In June 1976 VW launched a car which had been built by a group of over keen development engineers. That car would change the face of hatchbacks as we know them, it was of course the Golf GTi. This remained king of the berlin boy racer circuit, and of course all over the world. That was untill 1984, when Peugeot - who were feeling a little left out- launched the 205 GTi with a 1.6 105bhp engine. This however was not enough, and it wasn't till December 1986 that the Golf was knocked off the top spot by the GTi's bigger brother, the 1.9 Gti boasting 130bhp. And that is what you see before you, the unquestioned king of GTi's (well except for the Clio Williams, but that was never badged as a GTi so i'll choose to forget it). As you can see though, Peugeot didn't put too much effort into long term durability -especially in the electronics department- and after 14 years of being thrashed around roundabouts, it's starting to get a little saggy.

Those classic Pininfarina looks still get nuff respect from the McDonalds car park crew.

Daily entertainment includes 'Noise de jour' and electrical connection roulette. After only two weeks ownership, I have already incurred one speeding ticket. A sign of things to come???
Difference in tyre sizes front and rear makes for 'ineresting' cornering around wet roundabouts.

Only 130bhp, but then only 950kg (that's 145bhp/ton - which is a lot for something made from coat-hangers and tin foil)

Looks best in original form. No Booyaka alloys for this thankyou very much.
As the French say, the 205 GTi has a certain 'I don't know what'.

Ratings:
Age (max 1)		- now nearly 14 years old. It's a miracle it's still in one piece.
Decay (max 2)		- Mostly electrical, including std screwy central locking..
Impracticality (max 1)		- Noisy as hell, harsh, bit thirsty.. But, undeniably, modern hatches are too practical.. DULL
Toys (max 1)		- Alloys, electric windows (THAT WORK!) Foglights (yet to work out how they work..)
"Oomph" (max 1)		- pretty quick, and nailed to the road. Unless its wet, in which case only the front is nailed to the road..
Deductions		- A bit too trendy perhaps, compensated for by that total electrical failure. On the M6. Middle Lane. In fast moving traffic. At night. How we laughed about it afterwards..
Total:

Workshop:

Numerous cleaning up of connections. Stereo to be fitted. Suspension bushes to be renewed.

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Links:

Painful 'car on roof photos' Forum n stuff

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Update:

Well it's coming up to a year of ownership and i have to say that this is the most fun car I've ever driven. I've taken the long way home from work everyday since I got it and learned lessons about lift off oversteer that still haunt me today.
I mentioned earlier on about getting 3 points and it being ' a sign of things to come' - how right I was. 4 offences, 1 court appearance, £420 worth of fines and 15 points. I could get into a rant about the injustice of the whole thing but that's for a different website.
With so many points on my licene re-insuring it was not really an option, so it was going to have to go. Wasn't looking forward to having to sell it and in the end didn't have to. A local telegraph pole solved the problem of getting rid of it for me.

So that's the end of the GTi. A day later it was crushed into something that would probably make a good coffee table. My days of Peugeot ownership are not over however, as I have now acquired ownership of the GTi's distant (slightly backward) relative.

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