PARIS MOTOR SHOW: Red-hot Peugeot races down under

The most powerful production Peugeot ever, the RCZ R coupe, is firming for Australian sale and a 2014 Bathurst 12-hour attack could be central to its launch campaign.

The RCZ R is one of the stars of Peugeot stand at the Paris motor show, and while the 194kW 1.6-litre turbo-petrol two-door is officially billed as a concept, it will go into production in late 2013, arriving in Australia at the end of that year or early 2014...

After meetings on Wednesday in Paris, Peugeot Automobiles Australia general manager/director Bill Gillespie confirmed to motoring.com.au the RCZ R had gone from unconfirmed to good thing for a Down Under debut.

“At this point it looks very likely for Australia,” said Gillespie. “There is a very limited build of the car so the demand on the car will be high and we have got to get an allocation for Australia.

“They [Peugeot] know it would be a good thing for Australia in terms of being a real halo high-performance vehicle and that’s what we would like to do in terms of that performance element of the brand. So we are waiting for them to come back to us and say how many and when.”

Gillespie, a motor racing fanatic, was due to meet with factory-supported Team Nokia RCZ while in France and discuss the potential of a 2014 Bathurst assault. The team, which has successfully attacked the Nurburgring 24-hour and VLN endurance series, considered coming here in 2013, but that plan foundered for budgetary reasons.

“They would like to come to Australia but funding is something that would have to be worked out,” explained Gillespie.

The RCZ R is the first Peugeot production car to be breathed on by the company’s motorsport division, Peugeot Sport, which is a multiple World Rally Championship and Le Mans winner. Along with the power boost, the ‘R’ also features a number of interior and exterior design upgrades, rides on a tweaked chassis with revised suspension, a Torsen limited-slip differential and different wheels.

The R will be added to a facelifted RCZ range that will star at the Sydney motor show and then go on sale in Australia in March 2013. While the ‘standard’ RCZs are priced around $55,000, the R is likely to cost about $75,000.

The arrival of the R will mean two halo sports models added to the Peugeot range in Australia within months, as the 147kW 208 GTi is scheduled mid-2013. That car also made its global debut in Paris yesterday.

“A performance element is a pillar of what we want to do,” said Gillespie. “It does give us a point of difference against some of the other premiums in the segment.”

Meanwhile, Gillespie admitted another Paris debutante, the luxury 208 XY, was also on his consideration now that he had inspected the car firsthand.

“We will put the XY on the list for consideration and see if we can make it fit alongside GTi. But we have to be careful with model proliferation.”

Peugeot has already announced a flurry of new models including the 408 sedan, 5008 people-mover and new-generation 308 that arrives in March 2014.