Drophead Drama Queen - Peugeot 307 CC WRC

Peugeot’s rally history goes a long way back. Most prominently, the glory days of Group B with the savage 205 T16, duking it out for glory against fierce competition from the likes of Lancia, Audi and Renault. Despite appearing slightly later than all these contemporaries, Peugeot had built a cracker of a car which practically dominated the scene until Lancia’s incredibly sophisticated Delta S4 came to wipe the floor with the rivals. Peugeot had seen what Audi had done with the implementation of an all-wheel drive system, and developed their own; instead putting the engine in the middle of the car, behind the driver to distribute the weight as evenly as possible. In the face of financial difficulties, the French company had pulled through and delivered an excellent car, with incredible traction and brilliant, well balanced handling to boot.

Fast forward nearly 20 years and the cunning Frenchies were still at it. Their machine in 2003 was the 206 WRC, a highly successful WRC-spec car which had been in use since 1999. The car had gifted Peugeot the manufacturer’s title not once, not twice, but three times in the span of its 5 year career (2000, 2001, 2002) and factory driver Marcus Grönholm the overall driver’s title in 2000 and 2002. As faithful as this steed had been, it was getting old and outdated, quickly as it happens in this line of racing. They needed a replacement.

With limited options, Peugeot had little choice but to switch to a much larger vehicle. The ideal choice would have been a 307 hatchback and this was the original prototype, but Peugeot wanted to shake up the rulebook a little by bringing a completely new type of car to compete with, keeping in line with their history of doing things a bit differently. In a decision made (unsurprisingly) by the Peugeot marketing department, the 307 CC was chosen to represent the company on the global stage.

The decision to run a convertible-bodied car really shook up the rulebook. It was a completely eligible car, exceeding the minimum vehicle dimensions, just unlikely to ever be a very good one as a result of the lack of structural rigidity in the CC.

The 2.0 litre engine in the road car (an XU7JP4, similar to the unit which powered the Citroën Xsara WRC and the 307’s father, the 206 WRC) had the wick turned up to 300hp with healthy assistance from a Garrett turbocharger. A Hewland 5-speed gearbox helped get that power into the road, although a 4-speed transmission was also homologated (for the first time in a WRC car) as the alternative transmission. The car was, as per typica with modern rally machines, four wheel drive with all three differentials being electronically controlled. Despite the FIA allowing plastic rear wings, the Flying Frog retained its ordinary steel ones to help stiffness; as much as possible was needed. The metal roof was welded in position and the electric motors in charge of moving the damn thing were removed, so in the end the car was more of a floppy coupe than a convertible.

Whilst not actually any more aerodynamic than the 206 it succeeded, the 307 was clearly one of the slipperiest cars to ever participate. With its comparatively low-slung roofline it could cut through the air better than anything it raced against.

The car started the 2004 season smoothly, with the #5 car of Marcus Grönholm and co-driver Timo Rautianinen netting a 4th at Monte Carlo, teammate Freddy Loix hot on their heels in the #6 Marlboro-mobile grasping 5th. At the second round of the season, Rally Sweden, Grönholm took home the first podium for the car, sitting in 2nd just behind Sébastien Loeb in his Xsara. Round 4 in New Zealand brought further success, with Grönholm yet another 2nd place finish for the big lion. Peugeot suffered a hiccup in Cyprus after Grönholm’s first place finish was disqualified thanks to a technical infringement.

The team’s success continued at the Acropolis with Finn number two Harri Rovanperä finishing the event on the podium; the first time for the #6 car. The very next outing at Turkey saw Grönholm to another helpful 2nd place, ahead of Petter Solberg’s 3rd placed Impreza.

Fast-forward to the 9th round of the season, the Neste Rally Finland, where the 307 would get its first legal win. Grönholm piloted the car to a fantastic 1st place on his home soil, beating 2nd placed Markko Märtin’s Focus by over half a minute on the 380km route.

At the Rally Deutschland of 2004, no Pugs would find their way onto the podium, though the #6 car driven by Cédric Robert would claim a decent 5th, with 307 #16 of Freddy Loix just behind him in 6th place. Tragedy would befall the #5 of Marcus Grönholm, who would crash out of the event and fail to finish.

Onto Japan, and Grönholm in the #5 car would bring it home just off the podium in 4th, 35 seconds off 3rd, not helped by a 10 second time penalty. Rovanperä would finish 6th, the two Peugeots sandwiching the Xsara of Carlos Sainz.

Wales was a poor weekend for the boys at Peugeot, with both the #5 and #15 cars out of the event due to accident damage. On the brighter side of things, Harri Rovanperä delivered his #6 machine in 6th place, 4 seconds down on François Duval’s 5th placed Ford Focus.

The rest of 2004 was much the same for the 307 squad, with the final two rounds being kinder to the drop-tops. At Catalunya, Grönholm took his car to another 2nd placed finish and Rovanperä did much the same in Australia for the Telstra Rally, rounding off the season in relatively good stead. Whilst on the face of things the cars hadn’t done too badly, in the end Peugeot walked home with a meagre 4th place in the 5-way contested manufacturers’ championship.

The revised driver list for 2005 consisted of new faces Markko Märtin and Nicolas Bernardi joining Grönholm, Sebastian Lindholm and Daniel Carsson from 2004. From the get-go the car seemed more competitive, with Markko Märtin claiming 2nd position in round 2 and Grönholm continuing on from this, finishing 2nd twice more in rounds 3 and 4 in Mexico and New Zealand respectively.

Things were ultimately looking up for the team, with Märtin and Grönholm being the main points scorers. In rounds 5-10, Grönholm claimed a further 2nd in Argentina, two 3rds in Turkey and Sardinia and at long last, another win, again at the Neste Rally in Finland.

New to the team, maybe, but that meant nothing in terms of Märtin’s driving skill. He brought his #8 machine home in 3rd in Cyprus and again in Finland, putting two 307s on the podium for the first (and last) time in the car’s manufacturer-backed career.

Grönholm rounded off the very Gallic podium in Germany, behind two Citroën Xsaras.

Round 12 of the 2005 season took place in Wales, and proved just how dangerous rallying, and motorsport in general can really be. Markko Märtin was set for a fast time at the classic venue, when in the final leg of the route he lost control of his car. It speared off-course, right side smashing into a tree, tragically killing his co-driver Michael Park instantly. This was the first death in the world rally championship for over 10 years. The duo had been partners in rallying since 2000 and for Park to lose his life in such a way was harrowing for all those around him. Märtin famously said after the crash, “He wasn’t my co-driver, I was his pilot.” As of that day, the 18th of September 2005, Markko Märtin has been retired from top-level rallying.

In Japan for round 13 of the championship, Grönholm brought the car home in first, the 3rd time he and the car had been on the top step. The final 3 rounds were less successful for the team, with no 307 finding its way onto the podium again in 2005.

2005 had gone much more successfully for the team in terms of points, with Peugeot finishing in a much more comfortable 2nd place for the manufacturers’ championship, with Citroën taking the title again. In the drivers’ championship, Grönholm had managed to find himself in 3rd overall, with teammate Markko Märtin holding onto a top five spot even after his retirement due to the tragic accident. Harri Rovanperä ended up in a not-too-shabby 6th, too.

After the 2005 season, the decision was made to pull the plug on both Peugeot’s and Citroën’s factory rally teams, and as a result the 307s were run in later years by a smaller team by the name of OMV Peugeot Norway World Rally Team to varying levels of success, never quite matching the factory team’s run with the cars.

The 307 CC WRC was a delightfully bonkers idea turned into a reality. The story behind the car proves reasonable success (in its WRC career, ending in 2010, it scored 3 wins and 23 podium finishes), though the Park incident shows just how unsafe motorsport can be, especially at the top level of professional competition. As both the first and last convertible-based car to run in the series, it has a distinct originality and unshakable cool factor, even abkbe other rally cars of its day, which simply cannot be ignored.

#blogpost