The Homologators – The Peugeot T16

The Peugeot 205GTi was a good car. In fact, it was and still is more than that, it’s an incredible car. A key lesson in how to get it right, it boasts perfect balance displayed by a perfect chassis. That’s a lot of perfects, but honestly, few hot hatches have failed to capture the imaginations and hearts of motorists as much as the humble 205GTi. It was production Peugeot at the top of its game. As such, when the rulebook was, relatively speaking, thrown out of the window in the name of Group B rallying, it made perfect sense for Peugeot to build something based on the mighty 205GTi, right? Well, no actually.

The 205 GTi has about as much in common with a T16 as a koi carp has with a shark. For Group A rallying, where the cars used in competition better replicated those on your driveway, the GTi was the obvious way to go. And Peugeot happily produced far, far more than the 5,000 required to qualify for homologation status. For Group B however, the arguably lawless class of rallying, Peugeot had to look further than its own bonnet. Instead, it had to look at what the other manufacturers were doing to satisfy the all-consuming Group B fire. And they were doing insane things.

As we covered when we looked at the Lancia Delta S4, homologation for Group B was far more relaxed – manufacturers only needed to build 200 road-going versions of whatever car they were planning to fling through the stages. This greased the wheels for manufacturers considerably, as making 200 of one car was a doddle, especially if it the creation of said car meant they could go rallying.

However, as the S4 displayed with aplomb, the road cars were often crude in construction and lacking any care or consideration for the end user. They existed to satisfy the FIA, not the buyer or end user. Peugeot took a different approach and instead saw the 200 requirement as a means to give those lucky owners something truly special. The T16 was, dare we say, a well-built machine constructed with driver enjoyment in mind. Okay, so we mean that in the loosest sense given that the need to homologate was more important. But still, Peugeot gave build quality in the case of the T16 a damn good go.

On paper, the T16 road car had far more in common with the rally car than the production car. Unlike Lancia’s S4, the T16 did indeed start life as a bog standard, humble 205. However, the shell was taken to Heuliez. Here, they cut the back off of the production shell and in its place fitted a tubular chassis along with new sheet steel including a bulkhead/firewall that spanned between the two B pillars. The same work was carried out up front, though just underneath – the panels remained. A tubular steel frame was fitted, along with new steel-work.

Once the bodies were converted, they were faced with one of two destinies. In the case of the competition cars, they went to Peugeot Talbot Sport to be kitted out for the stages. So think roll cages, buckets seats and over 400bhp thanks to that mid-mounted, turbocharged engine.

The road cars went to Simca, where there were no bucket seats or roll cages waiting. They did get the same running gear though, which was nice. That meant a 1,775cc mid-mounted engine. And it was a clever engine. The block was derived from that of the diesel unit, which meant a great deal of strength from the cast iron construction. The head was a bit fancier than that of the oil-burner and featured two camshafts and 16 valves. Add in the turbocharger and you can see where the T16 name came from. All of this was mated to a transversely-mounted Citroen SM gearbox. Clever stuff indeed. 

In terms of power output, the homologated T16 was left lacking, but only in the sense that you’d be left lacking if you ordered fillet steak and got a sirloin. It might not have had over 400hp, in fact it only had 197hp, but it was still light, and it was still all-wheel-drive. It was not a slow car.

Internally, Peugeot, or should we say, Simca, could have just thrown in a couple of seats and called it a day. They didn’t though, and instead appointed the T16 with a rather pleasant interior consisting of leather and red stitching. There were even electric windows – fancy. It was, dare we say, sumptuous. 

The T16 was actually a very pleasant place to be, and with ‘TURBO’ emblazoned across the steering wheel, it was keen to remind you that you were driving something truly special. This wasn’t just a throw together for the sake of satisfying the rulebook – Peugeot took pride in it. That pride was further echoed by the liberal application of dark charcoal grey metallic paint. That might sound trivial, but for an ‘80s Group B road car, it showed serious effort. Most road-going Group B cars were white. 

On the stages the T16 was every bit the weapon Peugeot’s Jean Todt promised it would be, and even though Group B’s light only shone briefly, there was no ignoring that the T16 was the source of much of that illumination. In fact, the T16 dominated Group B towards the end of the ill-fated motorsport era, scooping Constructor’s and Driver Championships in 1985 and 1986, driven by Timo Salonen and the mighty Juha Kankkunen.

The road car was nowhere near as impressive. The de-tuned engine, while certainly spritely, wasn’t leaps ahead of the 205GTi in terms of power, but it didn’t matter. The car was more than a means to compete, it was also a celebration of what Peugeot would go on to achieve. It was the wheeled embodiment of what the French team could do, and as we said, it was built with clear care and passion, and that makes the T16 road car very special indeed.

Pictures care of Mark Donaldson Cars, who have this stunning grey T16 available for sale.