Peugeot 205 T16 Is The Closest You Can Get To A Group B Car For The Road

Homologation specials don’t come more …special than this: the road version of Peugeot’s two-times World Rally champion, the 205 T16.

Peugeot built just 200 of these road-going mid-engine hatchbacks which didn’t exactly bear many similarities with the regular production 205 of the era.

The car was built upon a stiff tubular chassis while the heavily modified bodyshell featured a completely bespoke rear section, with a welded firewall between the B-pillars and the rear subframe made out of sheet steel and tubes.

The engine is a turbocharged 1.8-litre four-cylinder unit, which used the cast iron diesel block of Peugeot’s XU family of engines but with a 16-valve head. Total output was rated at 197hp which were sent to all four wheels. The gearbox came from a Citroen XM and it was mounted transversely.

All road cars were left-hand drive and finished in grey with a two-tone grey interior, except from the first one thatwas painted white with rally decals. The car you see here has covered just 12,266km (7,621 miles) and it was delivered new in late 1984 to the Peugeot’s Italian PR department where it was used for press drives.

In 2015, the car received a major service in Italy which included new shock absorbers, brakes and brake servo. It was then imported in the UK and it’s described to be in ‘excellent original condition’.

So, Group B fans with £175,000 ($226k in current exchange rates) to spare can head to Mark Donaldson in the UK.