Let’s suspend our rules of engagement at GCFSB for a post and look towards Germany’s western neighbor, France. While we write up a Swede from time to time, it’s not often that French cars make our blog. But since the Franks, who established rule over France under the Merovingians in the late 400s, were actually a Germanic tribe, let’s make an exception and consider this listing. Being a fan of European cars, it’s not often that I get stumped by one – but in my normal searches I came across the front end of what appeared, at first, to be a Peugeot 205 GTI. The 205 is perhaps the car that out-GTI’d the original GTi, better handling, awesome looks and more speed meant it’s become as legendary as the car credited with starting the market segment. But it didn’t look quite right, and a closer inspection revealed it was in fact the bigger brother of the 205; the 309. In GTI trim, they mimicked the recipe started by Volkswagen; turn up the engine, lower the suspension, fit larger alloys and of course stick red accents and “GTI” badges everywhere. Producing 120 horsepower and with low weight, these were fairly potent hatchbacks in their day:
