Strap yourself in and prepare for a wild ride, because Peugeot has showcased their spectacular new Peugeot 308 GTi at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The motoring magazines are this week reporting that the hot new marque has been spotted in production form. It’s a serious rival to the SEAT Leon Cupra and its 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbo will offer up a monstrous 270bhp when it reaches UK showrooms later this year.
The fiery new GTi will share an engine with
Peugeot’s RCZ R, the Audi TT competitor, and stand as the most powerful car in the Peugeot stable. It’s not likely that the French manufacturer will replace the RCZ R, so the 308 GTi will probably hog the brand’s speed tag when the RCZ R is eventually discontinued.
There are styling tweaks that make a subtle yet noticeable difference over the GT version. The alloys are bigger and come with a striking silver and matte black scheme coupled with red brake callipers and the front grille seems to snarl in a honeycomb pattern. The chunky dual-exhaust tips are housed in a new diffuser-style bumper insert and the car seems to have been subtly lowered.
The motoring press is also reporting that disguised models of the 308 GTi have been seen being cold-weather testing in Scandinavia. The same source for this information has also revealed that Peugeot won’t be joining the hot-hatch war currently raging at Nurburgring between
Honda, Renault and SEAT.
The GTi version of the Peugeot is also expected to receive modifications to the suspension, enhanced braking and Torsen limited-slip differential. While the new Honda Civic Type R has taken a real hardcore stance in these matters. The new 308 GTi should have a more civil road-based configuration.
The 308 GTi will come with front-wheel drive and a six-speed manual gearbox. However, Peugeot is currently developing an eight-speed automatic for its future sports models.
While Peugeot Sport remains tight-lipped about their involvement in the development of the GTi, they may be saving their energies for the even-hotter 308 R, if and when it goes ahead. In the meantime, if you want the Peugeot 308 GTi, you can expect to shell out around £26,000 later this year.
Howard’s Group is Peugeot’s authorised retailer in the South West. For a closer look at any of the Peugeot range, come down to our showrooms at
Dorchester,
Taunton,
Weston-Super-Mare or
Yeovil.