The Crazy 270bhp Peugeot RCZ You Won't Believe They're Building

If I told you Peugeot was building a 270bhp sports car with a Torsen mechanical limited-slip diff and a weight cut from the 197bhp version, you’d probably think I was high.

But you’d be wrong. This week at the Goodwood Festival of Speed the French lunatics are set to unveil the RCZ R; the most powerful production car the firm has ever made. It pushes out nearly 170bhp per litre at 6000rpm from a 1.6-litre engine with a turbo the size of a small moon.

Believe it or not that shunts the RCZ R to 62mph in 5.9 seconds and won’t stop pulling until it hits the electronic 155mph limiter. It will monster the standing kilometre in 25.4 seconds - not bad for a car made by purveyors of mostly rubbish shopping cars.

It’s got big torque, too. The front wheels have got to handle 243lb.ft (330Nm) of the stuff from 1900rpm to 5500rpm, and while we reckon that’ll make driving it hard something like trying to ride a bull after you’ve just flicked its testes with a wet towel, it also means it’ll overtake in a hurry - check out the 6.8-second 50-70mph time in top gear.

It’s even designed for track play. Peugeot says it’s taken steps to make sure it stands up to the punishment of being spanked around a circuit. The engine’s key components have been given a specific heat treatment to harden and reinforce them, and special forged pistons made from Formula 1-grade aluminium will draw tuners to the car like flies to a juicy steak with a light bulb in it. Mahle Motorsport had a big hand in developing the engine and making sure it delivers.

Fat 235-section tyres will give masses of grip, and despite that weighty Torsen diff Peugeot has chopped 17kg out of the car compared to the 197bhp RCZ. We can’t believe they’re building it, and we definitely can’t wait to drive it.