Well. You probably thought I dropped off the face of the Earth! I've been really really busy recently with work and other things. I'm not sure I'm going to be doing much more over the next little while either!

My 206GTI is doing well. I've now done over 4200km. The car's loosened up considerably. I drove it to Melbourne and back (a round trip over about 1700km) and it was great! Lots of torque to zip past people! The fuel economy has improved, which is good as petrol prices are getting high ($AUS0.95/per litre for 98 Octane). I'm not sure I like the softness of the suspension, it's a little wierd going around corners at speed. Changing into 1st/2nd gear when cold isn't great either! The car is lovely to drive though.

The 2001 GTI has been released. It has better seats, and that's about all the difference I'd care about. Check some pictures out here or more directly here.

Technical Note:

Tire pressure is important. Specifically, making sure that all tires are at the right levels is critical. Car racing teams spend a lot of time getting it right. Being a light car the 206GTI is sensitive to tire pressures. I had a problem with too much torque steer with the car, so I checked with my tire pressure gauge (get a good one, Motorcycle shops often have good ones for the air shocks on bikes). There was a 4 PSI difference across the front tires. Fixing this improved performance and handling a lot.

I feel a bit bad that I've gotten my car and not said anything about it having had it for 9 days, but I've been busy writing reports at work, so I haven't felt like writing much else.

The car is great. Haven't got used to front wheel drive yet, but getting there. I love the torquey engine, pulls easily in any gear. I've been trying to keep it to under 4000rpm whilst it's new, but I've rev'ed it to 5000rpm a few times and it's GREAT!.

The weather here has been pretty bad (for Adelaide), so I haven't done as much driving as I'd hoped - only 600km so far. I drove to Collingrove today, which is the local Hillclimb to watch everyone else go up the hill! It was a great trip, the car did it well.

The only down side so far is that the CD Player stopped working. A new one is on order, so hopefully it'll arrive soon. The service manager was great to deal with, so I'm happy with the post sales service so far.

More soon ...

5 months, 2 weeks, 2 days and now it's mine. More later. Off to have fun.

I've been very busy with work etc so I haven't done much in the way of updating the site. I was hoping the dealer was going to ring me last week telling me when it's arriving, but he didn't - hopefully this week. He said he'd ring 7 to 10 days before it arrived, and that it'd arrive end of May. I hope that doesn't mean early June - but given a lot of people seem to get their car early in the month I suspect that's what'll happen.

Jim from HK has done it again - he's produced a wonderful and complete review of the K&N 57i kit! Thanks Jim. Go and check out the full review NOW! The kit seems reasonably priced - as I figure it it seems to be about AUS$350 including shipping (or so).

Jim in his review mentions a GTECHpro. This is a cool little gadget (I've had one for almost 2 years). Essentially it's an accelerometer that will calculate things like 0-100km/hr (or 0-60Mph) times as well as standing 400m (1/4 Mile) and power at the rear wheels. A lot of places sell them but the webpage is: http://www.GTECHPro.com.

Thanks to Jim from HK again! I've taken a series of his messages about his install of the K&N 57i Induction kit and put it into a review. Look under "Owners Reviews".

Hopefully I should hear about the exact day my car arrives next week! Can't wait.

And then I got a call today to say, in fact my car IS arriving late May! Yay! Much happier!

The not good news. My car arrives late JUNE, not MAY. Apparently somehow I MISUNDERSTOOD. Grr. Bit upset.

Oops! I misconfigured my mailserver a couple of days ago, and broke 206gti.net - if you've tried to send me mail and got a wierd message recently, please try again! (or use mmc@mmc.com.au) Sorry!

Have a look at this URL: http://www.superchips.dk/effekt/auto/effekt_206gti.htm. It's the torque and power curves for the 206GTI at the front wheels with and without a K&N 57i kit.

Why is this interesting? Well, this is the figure at the front wheels, not at the flywheel (which is what Peugeot quote for the engine, which is 137 DIN HP). So, have a look at the peak power which is a small spike at around 6400rpm (on the standard unmodified car). This shows it to be around 132 HP. Normally, you allow 15% loss through the drive train. Which means the engine is doing about 152 HP at the flywheel. Which is 15HP more than Peugeot figure. Interesting.

A number of people I've seen have commented on the fact that the car seems to be more powerful than Peugeot quote. The reason most often quoted is to keep the cost of insurance of the whole 206 range down. Might be to differentiate it more from the 306GTI-6.

May! Should arrive this month.

Check out Russell's review of his now 5000km old Australian 206GTI - great review, very detailed, answered questions _I_ hadn't thought of yet! Worth the read. Thanks Russell!

For the Australian readers who maybe interested in the Rallying - especially the 206WRCs this page on Autospeed has the TV times for Channel 10.

Last day of April - Car is meant to arrive in May. I can barely wait.

If you want to see a video clip of what NOT to do to a 206 WRC then check this URL of Panizzi rolling one in testing before the Corsica '99 rally: this.

Sony UK answered my email regarding why they don't have any information on connecting headunits to the 206. However, all it said was that I didn't live in the UK so they couldn't answer my question!

Another owner's review, this time from Jim in Hong Kong, check over on the right. Thanks Jim!

Well, I hope you all had a good Easter break (we had a 5 day holiday in Australia due to an extra public holiday). I hope you got through it safely and if you have your 206 that you had a great time driving it.

I've added a page on Magazine articles that are not on the web and some basic facts from the article (specifically the 0-100km/hr times). If you know of any more then please email me with the details.

Also, if you have a 206GTI then how about writing a quick (or not so quick) review on it for the website. I want to give potential 206GTI owners the most well rounded view on the cars. Include things like your dealer experience, any problems, good points about the car, things you've found out about it (like that on RHD cars the bonnet release is on the left!). Email mail me and I'll put it up with credit to you.

Happy Easter! I've found an interesting page on NineMSN's Carpoint Site with a whole lot of pics of the 206GTI, espically a good one of the interior (dash) and the engine. Have a look here. I've also updated a few of the links especially under "Reviews".

Been busy, so no updates for a while I'm sorry. I've heard from a couple more people around Australia who've got their GTIs. Mines (hopefully) less than 6 weeks away ..

Found a URL for Pipercross who also make an induction kit for the 206GTI. Their webpage is quite useless though (no content). Wildgust (see his review on the right) seems to be trying to get a page of common 206 problems together (most seem related to paint and trim, stereo and some squeaks).

If you want to watch some discussions regarding 206GTI's I recommend the Yahoo! 206 club (see on the right) as we're having some interesting discussions about 206's, especially getting parts when you're outside of the UK.

Six weeks .. Will I cope?

Peugeot are definately doing well in Australia, but 206 supply is still a problem. Look at their media release here.

Peugeot are doing well in the World Rally competition (three 206WRCs in the top 10) but not so well in the F1 with Prost. At least the F1 problems sound like non-engine problems (hydraulics).

I've done some minor updating on the site, mainly moving some of the links around. I'll rewrite some of the performance stuff as it could probably be better explained.

My car is still a while off. Seven weeks if it arrives before the end of May. Taylors have the order number (which I forgot to get) but apparently dealers only get a monthly update so they don't know if my car has been built yet

I'm starting to put more content other than the main page on. Look under "Ownership" and "Reviews". Thanks to Andrew MacPherson for his detailed information on his newly arrived 206GTI. It's good to start understanding more about what we get in Australia. Some highlights: the stereo is a Eurovox (sigh) and the car only comes with 1 remote key. All important information and thinking about buying one (must go and order a second key).

Masafumi from Japan has emailed me some details regarding Sony head units. Still digesting it, but I'll post soon. Thanks Masafumi-san!

I started to try and gather some information together about owning and modifying 206GTIs. I've started to put together some information about 206GTI stereos (have a look under Ownership on the right) and on taking delivery of your new car. If you've got any more info, please email me and I'll included it ASAP.

Rebookmarking time. I've changed this site to it's own domain: 206gti.net. Geeky huh?

Ah, April. Now my car arrives NEXT month. I finally tracked down a URL for L.A.D. Motorsport. See under "Performance".

Went to the Adelaide Motorshow last night, courtesy of Taylor's Peugeot. They had a 206GTI just like mine will be. They wouldn't give me the keys :-). Peugeot people on the stand were very nice, I got a nice little Puegeot carry bag with stuff in it. Had a look around at other cars. So many generic cars with near identical styling, even worse than it has been (compared a Mazda 626 grill with a Maxima with a Toyota Prado with a Toyota Avalon recently). I still like the Peugeot 406 Coupe - it'd make a great crusing car.

Saw a darkish blue 206 (not GTI) on the way home, that takes the number I've seen to 4 on the road in Adelaide.

Yellow Pages Automotive News have a bit about new Peugeot Models for Australia here.

Found a 206GTI review by an owner. See over in the list of reviews. It's a nice Black one.

If you goto the Yahoo! 206 club (see over in the links column on the right) there have been some discussions about K&N 57i Filters. Apparently one place in the UK is taking orders, but it looks like it's still under development. Haven't seen a chip for the 206GTI either. Superchips in Denmark have something about it but I don't read Danish, so I'm not quite sure what it all means? (Can someone translate it?)

I've been busy, so nothing much has been happening on the car front. The Adelaide Motorshow is on. Michael from Taylors said there's a silver gti there, but no it's not mine - it's a Peugeot owned car! There's apparently a 206GTI at a Biotech company west of Adelaide, I was in their carpark today (they're a customer, I wasn't stalking, honest) but I couldn't see it. If you're that person, drop me an email.

Well, the 206WRCs did well in Portugal - second and fifth, second only by 6.5 to Burns in the Imprezza. Prost-Peugeot not so crash hot in the GP!

The Swiss Peugeot Club have some pictures from the Geneva Motorshow of the WRC and the 206 convertible as well as the 607 etc. Go look here.

Also, MotorSport have a bit regarding the 206WRC in Rally of Portugal here.

Interesting day, a few changes. I watched the Australian F1 GP today, Prost Peugeot didn't do too well, but then again neither did a lot of teams. I hope they build better road car engines. I've added an Australian Peugeot news section at the end, it's grabbed from Autoweb.com.au, I hope they don't mind. I've also had two people in Australia email me telling me they're getting GTI's too! One from Sydney (Hi David!) and one from Perth (Hi Glen (I think)!).

I've added a few more links. Still haven't heard from anyone in Australia with a 206GTI. Lots of people looking at this site though. Mostly from Europe (Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden). Oh and I've changed the look of the page.

Well, after paying the deposit I discovered that South Australia is getting 1 (yes one) 206 GTI in the April build. Five (5) 206's in total. Scary. Late May is the best I can hope for in terms of delivery time.

Great things happening. I've created a mailing list (see below) on egroups.com and the dealer (Mike Silvy from Taylors) rang to say the car will be built in April. So at least I know it's coming! (I ordered about Jan 10!).

27/2/2000

I've added a few more links. Hopefully it's only 80 days until the Pug arrives. Anyone wanna buy a Mazda MX5?

22/2/2000

Well. I'm buying a Peugeot 206 GTI. Hopefully it'll arrive in May sometime after being built in England in April. Was meant to be in March, but apparently according to Taylors (our local dealer here in SA) Australia didn't receive ANY 206 GTI's in the March build. Oh. It'll be Platinum. Just like the one above! I haven't found much in the way of mailing lists or web pages for the car yet. If you have or are buying or are seriously interested in the 206GTI then drop me a line and I'll set up a mailing list for us all.