 1.9 lump - although they do claim rather obsurd power figures.

Whilst at LAD the car had:

Rebuilt Engine
Gas flowed head
Ported and Polished TB
Piper fast road cam
Lightend and Balanced Flywheel
Rebuilt Gearbox

Rear beam re build.
New Bilstein OE suspension with Eibach springs


I have since added a full Magnex 4-1 manifold and stainless exhaust.

I used the car daily and even managed a track evening at brands hatch were it performed brilliantly.




The car continued on day to day duties but the body was starting to show usual 205 signs of wear and tear. So I did the hard thing and took it off the road to save for the restoration work required.

6 months later and it went into Rob at Classic and Custom Works in Amersham, Bucks. I cannot praise their work enough.


















This left me with a naked but rather gorgeous refreshed 1.9

[Joehow12]

Next job was to put the kit back on and get it ready for Retro Cars track evening down at Brands where it got lot of attention.




Next up some more interior sorting, with a new OEM steering wheels on its way and a few track evenings too.


Thanks for reading.

[Joehow12]

147BHP ATF so a little under 20BHP over standard.

Twin 45's most likely next.

It has been a slug of hardwork but well worth it. It sits nicely in its garage now rather than being used as a daily so thats good.

Thanks again.

[Joehow12]

TonyHetherington said:

Great work - must make it quick but not undriveable? The webbers will sound great

Best thing I ever did for my weekend car was get a (custom made) car cover (about £250). Especially with your new paint job. Only put the cover on it if it's just been cleaned, but there is no greater feeling than unwrapping your lovely shiny car on a crisp sunday morning

Yeah opening the Garage door on a Sunday a morning and firing it up will never get old. Yeah it is fairly quick, can keep a standard 172 honest as power delivery is razor sharp.

I forgot to mention in the spec it has a full brand new OEM brake set up with uprated Mintex pads and EBC discs all round.

[Joehow12]

danposs86 said:

2nd to last photo, it just looks perfect.

Thanks, a little way to go yet before it is perfect in real life but we will get there.

[Joehow12]

RallyeS1 said:

Looks great fella! Love the late ones with the black dashboards. A 1.9 GTI is a must have to the Pug collection one day. Keep up the good work!;)

It is a lovely car to be in and agreed the black dash is a huge improvement over the grey.

I also used to own these, which I thought given your name you may like.

[Joehow12]

New (to me) GTi fitted - no more nasty peeling leather.

Sorry for poor pics.





Really appreciate all the positive comments thanks guys.

[Joehow12]

OlberJ said:

Wow, if that's not got all the 205 boxes ticked then i'll eat my Mi16

Very, very nice indeed.

haha nice! I couldn't find a low milage Mi lump at the time.

[Joehow12]

bakerstreet said:

Great looking car and a great colour too

The design still looks good.

What about bike carbs instead of the webbers?

I have emailed a peugeot legend called Sandy Brown to see where to go next, I just love the sound of 45's, in my experience bike carbs are a bit wet fart but I know they perform well.


Just booked another taster session for August 30th at Brands, if anyone is about come and say hi.

[Joehow12]

Thanks for all the positive comments.

[Joehow12]

Nick_Mcuk has inspired me to update this thread and although mine is no where near as clean as his its stilly pride and joy.

So since the last update I have had some more body work done after I dropped my bike on the bonnet and I have also done an evening at brands hatch. I also got a mini write up in the PSOOC mag Torque.

Mechanically the car has had a new steering rack, track rock ends, wishbones and bushes all up front.









Off to the ring in July.

Thanks