Small hot hatches, the really good ones that is, are all using turbocharged engines nowadays. The bad news is, there’s some lag, but the good news is you can tune them really easily. Ford even goes as far as offering Montune engine mods at its dealers for the Fiesta and Focus ST. The Peugeot 208 GTi doesn’t come with a factory power pack yet, but we found something just as good.
Our favorite little lion puts down 200 hp stock, but German tuning firm Clemens Motorsport, from Ulm, can bump that up a bit. The Stage 1 kit only plays with the ECU and is supposed to give you 220-225 PS for €750.
Stage 2 is where the real magic happens. You get 235 to 240 PS for €2,050, which brings everything from better cooling to better breathing for Peugeot’s 200 THP turbo engine. We caught up with the tuning project just as one car was being dynoed. Figures have risen to 236 PS and 350 Nm of torque, which is very impressive. There isn’t a single stock engine out there that gets that much torque from 1.6 liters.
Not surprisingly, the 208 GTI also sounds very good, thanks to a new exhaust system with double 70mm pipes which we love.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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