Peugeot 205 could sell at auction for eye-watering £275,000 – but it’s for very good reason
A SEEMINGLY humble Peugeot 205 could sell for an astonishing £275,000 – but there’s a very good reason why it could fetch so much money.
Going under the hammer at a car auction in the UK is one of the rarest models ever produced by the French manufacturer.
The 1985 Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 has an estimated guide price of between £235,000 and £275,000.
ONLY 200 MADE
Only 200 “homologation specials” were made in the mid-eighties with the car being a road-legal version of the rally competition cars Peugeot entered in the sport’s Group B era.
The rally version of the 205 Turbo T16 proved to be highly successful, going on to win back-to-back World Rally Championship titles in 1985 and 1986 with Finnish drivers Timo Salonen and Juha Kankkunen behind the wheel.
The model up for sale is number 176 of the 200 road-going versions made, and is in private ownership in the UK.
It is fully UK registered and has covered less than 10,000 miles from when it was produced.
While the Turbo 16 shares the same nameplate as the more ordinary 205, other than the windscreen, doors and headlamps, there is very little in common between the two vehicles.
At the time the turbo version was produced, it was hoped success in rallying would help boost sales of the more sedate 205.
A very obvious difference is the turbocharged petrol engine which is mounted not in the front of the car but in the middle, with the power being sent to all four wheels.
According to official Peugeot files, all 200 of the road cars were made to the exact same specification – all were produced in left-hand driver and were painted in Winchester Grey, like the one for sale.
However, just a handful were painted in Pearl White, with four being reserved for Jean Boillot, the then President of Peugeot, and three French motorsport icons: F1 driver Didier Pironi, engineer André de Cortanze and director of the Peugeot Talbot Sport WRC team, and later Scuderia Ferrari F1 boss and FIA President, Jean Todt.
The T16 also looks dramatically different to an ordinary 205 as it features enormous wheel arches, which were needed to house the extended rear track – the distance between the two back wheels – and bigger tyres – as well as the large air scoops situated behind its doors which were used to cool the mid-mounted engine.
POWERFUL 1.8-LITRE TURBO ENGINE
The car is powered by a 1.8-litre turbocharged petrol engine which can’t match the power in the rally version but still able to produce 197bhp, which in 1985 was not to be sniffed at, especially considering the car only weighs 907kg.
It can go from 0-60mph in just 6.6 seconds and give a top speed of 137mph.
Specialist Iconic Auctioneers is selling the car at the Race Retro event at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire on February 24.
‘A RARE & SOUGHT AFTER JEWEL’
They describe the car as “a rare and sought after jewel for automotive collectors and enthusiasts”.
The car was imported from France in early 2021 and has been registered with the DVLA and is fully legal on UK roads.
The registration is backed by a letter of authenticity from the Peugeot Club UK, reports This is Money.
Iconic Auctioneers said: “There was not much information on file documenting the cars life prior to its arrival in the UK and consequently its owner decided, after reviewing the intervals in the original service manual and instruction book that came with the car, that it would be sensible to carry out a full fluids service and check over before any use.”
As part of that service, a Porsche specialist entrusted to carry out the work fitted a new clutch and the car is now ready to hit the road.
When the Peugeot 205 T16 Turbos went on sale they cost 290,000 French Francs, equivalent to £25,000.
Although the car could now fetch £275,000, some 11 times the original asking price when new, it’s not the most expensive 205 Turbo 16 road car ever sold.
That accolade goes to one of the white cars, number 33, that were produced.
This version was originally registered to Peugeot and is thought to have been used by Jean Todt as his personal car while he was head of Peugeot Talbot Sport.
The car was capable of producing 227bhp, significantly more than the other road versions.
It was sold in March 2021 by French auction house Aguttes for a record sum of almost £360,000 (€419,260).
That sum though completely overshadowed to the price of a surviving race version.
The all-time most expensive ever is a Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 Evolution 2 which was part of an Artcurial sales in Paris in 2021.
The car was driven by Frenchman Bruno Saby, winning the 1985 Corsica Rally and then by the reigning world champion Timo Salonen in the 1986 WRC season.
Salonen won victories in Finland and the final event of the season on Britain in the vehicle.
A collector coughed up a staggering £876,300 (€997,440) making it the most anyone has ever paid for any 205 hatchback.
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