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Peugeot's 208 Rally 4 has a delightfully perfect 208bhp

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Peugeot's 208 Rally 4 has a delightfully perfect 208bhp | Top Gear

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How do you improve upon your most successful rally car ever? MORE POWER

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Peugeot's 208 Rally 4 has a delightfully perfect 208bhp

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
How do you improve upon your most successful rally car ever? MORE POWER

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
How do you improve upon your most successful rally car ever? MORE POWER

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Peugeot's 208 Rally 4 has a delightfully perfect 208bhp

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Peugeot's 208 Rally 4 has a delightfully perfect 208bhp

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Peugeot's 208 Rally 4 has a delightfully perfect 208bhp

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
How do you improve upon your most successful rally car ever? MORE POWER

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Meet the new Peugeot 208 rally car. And the big news is it’s powered by lovely old petrol. That never used to be news in the motorsport world, but Vauxhall launched an electric Corsa rally car earlier this year, and we half expected the vastly related 208 to follow in its tyre tracks.

The 208 Rally 4 is powered by old fossils, though, and produces more power than the 208 R2 it replaces. It’s been renamed not by Peugeot, but by those that govern the world of rallying. The R2 class has been rebranded Rally 4 but the ethos remains the same: small, relatively affordable little rally cars for those at the more junior end of the scale to compete in.

So no huge wings, no unfathomable downforce and front- rather than four-wheel drive, though the images above prove that’s no barrier to fun.

It’s good for manufacturers like Peugeot to be involved with, as it’s much more financially viable to produce some rally cars close to road spec to sell on than it is to convert your regular hatchback into a 400bhp monster and campaign it in WRC’s top rung yourself. Peugeot sold over 450 of the old 208 R2, making it the brand’s most lucrative racecar ever. And a replacement based on the brand-new 208 an absolute shoo-in…

It doesn’t use a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine like before, though, instead utilising a dinkier 1.2-litre turbo with just three cylinders. Inevitable, given it’s the largest petrol engine in the road-going 208 (electricity powers the beefiest ones nowadays). To ensure it punches harder than the 128bhp which comes as standard, Peugeot Sport’s engineers have fitted a bigger turbo, a Magneti Marelli engine management system and a proper Sadev sequential gearbox.

The result? An almost too perfect 208bhp - up over 20bhp on the R2 - alongside 214lb ft of torque. It’s managed with the help of a locking differential while three-way adjustable Ohlins dampers put in the hard yards at each corner.

The Rally 4 weighs a scant 1,080kg, but regulations dictate it totals 1,240kg once crew are on board. Should you want one, orders will be taken in January 2020 at a cost of 66,000 euros plus tax. Which is basically £66,000, or a whisker under the price of a Renault Megane Trophy R; Top Gear’s performance car of 2019, but one which, for all its serious spec sheet, can’t be taken on actual World Rallies. Where’d your money go?

# data.attributes.body.processed
Meet the new Peugeot 208 rally car. And the big news is it’s powered by lovely old petrol. That never used to be news in the motorsport world, but Vauxhall launched an electric Corsa rally car earlier this year, and we half expected the vastly related 208 to follow in its tyre tracks.

The 208 Rally 4 is powered by old fossils, though, and produces more power than the 208 R2 it replaces. It’s been renamed not by Peugeot, but by those that govern the world of rallying. The R2 class has been rebranded Rally 4 but the ethos remains the same: small, relatively affordable little rally cars for those at the more junior end of the scale to compete in.

So no huge wings, no unfathomable downforce and front- rather than four-wheel drive, though the images above prove that’s no barrier to fun.

It’s good for manufacturers like Peugeot to be involved with, as it’s much more financially viable to produce some rally cars close to road spec to sell on than it is to convert your regular hatchback into a 400bhp monster and campaign it in WRC’s top rung yourself. Peugeot sold over 450 of the old 208 R2, making it the brand’s most lucrative racecar ever. And a replacement based on the brand-new 208 an absolute shoo-in…

It doesn’t use a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine like before, though, instead utilising a dinkier 1.2-litre turbo with just three cylinders. Inevitable, given it’s the largest petrol engine in the road-going 208 (electricity powers the beefiest ones nowadays). To ensure it punches harder than the 128bhp which comes as standard, Peugeot Sport’s engineers have fitted a bigger turbo, a Magneti Marelli engine management system and a proper Sadev sequential gearbox.

The result? An almost too perfect 208bhp - up over 20bhp on the R2 - alongside 214lb ft of torque. It’s managed with the help of a locking differential while three-way adjustable Ohlins dampers put in the hard yards at each corner.

The Rally 4 weighs a scant 1,080kg, but regulations dictate it totals 1,240kg once crew are on board. Should you want one, orders will be taken in January 2020 at a cost of 66,000 euros plus tax. Which is basically £66,000, or a whisker under the price of a Renault Megane Trophy R; Top Gear’s performance car of 2019, but one which, for all its serious spec sheet, can’t be taken on actual World Rallies. Where’d your money go?

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How do you improve upon your most successful rally car ever? MORE POWER