What's Your First 205 Memory?

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

Hi All

 

Just wondering what everyones first 205 related memory is? It could turn into an interesting topic.

 

Mines a bit crap, I was about 14 and a friend of mine said he wanted a 205 for his first car, I couldn't picture one so another mate pointed one out on the way home. I remember slagging it off for having square rear quarter windows because I thought it was pretty weird. The next memory I have is when I was 15 and my mate pointed out a Laser green gti saying it was the best colour and refered to it as Pistachio green.

 

See my stories were very crap but I'm sure you have much better ones

[rallyeash 155]

mines going out in a blokes laser green 205 1.6 gti who used to work with my dad when i was about 13, went around the local industrial estate. after that can also remember him getting a 6 speed 205 gti, but im pretty sure it was a mi16 with a gti6 box on although it was about 8 years ago and i didnt really know anything about cars..

[Jer309GTi 3]

Mine was helping to work on my old boss's 205 autograss racer when I was 16. It was a beast of a car . Then the next 205 memory is of being a passenger in boldy205's XS which I later went on to own too

[Leet205 48]

At the age of 10 sitting in the back seat of a phase 1.5 silver 1.6 Gti and thinking the carpet was a crazy colour.

[kate205gti 4]

i remember wanting one from about the age of 16, bought one as soon as I turned 18 and had one ever since pretty much (apart from a "mini phase" lol)

still have no idea why i wanted one or even how i knew what they looked like - all in my subconscious I think :s but wasnt disappointed

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

i remember reading an autocar magazine when i was 16, and reading an article about the best first car to own, and a 205XS was in the list... that planted the seed!

[GLPoomobile 958]

When I was about 13 or 14 (so circa '92) we went on a geography field trip to Bristol and we had to wander around the docklands where they had redeveloped it in to posh apartments. In the carpark there was a lairy purple Dimma kitted GTI (in truth though I don't remember if it was a Dimma or a 'T16' type of kit). A few of us were looking at it as it was an unusual sight, but I don't recall being particulalry taken with it.

 

A few years later in my late teens my next-door neighbour had a very tidy, stock 1.9 in Cherry Red. I still didn't really know anything about GTIs or have much interest in 205s, but I thought it looked really nice and often used to stare at it on his drive from my bedroom window.

 

Nearly ended up with a D reg GL as my first car, but we had to walk away upon inspection as the floor was totally rotten. I ended up with an Astra instead, and had a thing for GTEs for a while. Then got my first GTI when I was 21, on a whim, when I went to look at an Astra SXI and the guy had the GTI for sale too.

[JRL 14 1 Cars]

when I was young I thought why would someone want to own a car with so much cheap plastic on it. Then in my teens my girlfriends older brother had a chavved up one that I later bought, he ragged the cr*p out of it as I desperately tried to put my seat belt on. I thought it was the fastest car ever as I was only used to my mum driving me to school and I couldnt stop talking about it.

[Baz 421]

I'm an old skool Ford boy born & raised really, but when i was about 8, my dad and his mate/colleague did something that unknowingly spelt out my future of 205 ownership/obsession! They'd bought a red 205 as a toy after the fun they'd had rallying a previous Visa GTi. They had an Escort Mk1 rally car anyway but there was some reason behind it; i think they'd initially aimed to have a go at the 205 cup, but it changed to 106's in '93 ish or something!

 

I remember dad, despite his doubts of reasonably powerful FWD/Hot Hatch handling actually loved it proclaiming it made a mockery of the Escort XR/RS's, Astra GTE's etc that he'd based his opinion on. He was using it a fair bit which meant i experienced it and drove it a little/when i could as usual. They soon had a second one, in black, which i loved even more! Unfortunately i'm not really sure what actually happened to them, i think they were sold a few years later with the company.

 

Hence i was jealous when my friend & colleague when we worked at a Pug dealer at the time ('99ish) bought a mint '90 black 78k 1.6 that was traded in, a year or so later, he sold it, to me! It was my first road car when i got my license.

 

But i still want an Escort...

[madspikes 41 1 Cars]

I not sure what my first 205 memory was, but can remember my first proper dealing with a 205GTi. Back in 1996 I was doing a part time HNC at B'mouth uni, and one of guys on the course had a 1.9 with 'big ass wheels and lowered to the max'.. It was the max power era! One study session we went for a short drive.... a very rapid short drive, I don't think I've been so fast in a car again... including track days! I was totally hooked, and my 205 GT was never quite the same after that!

 

Oh, I also learnt to drive in 205 D-Turbo, the instructor use to get a new one ever year!

 

Mad

[Anthony 1,003]

Mine is from Alan_M (Miami 1.9 by this point I think) and Nick_R (GTi-S) hooning around Wales, sometime around 2001 or so on what I think was an Evo forum meet (the magazine, not the car). I have those two, Alan more so, to blame for everything that followed...

[Batfink 201]

Its a bit vague. I dont think I was really interested in them though maybe the first max power issues had a few. I remember a black supercharged dimma, the cossie van when these wide arched cars were all the rage. I was a bit of a Ford fan, thinking i could get a cosworth by 24. Started off with a choice of a Fiesta XR2 or Nova SR. I went for the fiesta and binned it before I could do an RS turbo conversion. We needed a car and got a 1.6 gti in white. That later got a 1.9 conversion after setting an average speed record between St. Albans and Stoke on trent and blowing its headgasket. That car died at highspeed and I have some nice scars from that but I was hooked and never looked back.

Funnily enough I found some old schoolwork from maybe aged 16 and there was a doodle of a dark 205 popping a flame out the exhaust. It looked uncannily like my mi16 on tb's I would later own so I think that was fate...

[mikeygulley 19 1 Cars]

Mine was when I was 15, my old man bought one it was a white phase 1 1600 gti. We drove it around the field a few times (he hammered the life out of it!) then took the stereo out and sold the car for £100 to his mate. The guy then took to his yard in the middle of nowhere and it was stolen 2 days later. I then forgot all about them until I was 18 and my mate bought a rallye and put all the gti trim on it, I told him it was naff and I wouldn't get one (jealousy I reckon), I then bought a 1600 gti about 2 weeks later! hahaha

[Richie 32]

My mom had a silver 205 Trio with green seatbelts. To be honest i didn't particularly like it, but my mom said it'd be good if my first car was a 205 because at the time my auntie and grandad had one too so they were sort of familiar to the family.

 

Anyway ended up with a J reg 1.1 GL, and really enjoyed it. On to 21 years old and it was between a brand new peugeot 206, or a 205 GTI 1.9. The idea of a brand new car was appealing, and my friends and family were encouraging me to get a new car but I started to become obsessed with the 205 gti without even driving one. Mostly from reading reviews and this forum.

 

Ended up with a LTD edition miami blue 1.9 with a rebuilt engine, and it felt like a rocket ship after my GL. I remember the drive back from Stockport to Birmingham and the power was pretty overwhelming.

 

I'm still here, and so is the grin.

[jonnygoodhand 0]

Mine would be around 84-85, when I was about 8. I doubt I would've taken much notice, but having an older brother who liked cars probably helped! We used to walk past a white 1.6 GTI on the way to school for a few years. Around 86-87, both 1.6 rear quarter badges mysteriously turned upside down. At the time, we used to joke that the owner was trying to convince people he'd bought the new 1.9 (9.1 ) version...

 

A few years later, around 92, my Dad bought a 1.9 GTI and it then stayed in the family for 14 years.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I would never of got into 205's if my brother hadn't bought a 205 van for about £200 from bristol as a run about car! This was only about 5 years ago then I bought it of him, and I always thought it looked so cool sitting on raptors and compared to all the 106's, saxo's, and clio's everyone else had it was amazing! I put a GTI interior in it and looking back thrashed the nuts of the 4spd I binned it down a very small country lane, then I bought the Rallye which destroyed all my friends cars. I had 5 205's now inbetween the Rallye being off the road! Pretty good going when I'v only had a license for 4 years

[Alan_M 66 1 Cars]

Mine is from Alan_M (Miami 1.9 by this point I think) and Nick_R (GTi-S) hooning around Wales, sometime around 2001 or so on what I think was an Evo forum meet (the magazine, not the car). I have those two, Alan more so, to blame for everything that followed...

 

Yep, remember that meet. Great roads and the wierdest pub ever! 'This pubs for local people'.......oh and the brekkie in Llanberis

 

Anyway, you're to blame for my recent lust of an E30. Thought I'd quashed it until you asked for those BBS wheels.....git. It'll be more-so if you take me for a spin in that 'hairdressers' car!

 

My first memory (I was about 14) was in a mates Dads 1.8 N/A diesel........initial thoughts were flimsy and s*ite. Wasn't until my mate (18yo) bought a silver E plate 1.6 GTi that an attraction started. I was going to buy it off him, when he traded up to a 328i Sport Avus, but it got nicked and wrapped around a lamppost in the local Reading ghetto (Whitley Wood). Spotted a mint red 1.6 J plate locally not long after, and the rest is history

 

How much longer it'll last I don't know.....it's Anthony's fault!

[TheLarneMan 4]

It was back in 1984 when I was ten. My mates brother bought a red GTI. We used to play football in the driveway beside the car (didn't go down too well with his brother!). My mate thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, but I wasn't impressed at all. There was something strange about those rear windows that put me off it (?) Weird.

[Tesstuff 222]

Mine was 1986 when I was coming back from playing football one Sunday lunchtime , driving my Mk1 Fiesta Xr2 and I was in a queue of traffic waiting for the dual carriageway ahead to overtake a slow wide vehicle when suddenly this Peugeot 205 Gti came past us all at rocket speed. Did the whole queue in one, total nutjob driving but it was race on to catch up with him and take a closer look.

 

Never could catch him so went straight to the dealership , Castles on Abbey Lane and went in to see the one on display, test drive an hour later, purchased two days later

Edited March 10, 2011 by Tesstuff

[SurGie 54]

For me, i used top be well into Fords like the XR2's, Escorts etc until 2002 when i had no car and needed one quick. I spotted a white 205 XS in the paper, i went to go and see it and for £300 it was a good car at the time. It had those rare rubber side strips that look like the gti type without the arches and i still have them . Before i bought the XS i had an XR2 and loved its handling until i went for a test drive in the XS and OMG i fell in love straight the way. I only went round the block as well and loved the handling and nimbleness of it.

 

Before i bought the XS i never even took much notice of 205's before

[jonnygoodhand 0]

I spotted a white 205 XS in the paper, i went to go and see it and for £300

 

£300 nine years ago was cracking value! Was it a TU or XY? I paid £1500 for my H Reg XS back in 2001.

[SurGie 54]

E reg TU, im sure it was that engine because it looked different to my current 1.4 XY GT. There was not much TAX left with a few months MOT but i kept it till 2005 when i got my J reg Miami blue 1.9. Back then i was not that wise with cars as i am now and wished i'd not scrapped it, iv still got the front valance somewhere though.

 

The picture is not great cause i took it from a paper type i didn't have a digitial camera back then VV

 

[C_W 3 1 Cars]

I think I went on those Welsh EVO meets in early 2000s that Alan_M and Anthony mention! From memory the weather and roads were ALWAYS perfect! Don't think in recent years I've ever done 500miles or so "runs" lol

 

 

But I think my first experience was when my brother bought a 1.9 in 1996 (later to be come mine for 12 years - although my uncle had a 1.6 a few years earlier, it just wasn't quite the same). I distinctly remember the smell of the "leather" interior and the pace just seemed effortless. After a quick run through 1/2/3/4 it was the first time I experienced the 2nd to 3rd gearchange - what I would describe as perfect gear ratios.

[shalmaneser 26]

E reg TU, im sure it was that engine because it looked different to my current 1.4 XY GT. There was not much TAX left with a few months MOT but i kept it till 2005 when i got my J reg Miami blue 1.9. Back then i was not that wise with cars as i am now and wished i'd not scrapped it, iv still got the front valance somewhere though.

 

The picture is not great cause i took it from a paper type i didn't have a digitial camera back then VV

 

 

Lol that grill is proper retro!

 

My first memory is walking past a white 1.6 gti on my way to school....10+ years ago now i guess!!!! Pretty much decided I wanted one then, and many years later here I am!

[u47sb2 27 2 Cars]

I was late in to the fold. Remember being in 6th yr at school and the first friend to get a car got a 205 (non-GTI). It was some sort of bronze colour, had a knackered rear beam and the front suspension was stupidly high.

Then for several years had no interest until 2008 when I went co-driving in a challenge spec one down in wales. I was desparate to get my own rally car at that time and when it came up for sale a few months later I stupidly bought it! It's been like Trigger's brrom since. But is fun to drive and I've since had a couple for the road for fun and am looking for another!!