RE: PH Heroes: Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9

[jrinns]

These hold fond memories for me as i learnt to drive in my mums brand new e reg. It was a sight to see me at 17in the 205 with learner plates on and my mum petrified in the passenger seat.
It was an even better to see me in my dads 2.9
Xr4x4 with L plates . Happy days

[OlberJ]

tom felty said:

here is my car of awesomeness

Very nice indeed.

Beam is possibly needing looked at from that photo but utterly brilliant car for 15 years old! Props to you.

[tom felty]

OlberJ said:

Very nice indeed.

Beam is possibly needing looked at from that photo but utterly brilliant car for 15 years old! Props to you.

no haha my boot was full of tiles and bags of grout for the kitchen floor

[Motorrad]

300bhp/ton said:

But does that not describe 100% of all hatchbacks??

.........but all hatchbacks don't drive like a 205GTi, that was my point.

[Yanto]

Awesome...my old one........J plate pre-cat....sold it sbout 6 years back after owning for 7 years...sold my Skyway TA the same day...regretted both ever since

[geeteeaye]

BountyHunter said:

geeteeaye said:

I wouldn't have liked to be in a crash in one as the panels were wafer thin, but they didn't seem to get crashed much even by boy racers due to the way they stuck to the road, even in the wet.

thats wrong - they got crashed all the time, and they could be quite skittish in the wet.

i loved mine (had 4) especially with the mi16 fitted.
309 was a better handling car though, as it was more balanced.
as stated modern tyres do make a considerably difference as you retain the delightful steering, turn in etc etc but the lift off oversteer is somewhat tamed (but still there when you want/need it)

They definitely weren't skittish in the wet, believe me I had an Astra GTE - that was, the 205 GTi was excellent in the wet, certainly in comparison. I also seem to remember reading that the 205 GTi was one of the least crashed hot hatches of its time, the main casualties being the Escorts (XR3i & RS Turbo) and the Astra GTE 16v.

[gowmonster]

Do Want, Must have,

must take buy now apologise later approach with SWIMBO.

If anyone needs me I'll be looking at the classifieds and raiding the kids piggy banks.

[rallycross]

BountyHunter said:

britsportscars said:

rallycross said:

Great collection! The ultimate selection of FWD cars? Or will that get the 'Dub crew angry?

add in a Corrado VR6 and Elan SE and it would be.

Never had an Elan but did have the Corrado VR6 at the same time as the others, was a really nice low mileage (45k) one owner (fsh) manual VR6, it was good but no where close to what a DC2 is capable of (although the VR6 is nicer on motorway trips)

[fel71]

tom felty said:

no haha my boot was full of tiles and bags of grout for the kitchen floor

A picture with no tiles in boot

[300bhp/ton]

Motorrad said:

.........but all hatchbacks don't drive like a 205GTi, that was my point.

Maybe I need to see if there's a friendly local PH'er who'd let me have a go in one?

[Simes205]

I've been in continuous ownership since 2000.
Not quite standard though, roughly 203bhp per ton.

[Searider]

Loved mine.

Bought it in 1994. 2 Owners 53000 miles. Kept it until 2001 and ran it to 130000 miles.

Great car - it almost put voices into your head - "go on, go on, just a bit faster, you know you want to, you're not going to let him past are you?"

I occasionally got to drive one up to about 4 years ago as my Brother also had one. Although not as "fast" as modern stuff it really is fun to drive and you can take it by the scruff of the neck and make it do what you want it to.

With space to store and enough cash for a good one would be a great weekend toy.

[Midgster]

Oh the memories! Just loved those red carpets!

I had a 1984 1.6 GTi in Silver when I was 18 back in 1991, very rare (for a 1984) with electric windows and sunroof, of which the switches were on the roof by the interior light (later cars had the switched on the doors) Experienced the legendary lift off oversteer once which sent me into the kerb damaging the suspension, so had some adjustable Koni's fitted as they weren't much more expensive. Handling as standard was great, but with the Koni's it was amazing.

I was a bit sad, as I desperately wanted a 1.9 but couldn't afford one, so I just bought some 1.9 alloys and the 1.9 badges and just pretended it was a 1.9, until someone would ask why it was on a B plate....to which I would reply it was a private plate.

Did anyone else have a wobbly speedo?..the needle would shake 5mph either side of the actual speed! LOL

B227 UNM.....where are you now? (actually, looking on DVLA site, looks like it's not been on the road since 1997 )

Just had a look around and found this amazing example, apparently still has the original rear tyres fitted

205 GTi on Ebay

[NickHKent]

Fantastic cars!

The 206 gti that followed was an utter disgrace, the 106 gti was about as close you could get to a "modern" replacement.

[OlberJ]

fel71 said:

A picture with no tiles in boot

Much better.

Is that a phase 2 black and red half leather interior? Take it that it's a ph1.5?

Looks great.

I did have my own white GTi for a while but alas it was a rusty mess

[Uncle John]

I'm sure these are great cars but my bodyshop owning cousin always said never get a 205 as they fold like an accordion and that was 15 odd years ago. Wouldn't fancy it in todays traffic.

That blue is the best looking though.

[dome]

Ah, memories. Like a few on here I've had 3. So far. My mistake was buying a really good one first (54k miles non sunroof 1990 model I had in 1999) The other two cars weren't a patch on it. Some favourite memories of my first one.

Turning up at a VW owners club meet at Kames in it, completely standard apart from an induction kit and recording 5th fastest time against all the heavily modified VW's.

Doing a few road rallies in it, including one memorable night catching a hard driven st205 Celica GT4 on a singletrack road.

Having a play one wet night on "my" local road with a mates well driven 2wd Sapphire Cosworth.. I passed him and stayed in front, it was one of those drives that I wouldn't, or indeed couldn't, do again.

The problem I feel is they haven't aged that well, I had one a few years ago and despite being well maintained after a couple of months enthusiastic driving cracks started to appear in the strut tops. I suspect it'd be a real struggle to get a good one that could take the abuse. Shame.

Brian

[g3org3y]

My Russian teacher (from East Germnay) at school had one of these. Traded it in for a Mercedes A Class.

Ochen ploho.

[collateral]

Midgster said:

Did anyone else have a wobbly speedo?..the needle would shake 5mph either side of the actual speed! LOL

Only happened on mine below 35 mph - just took it as a sign the car wanted me to get my toe down



eta J reg 1.6

[OlberJ]

Worn, stretched speedo cable, cheap to replace but a bugger to get at.