Supercars often than not are cars with technology whether its exotic materials to an entire hardware such as drivetrain derived from lessons learned from racing. So what do you get when you take Peugeot’s menacing and successful Group B rally car without constricting any of its rally glory and transform it to a road legal supercar?
The end result is the Peugeot Quasar. A mid engined supercar concept based on the 205 T16 Group B rally car that won the WRC in 1985 and 1986. Unlike the homologated road going 205 T16, the Quasar delivers the full 600hp as in the rally car. What it doesn’t come with was a bare bone interior, the interior emphasis on comfort and future tech with leather on everything and cassette player along with digital gauge cluster and monitor in the middle of the dashboard that serves as sat nav.
The name Quasar refers to a large and compact section of a galaxy consists of many blackholes. Just like it’s reference to space, the exterior take inspiration from science fiction with a sleek and low profile, scissor doors, and tinted clear dome roof to give a cock-pit like effect that made it look like a spaceship. The exterior relied on a form follows function principle with the entire body shrink wraps around the chassis and any unnecessary design elements that’ll add girth like an engine cover and the whole rear fascia deleted to keep weight down and improve aerodynamic.
I find it a shame that Peugeot left the Quasar a fantasy that will only forever live in our dreams, because this could’ve been the perfect chance for the French to leave an impression in the supercar world stand up to the supercar empires of the kind like Ferrari and Porsche. Something that looks the part with performance and motorsport wins to back it up. But then again this won’t be the last time the French company tease us with what they could do and then shatter our hope of them becoming reality.
As for the Matchbox casting, there isn’t much I want to say other than it’s wonderful. This was a casting I’ve been after for quite some time and knowing what this car actually was just adds on my affection to it. I guess my only complaint is not with the casting, but what Matchbox did to it after this first release. Ugly recolors and then a super weird redesign that made it look like a car you see in Death Race from the future. Matchbox should’ve showed more respect this car.
I’ll be showcasing one more French Friday and hopefully I’ll b able to post it on time. Cheers.