Is it a classic? Peugeot 307 CC

Peugeot 00s cars

The Peugeot 307 CC was an unlikely rally car. Drop-tops aren’t designed to go rallying; they’re less seat-of-your-pants racing and more wind-in-your-hair cruising. Cars for fans of big sunglasses, small dogs, long lunches and tanning salons. Sending a convertible into the WRC would be akin to building a wall using blancmange and custard, albeit with a messier outcome.

Away from the track, the 307 CC was an attempt to capitalise on the coupé-cabriolet craze, a market kickstarted by the Mercedes-Benz SLK and its fancy folding hardtop roof. Peugeot’s 206 CC was as pretty as the SLK, but also significantly cheaper, helping it to become Britain’s best-selling drop-top. In 2003, the CC represented 10 percent of all Peugeot 206 sales; small wonder Peugeot wanted to create a larger version to devour a bigger slice of the cabrio pie. Aside from the rear light clusters, which looked like a homage to the humble strawberry, the 307 CC’s most notable feature was, of course, its roof. Developed by CTS, at the time a subsidiary of Porsche, the roof could be opened or closed in 25 seconds flat at speeds up to 6mph. With apologies to the many songwriters of the DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince smash hit: Leanin’ to the side, but you can’t speed through, 6mph so everybody sees you. There’s an air of love and happiness, not to mention the smell of the number 48 bus, the whiff of the laundrette, the aroma of the sewage works and the sound of people shouting obscenities at you from the pavement. The joys of driving a cabrio in Britain.

For a while, Peugeot basked in the warm glow of the coupé-cabrio sales bubble. The 206 CC and 307 CC became the 207 CC and 308 CC, while the likes of Ford, Renault, Vauxhall and Volkswagen cashed in with different variations on a theme. It was all sunshine and rainbows until the bubble burst, when the fashionable sunseekers lost their lustre. Values plummeted as supply outstripped demand, making a coupé-cabrio one of the cheapest ways to go topless in the UK. Used cars with a complex electrically folding hardtop roof come with a warning to check the electrics and inspect the footwells and boot for dampness. There’s only so much a Little Trees air freshener can achieve when attempting to mask the lingering smell of wet carpet.

If you’re paddling in the footwells at the bottom of the cabriolet market, you might be looking for a reason to choose the 307 CC over, say, the Ford Focus CC or the Vauxhall Astra TwinTop. Maybe a little motor sport heritage could convince you select the Pug?

Peugeot’s rallying heritage speaks for itself. The 205 Turbo 16 and 206 WRC, which shared five manufacturer and four driver championships, are acknowledged as ground-breaking in their respective eras. There were plans to replace the 206 WRC – which won three consecutive titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002 – with a 307 hatchback, and a prototype was unveiled at the 2001 Frankfurt motor show. However, the development of the 307 CC presented an opportunity to create the world’s first – and almost certainly last – drop-top rally car. Production would exceed the minimum run for homologation purposes and its internal dimensions would meet the minimum required for Group A regulations. Turning the 206 into a WRC car was, according to Racecar Engineering, ‘a packaging nightmare’, to the extent that Peugeot Sport technical director, Michel Nandan, admitted that he would have preferred to have used the 306, then a current model. Using a larger car for the 2004 season would be most welcome. Regulation changes meant that a cabriolet bodyshell could, in theory, be valid as a WRC car, so Peugeot Sport pressed forward with a feasibility study.

The result was more coupé than coupé-cabriolet but no less ground-breaking. Having considered Peugeot’s application, the FIA decreed that the roof’s electric motor and mechanism could be discarded, but the pair of steel roof sections must be bolted together and mounted to the upper bars of the roll cage via brackets. Crucially, there must be no welded fixtures between roof and cage. The lengthy rear deck delivered an aerodynamic advantage over rival WRC cars, while a favourable upper to lower surface area ratio delivered other benefits. Power was sourced from a 2.0-litre engine producing 300bhp at 5250rpm and 390lb ft of torque at 3500rpm.

Peugeot finished fourth in 2004, with Marcus Grönholm (in car number 5) achieving a first place in Finland and four second-place finishes. Car number 6 finished second in Australia, but couldn’t replicate the relative success of Grönholm’s car. In the next year, Peugeot climbed to second in the manufacturers’ championship, with Grönholm winning in Finland and Japan. This was the last time the 307 CC competed as a works car; the OMV Peugeot Norway World Rally Team took the wheel in 2006. Peugeot withdrew from WRC to cut costs, making the 307 its competition swansong.

The 307 CC was to the WRC what the Volvo 850 Estate was to the BTCC. A left-field oddball that caught the eye thanks to a willingness to think outside the box. Few 307 CC buyers will be aware of the car’s links to world rallying, but it’s worth considering this: if the roof on the used example you’re looking at isn’t working, you can pretend that it’s welded shut as a homage to the 307 WRC. Just paint it red and call yourself Marcus.

This article first appeared in issue 16 of Classic.Retro.Modern. magazine.