First. Car. LIVE! #6: [Peugeot 206 GTI 180/RC] Rate it in the comments below.

14 Jun 2019

Intro: Well, the last one didn’t do so well because i suppose i exggerated a bit calling the Accord Type R a “first car”. It’s a bit too powerful for a first car, and i get it. I stepped it down a notch with something slightly more common.

Specs

Let’s begin with the most important part of a car, the heart and soul of it, the engine. The 206 RC has the EW10J4S engine. If it sounds familiar to you, it’s because it was used in the Citroen C4 VTS too. It’s one of the most optimized engines i’ve seen, clocking at 177HP and 202Nm, which, fun fact, it was marketed as having 180HP (if it actually makes a difference anyway). It’s a 2.0L inline-4 with 16 valves. Nothing really quirky, just well optimized.

Description

Launched in 1998, it quickly became a market hit, continuing to sell extremelly well, and even dethroning the Golf 4 in 2002 as the most sold car in Europe.
And just like the Golf 4, i know many people who had one as their first car.
Another quirky fact is that the 206 CC RC-Line had a slightly different look to the actual RC, with a different grille and other minor differences.
And being sold so well, it even got a facelift in 2009, the 206+, which was produced until 2013. That makes 15 years of production, which is just amazing.

Mods

The only mods i’d do to this would be a 4-2-1 exhaust, a performance air intake a free flow exhaust and a chiptune.
There is no need to go overboard, especially on a first car that’s also this well optimized from factory. In the end it should have around 210-220HP, which is my sweet spot.
I like N/A cars with 100HP/L or more.

Budget

This should not cost more than 2000€.
The car is cheap, the mods are cheap.
And it’s already really good from factory.

Conclusion

It was the most sold car in Europe in 2002, it was produced for 15 years and it was very well optimized.
Had its fair share of issues, but nothing too extreme.
It was sold so well for a reason. Because it was good.