1984 PEUGEOT 205 T16 1.8L 16V Turbo 5MT (200 HP)

Vehicle Overview

Peugeot had to make 200 vehicles in a similar racing configuration to receive the FIA homologation number for the 205 T16 race-car, and it built them.

It was born in the golden era of the Group B rallying, and it had to exist in street clothing. The French carmaker tried its best to make it look like a civilized road car, but it couldn’t. In the end, it looked like Hulk dressed in Batman’s cape. Apart from one, which was white, all other 199 vehicles sported a dark charcoal gray color.

Forget everything about Peugeot 205 and Peugeot, generally speaking. The 205T16 was a different kind of animal. It built it to spit fire from its exhausts, to fly above Finland’s gravel stages, and beat the Audi Quattro at its own game. The T16 was introduced too late to win the 1984 World Rally Championship but won three races. After that, it was a monstrous opponent that Audi couldn’t catch. It forced the German carmaker to return to their drawing boards to develop a new racing car, but it was too late. Peugeot stormed the Rallye-stages and won the 1985 and the 1986 Championships. But FIA banned the Group B class afterward since it was too dangerous.

A team of twenty engineers led by Jean Todt developed the car. The idea was to build a similar-shaped existing car around a racing-special platform. In the end, they made 205 T16 with a tubular space-frame system with a transverse engine placed in the middle. Its all-wheel-drive system consisted of a center viscous center differential, with limited-slip differentials both front and rear. As for the bodywork, the team attached it around the roll-cage. Inside, Peugeot installed two sport bucket seats a large ashtray and a slide-in radio.

Jean Todt and his team did the math and planned the engine’s displacement under the 2.5-liter equivalent rule, and the result was a 1,775 cubic centimeters (108.3 cu-in) turbocharged unit with a fuel-injected system. It provided 200 hp in the street version, while the racing model unleashed over 500 horses.