7 Of The Planet's Coolest Cars Are In Fact Peugeots

Our latest long termer is this cracking little 208 GTi

We're hugely excited about the arrival of our new Peugeot 208 GTi long-termer here at CT. After a fair few years of iffy cars from the French manufacturer, it's good to see them making motors we actually want to buy. But let's not forget that Peugeot has made some incredible cars over the years. Here is our pick of the seven best we've seen from the brand:

1. 205 GTi

It seems fitting to kick off proceedings with what's probably the most iconic motor Peugeot has ever sold. The 205 GTi was, and still is, a masterclass of what a great hot hatchback should be. Unlike modern-day hot hatches, there's no clever electronics to save you when you balls up. This thing requires an attentive driver. But if you pay it the due diligence, you'll be rewarded in spades with an awesome drive. We wish they still made 'em like this.

2. RCZ

If you'd never heard of the RCZ, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's just another one of Peugeot's many crazy concept cars that never ended up seeing production. You'd be wrong. This genuine Audi TT rival is affordable, looks superb and is great to drive. Better yet, you'll soon be able to buy the stonking R version with 270bhp. More stuff like this please, Peugeot.

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3. 402 Eclipse

Source: auto-motor-und-sport.de

Peugeot was way ahead of its time when it started playing about with folding hard tops back in the 30s. Probably their finest effort was the achingly beautiful 402 Eclipse. The crude, cumbersome mechanism is a far cry from the uber-complicated folding tin tops we're used to these days, but back then this was cutting edge. The idea didn't really catch on at the time, most likely because it came a little too early for the technology to be good enough to properly pull it off. It'd be over half a century before we saw the idea used again on a mainstream production car.

4. 106 Rallye

Peugeot's dinky 106 may have been available with a GTi badge on the bootlid, but this is the one you should really want. The Rallye parts with pretty much all creature comforts to slash the weight and make the car all about the drive. Its peppy 1.3-litre (1.6 in the pictured S2 version), 4-pot delivers an eager 100bhp, and just begs to be thrashed.

5. 405 T16 Pikes Peak

We might be cheating a bit here by sneaking in something from Peugeot's legendary motorsport bods, but the bonkers 405 Pikes Peak car deserves honorable mention. Like all great cars designed to take on the world's most famous hill climb event, it looks like it was designed by an excitable 10-year-old, with its giant rear wing and front splitter. At the hands of Finnish rally ace Ari Vatanen this mid-engined, 600bhp monster smashed the Pikes Peak record in 1988. Ari's effort was documented in the awesome award-winning Climb Dance short film.

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6. 306 GTi-6

The iconic status of the 205 GTi means many forget about Peugeot's heroic 90s hot hatch effort, the 306 GTi-6. Until it recently started to churn out decent cars again, like the RCZ and 208 GTi, this was probably the last genuinely tempting motor to leave the doors of the Peugeot factory. Its 6-speed box was unheard of for the class at the time, and livened up what was always going to be a cracking car to drive.

7. 406 coupe

The 406 coupe may be showing its age a little now, but it's still a pretty car. It caused something of a stir when first released. The thought of being able to bag a car that looked that good for the price of a hum-drum family saloon seemed unbelievable. Like all Pugs of this era it's great to drive, and most importantly was available with Peugeot's lovely 3-litre V6.