Friday 31st January 2014

Peugeot 306 Maxi: Time For Tea?

PH now has a 306 Rallye on the fleet; next stop Corsica?

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There's something about tarmac rally cars, isn't there? The stance is just that much more purposeful with bigger wheels and the tarmac suspension settings. Some may grumble it isn't 'proper' rallying if it doesn't take place in a forest or the desert, but a fully lit rally car on a narrow stretch of black top is still an absorbing watch.

And nobody does tarmac rally cars, events or driving better than the French. It's perhaps unsurprising given some of France's minor roads and the predilection of its indigenous car makers to produce quick, agile little hatches ideally suited to rallying.

So with one of its best hot hatches (ahem) now on the PH fleet, the time was ripe to revisit some French tarmac rallying. And who better to show how it's done than Gilles Panizzi? Francois Delecour you say? Well it's a good job he's in the video as well then.

This eight-minute clip is crammed with handbrake turns, speed, noise and commitment. Just the thing for a Friday afternoon.

Watch it here

 

[gforceg]

I like to see tarmac rallying because it's most easy to equate it to real world back road thrashing. You can REALLY see just how damn fast they're going.

[if in doubt]

Holy commitment batman!
The noise's a rally car make are fantastic.

[DCLXIV]

Those 2wd 2l na 306s were faster than the WRC cars on the tarmac rallies.

[Sensibleboy]

Went to Corsica a couple of years ago. Roads were plenty fast enough at 25mph...how these guys manage at rallying speeds is beyond me.

[bj1aut]

What a car and what a driver! I can remember looking forward to the tarmac rallies in 96,97 and 98 just to see these piss the WRC boys off, which they did. I've always promised myself a 306 maxi as when the lottery. Got to be in full works livery too.

Its quite fitting that the fastest ever F1 driver and fastest ever tarmac rally driver are both called Gilles.

[Alex Langheck]

Ah, the days of the F2 Kit cars = Magic!! Peugeot 306 Maxi Kit car, Renault
Maxi Megane/ Clio, Citroen Xsara Kit car, Seat Ibiza Kit car, Vauxhall/ Opel Astra Kit car, VW Golf Kit car, etc

Loved it when they turned up in the WRC and put noses out of joint; the late Phillippe Bugalski won both Catalunya & Corsica in 1999 in the Xsara F2 Kit car.

I still think there is room for a proper 2WD class in the WRC - and would like to see a more even spread of Tarmac/ Gravel events.

[Caddyshack]

That sounded just about perfect.

Love the shape of these, I have a t16 kitted 205 with full 4x4 Cossie and engine....I just love the aggressive look of them.

[C.A.R.]

I'm gradually building one of the Tamiya 1:10 scale kits of this very car in full works livery, with a little interior /cockpit set too. One thing I'm struggling with is any interior pictures of the thing, particularly the rear cage setup and location of the spare wheel...so if anyone reading this has links or photographs I'd be well chuffed if you could help!

Love the noise these make...

[pthelazyjourno]

How much power did these things have?

Shows how effective FWD can be.

I also have a Tamiya 1/10 scale RC 306 Maxi, knocking around from my student days.

[Enricogto]

About 260~280 cv at 8200 rpm

[LukeDM]

Caddyshack said:

That sounded just about perfect.

Love the shape of these, I have a t16 kitted 205 with full 4x4 Cossie and engine....I just love the aggressive look of them.

Have you got a build thread of this? Sounds mental

[Baryonyx]

Awesome cars, though I always thought the 106 Maxi was a better looking thing. There are loads of fantastic videos of European Tarmac rallying on YouTube. As many Clio 16v's, 106 Rallyes and GTi's and Clio Maxis as you can shake a stick at.

[MC Bodge]

I now want to head to Corsica and drive around it avec grand exuberance

[Caddyshack]

LukeDM said:

Caddyshack said:

That sounded just about perfect.

Love the shape of these, I have a t16 kitted 205 with full 4x4 Cossie and engine....I just love the aggressive look of them.

Have you got a build thread of this? Sounds mental

Hi, Passion ford has an old thread from original owners and I have slowly updated, will try and find a link. It is away being mapped at the moment and will be close to 400 bhp but soon to go to 520bhp with Borg Warner twin scroll turbo setup.

[nf82]

love these maxi editions. The sound of the 2ltr on full chat is awesome.

[GravelBen]

DCLXIV said:

Those 2wd 2l na 306s were faster than the WRC cars on the tarmac rallies.

Well they beat them about twice anyway, the rest of the time they didn't.

Similar peak power, WRC cars had the advantage in torque+4wd vs the Maxi cars being allowed to run about 25% lighter than WRC regs.

As long as it stayed dry they were quick, as soon as it rained the 4wd cars left them behind pretty rapidly.

[Mannginger]

I now have a hankering to watch Taxi 2!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUOq6x2vo6U

[Tickle]

Mannginger said:

I now have a hankering to watch Taxi 2!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUOq6x2vo6U

Brilliant!

[Evoman]

Nice. Fantastic sound, reminded me of the 106 Rallye 8 valve I used to own for the sheer manic revving unburstable nature of these old skool Pugs

Got me watching this though of the epic Integrale in rally action (I think compiled by the same person). Oh how it dances!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyC2SlaAXuc

[RINGMEISTER]

I seem to remember these topping the time sheets on dry tarmac, but they were considerably lighter than the Wrc cars, if my memory serves me correctly they weighed in at a ton? Good to see 'Glitzy Panizzi" the tarmac specialist at his best. Also more than enough proof that you car have sideways drama with front wheel drive, also sounds sooo much better than the current crop of restricted turbos. Razor sharp throttle response too, real knife edge stuff, thanks for posting.