Good things come in small packages, so they say, so we decided to take a look at three small cars that pack a lot of punch!
1999 Peugeot 106 Rallye €2,000
?
The 106 GTi was a marvellous little hot hatch in the 1990s and the Rallye was a lightweight, stripped out version that offered serious thrills for very little money. This version we found, is left-hand drive and is the Phase 2 version which means it has the 1.6-litre petrol engine and we reckon this car would be great as a little fun runabout or indeed if you fancied a car to bring to track days then you couldn’t really find too many cars more fun for the money. Of course it isn’t necessarily a sensible buy, but this would be a really fun car to own. This one has been converted to have the 16v engine from a Citroen Saxo VTS and the gearbox to match.?
?
Another Peugeot, but this time it is the slightly larger 206 GTi. The 206 GTi had 134hp and a brilliant little chassis so is an absolute hoot to drive. This car was also really well equipped and featured things like air conditioning, leather upholstery and a 6-CD changer. This one we found has done just 80,000 miles in ten years and looks on the surface anyway to have been pretty well minded. Obviously when buying anything like this, even though it does appear to be good value, it would be worth having a check to see it is kosher, so a Cartell.ie report would be prudent.
2001 Renault Clio RenaultSport 172
This was one of the best hot hatchbacks around and an absolute hoot to drive. It was the third Clio from the Renaultsport division following on from the Clio 16V and Clio Williams. This car was released in 1999 and features wider arches, different bumpers and 15” OZ alloy wheels. The engine was superb, a 2.0-litre with 167hp. Later models such as this got larger alloy wheels and this one is an absolute gem The interior looks like it could be tidied up a bit but otherwise this will be a future classic.