1 Attachment(s)
Peugeot's hot new coupe RCZ-R
French car maker adds 194kW RCZ-R to local line-up.
Attachment 14065
Quote:
Peugeot is planning a fast and frugal double-sided attack on Australia next year with a hotter version of its RCZ coupe and a couple of hybrids. Their arrival will cap off a busy 12 months for the French car maker. The regular 208 hatch arrived in February, the GTi hot-hatch lands in July and the 2008 small SUV will be here by October, Peugeot has confirmed that it will add its most-powerful ever production car, the RCZ-R coupe, to its local line-up in 2014.
At the other end of the spectrum, it is also currently evaluating adding diesel hybrid variants of the 3008 SUV and 508 station wagon.
“The [RCZ-R] is confirmed to come to Australia although we don’t have confirmed timings or volumes as yet,” said Peugeot Australia managing director Bill Gillespie.
Advertisement
“We are currently negotiating with Automobiles Peugeot to secure the car for the Australian market. The RCZ-R will be produced in very limited numbers and will be highly sought after as a collector’s item.
“If we were allocated 20 a year we would be very happy given the world-wide demand.”
The RCZ-R is essentially a hand-built, hard-core variant of the classy coupe based on the racing version which competed in the Bathurst 12-hour earlier this year and in European endurance races at the Nurburgring. Its 1.6-litre turbo four has been wicked up to produce 194kW, giving it one of the highest specific outputs of any production engine, and a Torsen front diff has been added to ensure the extra power is transferred into traction rather than wheelspin.
It is expected the RCZ-R will command a reasonable premium over the $56,000 standard coupe with Peugeot hoping it can lock-in a showroom price of about $70,000, putting it in competition with the likes of the BMW M135i and Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG.
