After reading and enjoying other people's 'road tests' I thought I would write one.

I love my MK1 Octy vRS, it does everything really well, but it is a bit boring. As EVO mag said '...it is not the car you would get up early on a Sunday morning to drive...' (well not a standard one at least). As with most modern cars there is not much involvement, especially when driving within legal limits. If you don't understand the new Toyota/Subaru car with 'only' 200BHP then you probably have not driven older cars. Speed and grip is not everything. I can certainly see where they are coming from.

So, I wanted something that I could fiddle with, take to a show or two and drive at the weekend. But most importantly I wanted something that I had to DRIVE, which was not weakened or numbed down by computer systems or EU laws. I wanted a sense of involvement ideally at lower speeds.

I did have a Honda 1999 CB500 motorbike, and with about 60BHP, this was great. I could work the engine to the red and not be doing stupid speeds and also feel in control. Now I have a 1999 Honda CBR600. I have owned this for over 4 years now, but I still have not tamed it. It is too fast for me. So I can't really work the engine like I did with my CB500 and thus I have lost some enjoyment.

Back to cars, I really wanted a MK2 Escort, although it seems most of the World does too and the things cost a bomb. I could not justify spending that much money on something which will live in the garage. Integra DC2 was also on the list. But the dreaded rear arch rust problem put me off. 90% of adverts had 'slight rust on rear arch'. And you can't ask someone to drop £1K off a £4K car to sort the rust out.

They say never meet your hero. Maybe you should never buy your dream/hero car?...

Anyhow this around-about trail finally leads me to the road test. I had to give some background as to why in the World would I want to buy a car (French at that ) with a small engine and on paper is not that quick.

1994 Peugeot 106 Rallye S1 (1.3 8V 100BHP)

First impressions - compared to the Octy this is chalk and cheese. Noisy, raw and no mid range shove. But oh is it fun fun fun. I have owned quite a few Pugs so I am used to their way of doing things and the quality. The Octy is a Rolls-Royce in that comparison. VAG - Big metal plate supporting exhaust mount at the middle of the exhaust held on with about 8 bolts. Peugeot just use one rubber hanger!

Engine - a sweet gem of a powerplant. Loads of character. The power curve is like a ski ramp so there is plenty of reason to rev the nuts off it. From 5K-7K+ rpm it flies. All this with no real fancy tech. Ok it has multipoint injection, but that it about it. Just good old skool engine tuning, decent flowed head, correct volume intake & monster cam. Who needs 16V or even 20V It feels like it could run at 7K rpm all day.

Below the 'sweet spot' the car drives fine. Two up it seems to do the whole 'town car' thing quite well. I have not been stuck in heavy traffic yet so can't comment much regarding this aspect.

Gearbox - ok it is designed and built to a budget. But the engineer in charge of specifiying the ratios was spot on. Yes @ 70MPH it is doing about 4200rpm in 5th, but work the engine from lower gears towards the limiter and when you change you are straight back into the 5k+ rpm powerband. It just flies Block changes downwards from say 4th to 2nd are tricky because the ratios are so close. If you thought you had to work hard to keep a VTEC 'in the zone' try a Rallye!

Interior - Functional With minimal soundproofing you can hear the injectors clicking away and the gearbox, plus if the tyres throw up a stone it sounds like you someone is banging a hammer on the bottom of the car. The exhaust is standard so it is not boomy. Seats are springy, which helps take out the spine pounding potholes. Pedals are offset to the left and close together, but they are not too bad as long as I wear narrow trainers instead of size 10 Doc Martins!

Ride - Pushing the car down the suspension is quite soft. Certainly different to modern hot hatches. The Rallye sits quite high off the ground, but that means there is quite a bit of wheel travel available, so no worries of bottoming out on some of the more bumpy roads. It is not too bad, it is just the body does not insulate you as well as the Octy from the road surface, but that is what you expect from this sort of car.

Handling - On tigher bends you can feel the rear moving a bit. In my 205 I never had the lift off oversteer demon rear its head. But the magazines say that the Rallye is even worse (or is that better depending on your ability or desire to get around tight corners fast). There is quite a bit of kickback through the steering wheel on tigher bends. If you have been brought up on modern power steering cars then all this will feel quite different. It feels more unstable that the Octy, but then it is about 400kg lighter! and more agile.

Brakes - anything after the over assisted set-up VAG uses feels poor. You don't get the quick reaction from newer cars brakes, but with only around 850kg to haul down you don't need much. This might sound strange but I am not one for using brakes that heavily. I don't drive that hard so I need to brake hard before a bend. I must be getting older. So I can't really give a good write up on this aspect.

I previously owned a 205 GTi 1.9, which I fitted a 160BHP Mi16 engine and the 1.6 GTi closer ratio gearbox combined with uprated suspension and 306 GTi-6 front calipers. Although it was great, it transformed the car. More power meant I needed better suspension, which changed the ride, stiffer engine mounts were needed etc etc. In someways it spoilt the car. It was not what Peugeot originally intended.

That is why I intend to keep this 106 Rallye original. Plus there does not seem that many left in the original condition.

Overall I am pleased with buying the Rallye. It is very different from the Octy. There is more of an occasion driving it. But when the roads are cold & wet, I know which car I would take. The Octy; heated seats, ESP & cruise. No competition.

Thanks,

Sean.

nice review.... these cars rock (indeed the other "rallye" models they did too!) this is , as you say, raw thrills...

you don't need speed to have a really good drive, look at the MX5! they deliberatley dont have massive grip, to aid the "fun" of the handling

!

lol.... fun , cheap, easy to repair, ect ect ...

enjoy your car

nice review.... these cars rock (indeed the other "rallye" models they did too!) this is , as you say, raw thrills...

you don't need speed to have a really good drive, look at the MX5! they deliberatley dont have massive grip, to aid the "fun" of the handling

!

lol.... fun , cheap, easy to repair, ect ect ...

enjoy your car

there's one for sale on autotrader, but its been slammed to the floor, looks stupid, and will be pants in the corners bouncing around like a mad kangaroo....

there's a 306 rallye on there looking in much better original condition

Always had a massive soft spot for Pug's old hot hatches. Last decent one they did was the 206 180. Enjoy your Rallye, they're getting rare. Would love a 306 Rallye one day.

I am really jealous of you. I really hankered after one of these in my late teens as i loved the concept: stripped out, light, simple screamer of an engine. It is like the original Mini Cooper, the Fiat Abarths and the Renault Gordinis. I went on to own a 1.1 litre 106 which went very well indeed for the engine size so this must be an absolute hoot. Where did you source such a clean and original car and how much did you pay may i ask? I would have thought there are precious few in this condition as there can't have been many brought in and the majority of those around have probably fallen into the hands of boy racers and wrecked and generally ****ed about with as Sharkrider says so you have been very lucky. That is a modern classic you have there.

Edited 12 May, 201214 yr by Matt Bodycombe

Thanks for the comments guys.

Yes I don't have any connections with Cooper/Abarth/Gordini. I appreciate that they are great cars, they just don't 'do it for me'. I had a few Peugeot links in my younger years, which left an impression. I had a Peugeot 'Lynx' mountain bike back in the day when mountain bikes were first coming out (would have has a 'normal' bike but dad said the wheels would buckle riding down the bumpy lane!).

And my grandad had a Peugeot 405 1.8 8V petrol, and I have memories of him bombing it about in 1995. I ended up buying it off him many years later. I sold my 206 GTi (underated car) for it! It was in excellent condition and only had 46K on the clock. Air-Con was amazing and it was NEVER serviced (air-con that is) just regularly used. I sold it 5 years later with I think 82K on the clock.

:think: I know this is BRISKODA but my heart is with Peugeot :love:

To me the Octy is sort of a modern Pug 405. Mine had a rear spoiler just like the Octy has. Thankfully the Octy is a hatch so I can put more stuff in it!!

The 106 Rallye Register is the place to hunt for a Rallye, and a clean one might pop up. Prices can be £1k upwards. I paid closer to £2k. I did not bother spending ages hunting around, they are rare and I even had a 4-5 hour drive to get this one. Mine is well known on the forum and had many Rallye Register owners and had been looked after. The last owner spent around £2k on it in 3 years. There is one in the club with 25k miles on the clock, I think that one is No.1 in the UK.

I went for a drive last Sunday evening and it is great fun. There is quite a lot of clearance in the arches and it is not that low, so the suspension copes well with 'real world' twisty bumpy roads, which are around here. It is so involving, after my 25ish mile route I got home knackered. My brain was fried with gear changes, noise, steering input, revs, more revs and some braking.

And the main point of buying the car, 90% of all this fun is BELOW 60mph.

In the Octy when you get a 30-to-national speed limit it is 3rd gear-boost then almost straight into 5th. Not that involving or fun (but yes rapid, mid-range would just eat the Rallye). In the Rallye you drop it down from 4th to 2nd (box is nice and close so normal driving you use 4th gear at 30mph) and it is just fun fun fun getting to 60mph.

It is a difficult car to drive everyday because we have got used to luxuries and refinement. But with losing the 'raw' part a car you lose some of the fun, and then it only starts feeling fun at +60mph.

I laughed reading the new Subaru-Toyota as 'only' 215 wide tyres to give it less grip and more fun, umm Octy vRS has 205. Without cars getting a hell of a lot lighter we can't go back to narrow tyres and smaller wheels as we need the monster brakes to stop all that weight.

You can have fun without big BHP, as long as the car is designed with that in mind in the first place. Low BHP won't win wars in the the pub fight, but petrol heads will know where your coming from.

Sean.

I will keep my eye on the register and may join it as that is a lot of car for the money. I like the simple concept so it wouldn't bother me at all. I had a quick look at the register. Most of the cars for sale are sadly unoriginal (pimped and lowered crap with different wheels). I did see one original black car on there but it was a bit overpriced and looked a bit scruffy. Oh well I'll keep looking.

I am with you on peugeots too, well 80s and 90s pugs anyway. They were known as having the best ride/handling balance in the business. I loved my little 106 and put a lot of miles on it. it was very responsive and relaxed on the motorway for a 1.1 and would sail past a ton and was comfortable on a long run. Things went downhill I thing with the 207 and the 307 which were lardy, handled like crap and had feeble engines. I hear that the new Peugeot 208 may be the start of something better according to Autocar. It is 250 kg lighter than the 207 and is said to be best with the lightweight 82 bhp 1.2 litre triple ( which handles better and is actually quicker than the heavier 1.4 which is an old engine). At the top of the range there will be a 200 bhp turbo. Anyway it is said to be a sweet little car.

I also have a mk1 octy, although a pd130 boring daily, but have fitted a vrs front bumper, spoiler and wheels to make it look a bit less ... I also have an s1 rallye, I've had about 7/8 106 Rallyes in total and love them to bits, sometimes. Yours looks a minter though!

I bought a series 2 with the 1.6 engine new back in 96. They only built 400 choice of blue or white. I put 20k plus on mine before I sold it on for a zafira (kids....) I don't remember it having any problems