PEUGEOT 206 CC 2001 test drive - 2007 convertible

Chameleon

Miracles, and only! - The owner of the hotel in the Saint-Topze cringed from the autumn drizzling rain and looked from his black umbrella to the red small Peugeot. Half a minute ago it seemed that the driver of this convertible would get to the thread while reaching the garage. But the convertible suddenly in the blink of an eye turned into a compartment with a hard metal top ...
A man under an umbrella politely knocked out the window: Monsieur, is Peugeot now makes small SLK? And the tongue will turn to say this! Rather, on the contrary, the Germans stole the idea among the French!
65 years ago, Peugeot was really the first to come up with a chameleon who, before your eyes, turns from a compartment into a convertible. A full -fledged metal roof cleaning in the trunk appeared on the prototype 301 Eclipse. And from 1936 to 1938, they were produced by a small series of Peugeot 401 with an electric roof.
Yes, it turns out, everything is new - in some ways a good forgotten old one.
The last two years, the French drove their prototype of the Cabiolet Compass for Motor Show, studying consumer demand and at the same time scaring competitors with promises to sell a miniature masterpiece called Peugeot 206 CC for just a hundred thousand francs. However, what competitors? Nobody has done kids like this with functions. Therefore, there is no one to step on the corn.
Unless the guys from Daimlerchrysler will upset, and even then not very much. Their SLK is still a little in another weight category. For the money in charge of this Mercedes-Benz, you can buy two Peugeot CC, and go on vacation to the Saint-Trotz for surrender.
However, the French still did not meet one hundred thousand francs. Now the SS is sold for 108 thousand, that is, for about $ 15500: the car had to be originally equipped with an engine of 1.6 liters (110 hp), although it was expected that the ruler would begin with 1.4 liters.
Why did the designers require a 110-horsepower engine, and not more weak? The SS turned out to be 140 kg heavier than the usual 206th. The folding roof and additional strengthening of the body did their job. The SS turned out to be as heavy as a convertible based on Peugeot 306.
At the same time, stability and handling indicators were not affected. With or without a roof, the SS can compete with the most worthy of the Lviv family. It is almost impossible to disrupt the baby even on mountain serpentines and wet roads. A light pressure on the gas pedal at the exit of the turn increases the clutch of 16-inch wheels with a roadway.
The designers of the Cabiolet compartment were unlikely to sought to build a sports car, but the suspension nevertheless did it harder than that of the usual 206th. Yes, and the steering SS is felt as more acute. And if you work more to the gearbox, the 1.6 engine will seem quite tracted, although our chameleon is accelerated worse than the usual 206th with a 75-horsepower engine. For a rally start in the line of engines there is version 2.0 16V (138 hp).
However, it is worth the speedometer arrow to pass for 120 km/h, in the cabin of the Cabiolet compartment with any power unit, cacophony begins. Well, there are no miracles - a complex system of attaching the top still makes itself felt.
Well, let's open the roof? This is a small free show is better to produce with a large accumulation of the people in order to enjoy themselves and the reaction of others to enjoy. So, on the rack above the windshield, we unfasten two locks, press the button between the seats and ... all four glasses are lowered, the trunk lid rises, the top folds in half and crawls into the trunk, its lid closes. Finita!
The whole procedure takes exactly 30 seconds. True, the useful volume of the cargo compartment - 320 liters - is more than half reduced; The remaining is enough for two small suitcases.
One small detail: before using the serving of the roof folding, the curtain in the trunk should be pulled on a special mount - for that, it is likely that it is not accidentally damaged by the luggage of the electric drive mechanism. However, something is not thought out here. To pull the curtain, you need to open the trunk. Since this is done only with a key, it means that you need to drown out the engine. At the same time, the car itself, notice, opens from the key fob.
The cleaned roof does not detract from the comfort of being in a moving convertible. Due to the high location of the upper edge of the windshield in the cabin, you do not feel the stream of the runaway wind and large air turbulence. At least at a speed of up to 80 km/h you can not be afraid for the condition of your hairstyle. But after 110 km/h, without lifting the glasses, you will feel like a motorcyclist rushing without a helmet.
The proper comfort in the compartment compartment creates a sports type with developed lateral support. Moreover, the front seats are located 25 mm below the rear. The designers had to drown them to the floor to increase the windshield. The rear, of course, symbolic. It’s not only difficult to get there - it’s even more difficult to sit there for some fifteen minutes. But you don’t expect to get four full -fledged places in this baby, right? Here, even the pens of overturning the front seats seemed to be specially made uncomfortable. To use them less often.
Okay, the mother -in -law will go to the cottage in the train. But where, damn it, the reserve? No in the SS, do not look. Two cylinders with a special composition for the elimination of tire punctures are all that the winner of the chameleon has. Perhaps on European roads, with the service infrastructure there, this is enough, but we ...
Another observation: in a car with a hidden roof, the hardness of the body for twisting falls almost one and a half times. You feel it when the dashboard begins to tremble and creaks something in the doorway. However, in general, the convertible behaves with dignity. And on the autobahn he is simply magnificent! Unless the engine at high speeds is a little noisy - I remember that the same sore is observed in the usual 206th.
And yet, for some reason, I do not want to pay attention to some disadvantages. Designers of the company with honor solved the difficult task - to adapt the existing 206th to new requirements. And this is always more difficult than starting from scratch.
Someone, of course, had to sacrifice. The capacity of the trunk and the rear sofa - for the sake of the folding roof and aesthetics of the car. Dynamics - for the sake of handling and safety. But the game was worth the candle. Peugeot 206 CC, of \u200b\u200bcourse, is a kind of phenomenon.
Technical characteristics of Peugeot 206 CC 1.6
Body - Cabilet compartment
Number of places, people. - 2+2
Equipped mass, kg - 1140
Dimensions (length/width/height), mm - 3835/1673/1373
Base, mm - 2442
Maximum speed, km/h - 193
Acceleration time to 100 km/h, s - 11.2
Control consumption of fuel, l/100 km:
- City cycle - 9.5
- country cycle - 5.7
- Mixed cycle - 6.9
Engine:
- Type - gasoline., Row., 4 -cylinder.
- working volume, cm3 - 1587
- Power, L.S. at MIN -1 - 110/5750
- torque, NM at min -1 - 147/4000
- power supply - distributed injection
Transmission - mechanical, 5 -speed
Tire size - 185/55R15
Wheel suspension:
- Front - Nonsense., such as Mcpherson
- The rear - unenvalum., multi -winged.
Brakes:
- Front - disk, ventilation.
- rear - disk
Steering - rack, with an amplifier
Price, $ - 16000
Text: Andrey Bazarov

Source: Magazine 5 wheel [02/2001]