24 Jan 08
Not the RC Z, though. It really does have a 218bhp engine, achieved by adding a second intercooler that allows it to run at a higher boost pressure without detonating. So this is a concept car that actually works and Peugeot has even computed its performance figures: 0-62mph in 7.0 seconds, 146mph all-out, just 160g/km CO2 (an extraordinary result, if true).
For Jean-Christophe Bolle-Reddat, the man whose magic engineerium converts concept-car ideas into working reality, it's a point of honour that the car actually does what it should do. His finest hour was probably the 907, for which he built a new V12 engine out of two V6s. It sounded like a Ferrari and felt as fast.
The RC Z, however, differs from the 907 by not being a flight of fancy. It was built as a production-feasible car and shown at Frankfurt to test public reaction. Its shape is the work of Boris Rheinmuller, chosen out of several proposals from the young designers at Peugeot-Citroën's design centre at Vélizy, just outside Paris.
The roof is the most striking part; made from carbon-fibre and supported by polished-aluminium hoops, it morphs into a double-bubble as it becomes the polycarbonate rear window. That's all very concept-car, but could the RC Z go into production like that?
'We can do the rear window in glass,' says Peugeot's design vice-chief, Keith Ryder. 'It would have slightly less of a double curve but the heating elements would emphasise the shape of the cross-section.'
It would have the carbon-fibre roof, too, as a reference to the 908 Le Mans car, and the aluminium roof-hoops would also stay, albeit no longer visible inside the cabin because of the need to incorporate airbags. The concept car uses giant pieces of machined aluminium, but it might be done a different way for production. What it will not have is mere paint: 'That would look very cheap,' says Ryder.
