Peugeot 207 Review

Peugeot 207 Review

The 207 GT is the latest in Peugeot’s, renowned, ‘hot-hatch’ portfolio. This one however, is a little bit different as it is the first to feature and engine developed in collaboration between PSA Peugeot Citroen and BMW.

The idea of the partnership was to bring together the engine design and manufacturing skills of both companies with the resultant 1.6-litre unit being built in a PSA facility in France. The goal was to design and build a relatively small engine that compared favourably with a 2.0-litre unit, produced a high torque output from low down in the rev-range, it had to be compact and lightweight in order to fit into small vehicles and, of course, offer good fuel consumption and reduced emissions.

With their thinking caps on, the partnership came up with a direct-injection petrol unit with high-pressure, twin-scroll turbo charging. The engine, which will be used elsewhere in the future, was labelled the EP6DT but that doesn’t exactly trip of the tongue, so we will know it as the THP or Turbo High Pressure engine.

At the moment, the 207 GT is the only vehicle to have the new power plant but look out for an even sportier 207 later in the year. For now, the THP 150 produces, as the nomenclature suggests, 150bhp at 5,800rpm and 240Nm (177 lb ft) of torque between a diesel-like 1,400 and 3,500rpm. Low-down torque is good but at an even lower engine speed of 1,000rpm there is already 157Nm (116 lb ft) available, while at the other end of the peak torque envelope, this 4-cylinder engine is still producing over 207Nm (153 lb ft) at 5,000rpm.

Peugeot 207