Series 2

A few years ago I bought a small car and loved owning it. A Peugeot 106 Rallye S1. 1300cc, 8v engine putting out 100 bhp – probably a little more with a full peugeot sport exhaust system and an induction kit. Now this engine output might not seem much these days because many modern cars weigh the same as a small tank, but the French had a trick up their sleeve.

Everyone who’s been in one will testify to the fact that Peugeots have a standard of build quality that is not equal to Audi. This means that they’re not equipped with heavy leather seats, stuffed full of sound deadening material or smattered with electronic motors operating everything. So you’re standard 106 weighs about the same as a bag of crisps.

The Rallye was the homologation special edition, that had electric nothing and weight saving measures like lightweight Michelin steel wheels. It weighed about the same as an empty bag of crisps, so that engine output made it a quick car. Evo reckons that the current best Supermini you can buy is the Fiat Panda 100bhp, but because it’s been eating pies it only manages a power to weight ratio of 103bhp/ton. The first Rallye managed 123bhp/ton as standard and with 100cc less across it’s four cylinders.

Predictably, being French and tempremental it went wrong a bit, but that’s what the RAC are there for. The most important thing was that it was great fun – a factor that has been missing from mant new cars I’ve been trying out recently. Having become bored of riding from home and now needing to head up North more often the car free experiment had to come to an end. From my perspective, the only sensible option was to look at something that was proven as a great car and after much looking this is the replacement:

This is the 106 Rallye S2. 1600cc engine, but of the 500 that came into the UK in either white or indigo blue, they were all 8v engines. This was a much better engine in terms of torque, but the power to weight was only a 2bhp improvement. As most of the cars are now getting on for 10 years old, the mileage tends to be quite high, so finding a good one is difficult. This one has a new engine, the same engine that powers the 106GTi and Citroen VTS.

This is the 16v fire breathing unit that spits out a lot more power, but then both those cars came laden with all the luxuries that you’d expect in a top of the range car and that all adds weight. And in French cars, more things to go wrong. Or leak. So transplant the heart of those cars into the lighter rallye shell, make some modifications as you’re doing it and you’re looking at almost 155bhp/ton and a grin from ear to ear. And that’s before you adopt the Colin Chapman philosophy and start on the weight reduction…