As a long time rally fan with a huge admiration for several of the greats, namely Messrs McCrae and Vatanen, along with their weapons of choice, this idea has been a long time coming. Is their anything cooler than a rallyesque 205 that shifts like an Impreza? Well, this side of a genuine Group B hell-beast at least. If there is, we want to see it.
Thanks to our friend Keith (KB_S1) picking up a new toy, his previous faithful wagon was about to head for ebay. Couldn’t let that happen. So I kindly offered to house the car and break the spares from it. I’m nice like that. List as follows : doors, bonnet, wings, lights, interior, dash, windscreen, roof and several kgs of chassis. All thats remaining will be engine, gearbox, steering column, floorpan and suspension. Bit floppy if we left it like that.
Enter the 205TD. I bought this last year to scoot about in. ÂŁ350 and it went bang a month later. Cest la vie. The shell is good and the interior is a very mint half leather phase 2 gti. I have a history with 205s, which you can read about in our forthcoming article. They really get under your skin. Long and short of it, I love the shape. So here’s Little Bastard’s new clothes.
Some of you will be well ahead of us now but for those still not sure, this is what’s known as a re-body. Impreza underneath, 205 on the outside. Before you scream cut n shut, when this is done correctly it will be much stronger than either of the original cars. There are a couple of issues and I’ll be laying things bare as we go, warts an all, in future instalments.
Biggest issue is that the Impreza base is 100mm longer than the 205. This will require some careful measuring, jigging, cutting and welding, a new prop shaft and modified fuel and brake lines. Compared to attempting to realign the running gear on the 205 chassis, I feel this is the way forward.
The front and rear track will also be much wider, which will require custom box arches. Polo WRC anyone?
Full cage to strengthen the lot up.
So in the words of Han Solo, “Here goes nuthin!”
If you’ve got any ideas for me then tell me HERE.
