Garage – Peugeot 205 GTI 1900

Raphaël de Borman agrees: despite the blue circle instead of the heart (“My father worked in the important Ford business in Liège”), he allowed himself a prejudice à la Française. In the context of exaggeration: “I drove a Capri and an XR3i long before I turned 18, but as soon as I got my license, I ran into a 205 GTI, the bomb of the late 80s”, he pleads. Ah, the feeling of the first car!

A good thirty years later, he went into advertising to find a prototype hexagonal sports car capable of recapturing his first feelings of oversteer. “I took advantage of Covid to turn the canvas down. I finally found a 1900 version of the 205 in Brussels, but it came from Italy. That’s why it has turn signal repeaters on the front guards. It’s not interesting but the Italian law imposed this type of attachment at the time. Correct relevant: Raphaël is not a fan of the “showroom” look. “That’s the difficulty of this type of car,” he says. In addition, you have the risk of buying a machine in its own juice and the risk that it entails. At the beginning of the 90s, many of us thought that we were pilots with this lioness with a capacity of 130 horses. As a direct result, the mechanics of these cars have often been called. Mine showed 140,000 stops on the meter. I don’t know if its owners were the pioneers of the car pass but, apparently, it does not seem to be abused. Today, when it has more than 10,000 km, I do not regret any unpleasant surprises on the wheel.

With this type of sports car, you may encounter a tiring routine if you’re used to it, but the feeling the 205 offers is worth the risk.

This lady who is always green – in every sense of the word since she has kept her original color, Sorento green, which evokes the green of England – sacrifices a few curves that suit her well: “One of the weaknesses of the model, this was the upholstery of seats. There is no question, however, that they pass through the hands of a mechanic. The reflection is the same as the bodywork. I prefer it with a little rust. That is a French car!

For others, what is interesting at the wheel of this traction that is worth 15 to 20,000 €. “You quickly forget its ‘belt-ass’ side thanks to the suspension and cabin soundproofing, which was a figment of the imagination. It’s a lot of fun to play with the front axle limiter and turn the gearbox lever, which is smooth and correct.”

Text: Dominique Dricot