Thursday, December 13, 2007

Peugeot 308 RC-Z Destined for Production


Not official but very likely

Peugeot leadership changed in early November and the reigns are now in Christian Streiff's hands. The former Airbus CEO is a confident man and his decisions (will) reflect that, with the first of those decisions being the Peugeot 308 RC-Z going into production.

MotorLegend claims to have good reason to believe that Magna Steyr in Austria will build the Audi TT competitor, but PSA has not released an official statement in the matter so Bertone, Karmann and Heuliez might still snatch the order up.

The 308 RC-Z is based on the PF2 platform, also found under the Peugeot 308 and Citroen C4. For now the 308 RC-Z is powered by the 207 RC 1.6 liter THC engine producing 218 hp, an additional 43 hp over the 207 RC, but it is safe to assume more engines will be made available.

The 308 RC-Z weighs a respectable 1,200 kg , mainly due to weight saving tricks like using aluminium suspension components, carbon fibre trim and a polycarbonate rear window.

MotorLegend is expecting to see the first 308 RC-Z's by 2009.