Posted on Sunday 24 February 2008
When Peugeot rolled out its striking 308 RC Z coupe concept at last year’s Frankfurt Motor Show few suspected such an aggressive model could be spawned from the humble 308 range and most overlooked the car as just another pointless concept. The concept featured oversized 19in wheels sitting inside pumped fenders, a raked TT-style profile and one of the biggest noses we’ve seen on any car.
As outrageous as the original concept was, according Germany’s AutoBild is reporting that Peugeot will announce production plans for the car at next month’s Geneva Motor Show. The source claims Peugeot’s new Chief Christian Streiff is very excited about the car and hopes to see it reach showrooms by as early as next year.
Like the concept version, the production car will ride on a lightened chassis (weighing a total of 1,200kg) and will be available with the same 1.6L supercharged engine from the smaller 207 RC and Mini Cooper S but with power boosted to around 218hp. According to the source, the final price should be around €23,000. Check out our previous story on the actual 308 RC Z concept car by clicking here.
Don’t know why… but I quite like the look of it
It’s front-engined, but there’s a lot of spare space at the back. I hope they take this opportunity to turn this into a CC retractable hardtop. That would add weight, but the lines should be unaffected.
What still staggers me is that no-one in Europe will complain about the lack of power or safety even though this engine is smaller than almost every engine available in the US. Why can’t Chrysler or GM do something like this? We know Ford can, because they compete squarely with this car in the EU…