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| Road Test Peugeot 207 GTi THP 175 |
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The New Generation
The 206, being more recent, is the one with which the new 207 more closely compares. A lot of the earlier car's spirit has been transferred to this one, but that does not apply to the engine which - though it's almost exactly as powerful - marches to the beat of an entirely different drummer. Back in the 206 days, you got an naturally-aspirated two-litre engine which performed quite respectably at low revs but was very much at its best when you started screaming it. Well, that was then and this is now. The 207 uses the 1.6-litre turbocharged unit co-developed by PSA Peugeot Citroen (which builds all the parts in France) and the BMW Group (which assembles them in the UK for its own purposes) and already found in the second-generation MINI Cooper S. If the rasp of a highly-tuned motor floats your boat, you might be better checking out the secondhand ads for a 206. The 1.6 turbo can not be made to sound inspiring, no matter what you do with it. On the other hand, it's outstandingly flexible, delivering maximum torque (195lb/ft when the turbo is on overboost) from right down at 1600rpm.
The lack of aural excitement is an advantage - well, it is to me, anyway - when you're cruising. Like the car it replaces, the 207 has five gears rather six, and fifth is quite low; 70mph equates to about 3200rpm. It was about the same in the 206 GTi 180, which sounded very fussy on the motorways, but the more subdued tones of the 207 make it, if not what you might call relaxing, then at least less unrelaxing. Fine - but of course this sort of thing isn't the real point of a Peugeot GTi. The real point is the way it handles.
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