What is a Peugeot 205 Si?

The Peugeot 205 is a supermini (B) produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1983 to 1998. It was declared "car of the decade" by CAR Magazine in 1990. It also won What Car?'s Car of the Year for 1984. The 205 was introduced on 25 February 1983 as a replacemement for the Peugeot 104 and Talbot Samba, and ended production in 1998, to be replaced by the Peugeot 206.¹

The 1.9l 205 GTi was launched in 1986 with the 1.9-litre XU9 engine, and was introduced into the Australian market in October 1987. The Peugeot 205 Si was released in Australia in November 1991, featuring a 65kW 1.6l XU5 engine with max torque of 132Nm and offered with either a 4-speed automatic or 5-speed manual transmission.² The 205 Si is a cross between an XS (dash, bumper, driving lights) and an 1.6i Auto (trim, engine) model.³

Peugeot 205 Si sales

A total of 761 (495 manual and 266 automatic) 205 Sis were sold in Australia between 1991 and 1995:⁴

CarAdvice.com.au said:

"Although the 205 graced Australian shores with the GTi model in 1988, It wasn't until 1992 (with the Japanese Yen rising and memories of the Rainbow Warrior fading) that it made fiscal sense for Peugeot to start selling a version that could compete on price with the Toyota Corolla, which at the time was Australia's biggest selling small car. The SI model, with its 1.6 litre motor, was introduced to do this. Although the 1.6 in the SI was larger than most of the motors in its European siblings, it was regarded as a bit of an escargot in Australia."⁵

The fact is that the Sis are actually better than the GTis. Probably one of the best cars Peugeot has ever made.⁶

"The GTi was sold here from 1987 to 1993. The Si from 91 to 93. I have owned GTis but never liked them much. On the other hand the 205 Si is the most versatile, best looking, most reliable, toughest, best visibility, most comfortable car I have owned. Also, very adequate performance and economy. As Thanos said you can do anything in a 205."⁷

What is this website?

I purchased a 205 Si from @PeterT (who was incredibly helpful when it came to getting it down to me in Melbourne).

The car is intended to go on the road, with club plates, and then be used for entry level motorsport.

I have never owned a 205, or been in the owner's/driver's seat of a car used for motorsport (I've been talking ballast in other people's Hyundai Excel rally cars, but that's it). So I have been busily reading aussiefrogs.com (and elsewhere), to help me learn what a 205 Si is, and how I should approach preparing it for its new life.

There is a lot of learning on this website, scattered - like confetti in the wind - through the many, many threads. So, I was looking for somewhere to organise and write down what I learn. Turns out, 205.si is a valid internet domain name and was available for registration.

I couldn't resist. Twenty bucks later, here we are: https://205.si

205.si is intended, mainly, to be useful for me (so I don't forget things, or where I heard them). Hopefully, will be useful for others. I don't (yet, or probably ever, given what is out there already!) have anything new to add on the topic Peugeot 205s, so all the content will come from elsewhere: I will do my very best to make sure that original authors are acknowledged and that links are provided, so people can check out the full context, if they want to.⁸

How is the website made?

This site is created with Pico CMS and a version of the simpleTwo theme, modified by me. The main modifications are adding a 'blog' function, adding MathJax support, and using flex to scroll the sidebar. There are various other tweaks and changes.