The story of Peugeot's rallying giant

The security around Mortefontaine, north of Paris, was extremely tight. A box trailer held all the secrets, and only the very privileged few would be getting a look inside.

A couple of weeks later, the world was allowed to watch as Peugeot unveiled the full range of 205 road cars. Just down the road from the Paris Motor Show, outside Peugeot's headquarters, Roland Peugeot, Jean Boillot and Jean Todt laid out plans for another 205.

This is the one we're interested in.

The engine for this one would be behind the driver. And this one had drive going to the rear as well as front wheels. This one had a turbo and 16 valves. This one was called T16.

Predictably, there had been much talk of a Peugeot rally car for some time, but the finer details of the project were kept secret until this week, 31 years ago.

To call this project a final roll of the dice for Peugeot might be overdramatising the firm's position a little, but certainly things were not looking good for the French make. The cars were tired, dull and uninspired. The 205, it was hoped, would change that.

Like the rest of the world, Peugeot had watched in wonder as Audi's Quattro transformed the fortunes of the German marque. The French fancied a bit of that. So, before he'd even completed his time as a co-driver, Jean Todt was signed up as director of Peugeot Talbot Sport. Todt was, of course, well acquainted with PTS, and a month after he took complete charge he would finish second in the world championship with Guy Frequelin in a Sunbeam Lotus.

Test pilote Nicolas on T16's WRC debut, Corsica '84

On his new deal, Todt was told by Boillot what was riding on the T16. Talbot's involvement in the Matra side of Ligier's race-winning Formula 1 programme was pulled - any spare cash would be heading the way of the Group B 205.

As part of the restructure, one side of Peugeot's competition department would be closed, but Coventry was kept alive. Des O'Dell's input into the success of 1981 was well known by Todt - what wasn't so widely publicised was O'Dell's decision to syphon funds from the WRC pot to put towards a new car to be jointly developed by Talbot and Lotus.

The Horizon - codenamed Macho - came with a turbocharged 2.2-litre engine in the middle of the car and an O'Dell desire to see it homologated. It soon became apparent, however, that it was two driven wheels short of the future.

With funds found and the green light pushed, work on the T16 pushed ahead quickly. By June 1982 the styling of the car was completed by Peugeot's in-house team. A month later and a windtunnel confirmed those lines would work. By the end of the year, the initial five-speed transmission was complete and the first shell finished. Outwardly, the car looked complete.

In February, it was rolled out for the first time with the intention of completing some early filming for promotional purposes - the mechanics brought along a very, very long tow rope to make sure the car moved. But they needn't have feared: it went under its own steam. Once public confirmation of the project was delivered, the real work started - and it was all done behind closed doors.

As well as Peugeot's own test track at Mortefontaine, a gravel venue in Lardy - to the south of Paris - was located for the all-important dirt running. In July 1983, Peugeot arrived in Lardy for the first real look at how the car would work on the loose. It wasn't good.

The suspension needed a significant amount of beef adding to it and the transmission would be in need of a bit of a rethink too. It worked well enough on the asphalt but, when it was put under load with a chunk of torque, plenty of slip and some steering input, it was pinging driveshafts left, right and centre.

Vatanen on his way to victory in Monte Carlo in 1985 © LAT

The hard yards began. And an autumn outing for Jean-Pierre Nicolas, Peugeot's primary test-and-development driver for the car, showed there was still more to do.

Keen to stay under the radar while gauging the level of competitiveness, Nicolas was sent to Sarlat in the Dordogne to contest Trophee Piot, a memorial event for Jean-Francois Piot. A soaking wet October day left the rallycross venue inches deep in mud, which exposed Peugeot's primary problem perfectly.

"There was nothing, no power at all at the bottom end and not much at the top either," says Nicolas. "The power band was extremely narrow, which made it fairly useless, particularly when it was muddy and you needed consistent traction. In the end we finished second. We were quite happy with that, because we knew there was so much more to come once we had got the turbo sorted out. The rest of the car was working very well and actually we didn't want to make a big impression. So it worked well."

There's a vague possibility that Nicolas has pulled on the rose-tinted spectacles as he casts his mind back. The future of Peugeot Sport was beaten by a Citroen Visa Mille Piste driven by Philippe Wambergue, with a Tony Pond-wheeled Rover Vitesse (a machine not known for running well in deep mud) not far behind.

The initial powerband was between 5000 and 7000rpm, but that was only half the problem - such was the turbo lag, there was a danger that the event might have finished by the time the power arrived. Help was at hand. And it was just down the road.

Renault - with its recent sportscar and Formula 1 history - was a firm that clearly knew a thing or two about turbocharging in motorsport, so Peugeot hired the company's Jean-Pierre Boudy to sort that one out. Which he duly did.

What he couldn't do, however, was fix the car's handling. Transmission technology was very much in its infancy with the 205, and the effect of explosive power on the cornering habits of the car were a case of trial-and-error through the early part of the machine's development.

But, by the end of March 1984, Peugeot was ready for the man from FISA to come and have a look. Homologation was upon Peugeot. The team lined up 200 grey 205 T16s in a row, as Group B homologation required, Nicolas's Trophee Piot car among them. But then, alongside, were a further 20 cars all in white. These were the Evolution 1 cars. In total, Peugeot would build 242 T16s, including all the road cars and the T16 E2s.

Vatanen won in Sanremo in 1984 © LAT

The E1 - known simply as the 205 T16 - was ready to rally. And what better place than Corsica, that most French of islands?

Hearing that the 205 was coming, Audi hastened its own new car, and Walter Rohrl gave the Sport Quattro its debut in Ajaccio too. If ever there was a graphic demonstration of the pupil turning on the teacher, it was among those 1000 corners in the Mediterranean 30 years ago. Rohrl's Quattro suffered engine problems for the first seven stages before a piston finally put the thing out of its misery by making a bid for freedom on SS8. On the very same stage, Ari Vatanen moved his Peugeot into the lead.

The dream was delivered. Almost. Vatanen led until the first stage of the final morning, when he aquaplaned off the road and rolled. The car caught fire and was destroyed.

But what about the rocks and the rough stuff? The Acropolis Rally would surely put the young pretender in its place... No. Vatanen led again, but this time an oil-pump belt ruined his shot at victory in Greece.

The next one was the big one as far as the Finn was concerned: his home rally, the 1000 Lakes.

And this would be the biggest test yet of Peugeot's decision to run a transverse engine; the car had shown an unnerving tendency to nosedive over jumps courtesy of the weight distribution caused by the engine's placement.

Again, Peugeot's fears were allayed by a rampaging Vatanen, who flew the car fast and straight to score 31 stage wins and a two-minute victory over Markku Alen's Lancia 037. And so began a sensational run for the Finnish-flagged Peugeot. Ari survived the mother and father of all moments on the final morning of the Sanremo to take back-to-back wins, with an RAC Rally victory giving him the hat-trick (Peugeot skipped the Ivory Coast), despite rolling and losing a five-minute lead.

Into the new season and Vatanen just kept on winning, taking that most memorable fightback win on the 1985 Monte Carlo. Co-driver Terry Harryman checked them in four minutes early, costing them another five-minute advantage.

That left them three down on Rohrl's Quattro. Vatanen told Harryman to tighten his belts and read the notes like he'd never read them before. The pair got their heads down and hammered through the Alps to reel the hapless German in.

Kankkunen flies to victory in New Zealand '86 with the T16 E2

Sweden made it five straight wins for Vatanen. His countryman Timo Salonen had been signed in the close season and, when the championship leader faltered next time out in Portugal, Salonen picked up and carried on.

All the time the 205 T16 had been winning, the team had been working on a second evolution. This one came with a reworked head on the engine and more power from the turbo. At least another 150 horses were added to the 350bhp on offer from the original car.

Salonen gave the T16 E2 its first win in Greece on the Acropolis, before the 205 picked up its first one-two in New Zealand.

But then came disaster for Vatanen, who crashed heavily, rolling down a hillside in Argentina. He was seriously injured and out for the rest of the season. Salonen raced ahead and took the title, and the makes' championship went to Peugeot too.

Yet another Finn was drafted in as the youthful Juha Kankkunen signed for 1986. And Peugeot would need the blind speed and bravery he brought. The competition had caught up. Lancia's Delta S4 won on its debut on the 1985 RAC and Henri Toivonen made it two from two with a stunning Monte Carlo Rally victory the following January.

But then true disaster came in Corsica when Toivonen crashed his Delta off the road. He and co-driver Sergio Cresto both perished. Audi had seen enough and departed the sport, leaving the T16 E2 and the Delta S4 to battle out what would become an increasingly acrimonious season.

By the end of 1986, Peugeot's domination was complete. It had conquered Group B and done it with finesse. In an era of brute power and fury, the 205 T16 mated those with a beauty and all-round ability no other car could match.

While rallying turned to Group A, Todt turned Peugeot to the adventure of Africa and America, as ever-quicker 205s went on to win Dakar and Pikes Peak.

And the road car didn't too badly either.

There's additional Peugeot 205 T16 content in the February 27 issue of AUTOSPORT magazine, with the inside story of that late-1986 controversy and technical insight into this iconic car