Peugeot 208 T16 in the wild, at last

The long wait is over – Peugeot 208 T16 is ready for its competitive debut this weekend, in fact, if shakedowns count then the debut bit is already behind us. Peugeot Sport’s latest creation is a R5 specced rally car, built as a tribute to its famous ancestor, the legendary Peugeot 205 T16. This weekend in Italy Paolo Andreucci will take it for a competitive spin around Rally Ciocco stages. Later this year Peugeot 208 T16 will appear on stages once again and this time in a very serious hands and equally serious competition, not to mention the seriousness of the actual rally. The Greek round of the European Rally Championship is the famous Acropolis Rally and Peugeot 208 T16 will appear and rally there in the hands of Craig Breen and Kevin Abbring.

Peugeot’s official PR thing follows below, followed by a brief shakedown video. May your stage times be competitive, young one!

READY TO RALLY

The eagerly-awaited competition debut of the Peugeot Sport-designed and developed 208T16, successor to the 207 S2000, will take place this weekend. The new car will get its first chance to compete directly with rival machinery in the hands of Paolo Andreucci on Italy’s Rally Ciocco, in the colours of Peugeot Italy.

The 208T16 is ready for its first taste of competition!

“The new R5 class introduced by the FIA fits perfectly with today’s economic situation and with the call for real cost savings, including those relating to on-event budgets, ” underlines Peugeot Sport Director Bruno Famin.

“The 208 T16 is a strategically important flagship product for Peugeot Sport, especially this year which marks the 30th anniversary of the 205T16’s introduction! The delivery of the first car is just the first episode of what promises to be an exciting adventure.

“There is significant demand for the 208 T16 and our priority is to work closely with all our customers, whether they be subsidiary-backed or privateer teams, to help them win on all types of surface, with the 207 S2000 as our benchmark!”

22 orders

To date, Peugeot Sport has received 22 firm orders for the 208 T16: eight in Italy, five in France, three in the Czech Republic, two in Germany and one in Brazil, Denmark, Latvia and Belgium.

After the Rally Ciocco, another two 208 T16s are due to play leading roles in Greece later this month. The ERC round (March 28-30) will effectively be attended by two Peugeot Rally Academy representatives, namely Craig Breen (Ireland) and Kevin Abbring (Netherlands).

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