24 Jan 08
Product-planning chief Gilles Boussac is adamant that a production 308 RC Z should look like the concept car. 'It must be like this or it will be nonsense,' he declares, 'and the interior must be right. We can't sell it down the river with cheap materials.'
The interior is trimmed in stitched leather, as is optionally available on some current production Peugeots, but the dashboard is a regular 308 item. Family-car fascias sometimes spoil an otherwise glamorous coupe (the Alfa Brera/Spider and Peugeot's own 406 coupe are good examples), but the 308 dash with its round vents and simple, smooth styling has just the right degree of discretion and classicism. A central clock from Bell & Ross adds a touch of jewellery.
The seats look racy with their deep bolsters and shiny aluminium eyelets, like a Corbeau racing seat from the 70s. They are set low - the hip point is a hefty 6cm lower than in a normal 308 - which makes you feel snug and at one with the RC Z.
Under those muscular wheelarches the track is wider than a normal 308's, too, so all told there should be very little sensation of body roll. And so it proves, for this Peugeot corners with a precision and keenness we haven't experienced in a Peugeot since the 306 GTI-6 and Rallye.
