PEUGEOT 206 CC 2001 test drive - 2007 convertible

The key to the heart

No photo will convey all the beauty of this machine. The lines then follow one of the other, then suddenly break off, forcing to think up the sequel. The forms are poured with elasticity, and even when the PEUGEOT 206 CC stands in place, the car remains in the car to the movement. Now, if at least for an hour to master these contours, with a slip to captivate them into a swift flight ... for an hour? - In the eyes of the owner of the car, a cunning spark flashed. And he handed us the key.

 

A little power exercises - we resolve wide (205/45ZR16) irons on the site, and - the pedal to the floor! However, stop, first - photographed. We extinguish emotions and roll out on a large road (how else to call Rublevka?) See you slowly. But you can get used to the interior. Everything is very familiar here and at the same time interesting. The architecture of the front panel, coverage of the steering wheel, drilled polished pedals and aluminum knob on the gear lever - from S16, brisk version of the 206th. But the white bucks of devices with a magic Jaeger in the core is already an echo of loud battles on Brooklands paving stones and the winding streets of Monaco: the company still supplied the MGs, compressor handsome Mercedes, ivory Bentley, in the distant 20th. Immediately in my head, the roar of engines and a squeak of rubber sounded in my head. Wait, wait, the PEUGEOT Cabilet Comprilet, and we walk your strengths!

 

If the roof is raised, you can forget which car you are in. Only a tall person will feel the lack of space above his head. Sound insulation at the hatchback level - despite the fact that the side glasses are deprived of the framework, and the roof is cut into segments. Capacity? When you sit in front, I don’t want to think about the rear sofa. You can’t want to go to the enemy at least five minutes on it - so closely. Here is an interesting detail - an oval hatch in the back. Under it is a deep well. For umbrellas? H.

 

Drivers of neighboring cars are all as one mowing on us ... Involuntarily recalls March 1998 - the Geneva car dealership. We stood at the PEUGEOT 20l Salad concept car and could not look at him. Of course, in details, the model of twenty hearts differed from the one in which we are going. There were polished metal bumpers, different shapes, purple, in a small cell, a salon, from a steering wheel with a red rim and a silver hub of eyes could not be taken away ...

 

Do not be offended by Peugeot: it is a pity, of course, that she did not produce a car in this performance - but there was a memory of a fairy tale. And then, with silver, the front panel would glance in the windshield. But from the Vingt Coeur in the serial machine, what makes it a full rival Mercedes Slk - at half the price ..

 

Then, in the 98th in Geneva, everyone picked up together: twenty hearts, twenty hearts! Everything was simpler, the 20L index is just a good PR move (in the postcards that the company previously sent out about the presentation of the hatchback, it was proposed to erase the heart after the number of 20 to find out the new product - as in a lottery ticket). But the reaction of the public prompted the second option for deciphering the SS index - not only Coupe -Cabriolet, but also Coup de Coeur - heart blow. (French, I must say, masters on such charades - remember the goddess Citroen ds.)

 

The roof was not cleaned. To press the key (located between the backs of the seats), the car spoke with a mosquito squeak of a bib. We returned constipation to their original position and tried again - to no avail. There were no instructions in the glove box, and we climbed into the trunk in the hope of finding it there. And they found the reason - the curtain fixed in the nests with electrical contacts: if it is not stretched, the contacts are open, and the roof will not go. There are pictograms on the curtain: it is impossible for the luggage to be protruding, it is forbidden to put anything on it.

 

The curtain is a fee for originality. It leaves only 150 out of 320 liters of full trunk capacity for use (in hatchback - 245 liters). Therefore, there is no spare wheel, in return two spray cans are offered - with compressed air and a special gel for branding holes.

 

I figured it out. We cut the time and repeat the operation. If you do not rush, it will take about 35 seconds for everything: first the glasses of the doors will drop out, then, having completed the complex steam, small sectors of additional windows will sink in the bowels of the sidewalls, after which, after eighteen seconds, the roof will move and hide into the trunk that opened towards the trunk. It happened! In a closed state, the Peugeot 206CC attacks potential buyers of Opel Tigra, in the open - owners of MGF. (We'll get to SLK.)

 

We begin to get acquainted with the running abilities of 206CC - \u200b\u200bwithout raising the roof. Having shot a steam with condensate from the exhaust pipe with a exhaust pipe, the car with a slip of the place is tearing from a place ... It takes a little more than 9 seconds to overcome the mark of 100 km/h at the Cabilet compartment. Its 2-liter engine (borrowed from the Peugeot 406), like most of the engines that meet the Norms of Euro 4, must be spilled up to 2.5-3 thousand revolutions from the first gear-otherwise the car will remain in place. Further, the motor shows the combat character, given that it has to pull not the 406th weighing 1425 kg, but the 1225-kilogram resort toy.

 

It was the resort - we were convinced of this, having hit the wheels in a brook of melt water. R -time - and we are showered with spray. We take out rags, begin to wipe the pretty tuned salon. Fortunately, he is leather. The turn of the glass is coming, and here we are faced with a funny feature - the washers sprinkle through it, treating us with a portion of isopropyl alcohol.

 

We close the roof, simultaneously checking the assumption expressed by someone that its mechanism is equipped with a fuse in case some part of the body holds into it. Nothing like this. We should not be stolen where we should not strongly advise - the mechanism does not stop, and its hydraulic pump is quite effective. But the designers were partly insured - so that the roof worked, the pressed key must be kept.

 

An important point: the roof is removed only when the car is in place, it can be raised at a speed of up to 10 km/h. For any reason, the roof can also be moved manually - for this, liquid is pulled from the hydraulic system (there is a key in the repair complex).

 

Turning a convertible into a compartment, we notice a change in the manner of passing turns. It became more acute, with a more obvious manifestation of demolition with increasing speed and with a sharper dawn in a turn during the discharge of gas. When passing the snake, you can, having caught the rhythm and playing the accelerator pedal, to argue the car. At the same time, the suspension configured in sporting holds the body from swinging. Okay, they sighed, and it will be - when hitting an obstacle, there is a risk of damaging luxurious spoilers and aprons, which were in 206ss from 206 S16. By the way, comparisons between them cannot be avoided - the one who has traveled to both will say that the Cabiolet compartment has a slightly less rigid suspension, and in everything else manifests itself softer. Most likely, engineers hoped that 206ss, unlike hot hatchbacks, would be more often used by ladies. In addition, the complex roof mechanism thus relieved of unnecessary stress. By the way, with sharp shifts of the steering wheel, she behaved quietly ...

 

So far, only Mercedes-Benz SLK 200K offers a similar roof solution. Not a competitor, can you say? Not certainly in that way. Let the Merce boost engine give out 163 hp. and 230 Nm, but this does not give a machine with a equipped mass of 1365 kg of special advantages in accelerated dynamics: 206 CC is less powerful, but easier. Slk 200k has 119 hp per ton of mass. and 168 Nm, and in 206 cc - 111 hp and 155 Nm. Adjusting to the driver’s skill, it is quite difficult to determine the difference between these machines on the open highway.

 

Of course, the absence of a rigidly fixed roof in 206 SS was compensated. Upper to the body was welded by the ugs, the racks were amplified by pipes inserted into them with walls with a thickness of as much as 4 mm. The thresholds, aprons and the back of the bottom became tougher. Given all this, Peugeot could proceed to the release of a Capriolet compartment at least HEULIEZ, which developed a roof-gloss for it, having received 30 patents. But no, 206 SS is produced on a thread in Muluz, where hatchbacks are also made. Heuliez only supplies a roof, which, incidentally, weighs 45 kg ...

 

Our 206 SS was equipped with a mechanical five -speed box - it would seem, what kind of machine can there be? But it turned out that there is a version with a 4-speed automatic transmission Proactive. As there is a machine with a 1.6 liter of 109 hp. and tires 185/55 R15.

 

Will the Cabiolet compartment take root in Russia? Its exciting appearance can force many. Another question is that our streets will become smoother and not cleaner soon. In any case, not earlier than the next heart model from Peugeot, some 207 SS ...

 

Text: Denis Orlov, Alexander Pikulenko

 
 
 

Source: Motor magazine [No. 5/2001]