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When in 1998 Peugeot decided to return to the WRC with a full house program, Peugeot Sport's favourite car would have been the 306 (the 206 was chosen for marketing reasons, being just launched as a road car). The 306 would have been ideal size, being in the 4m length bracket (3995mm). Interestingly the 207 fits that bracket too (at 4030mm even slightly longer than the 306 despite the first digit identifying the 207 as a lower class car). But we were right at a time between these ideal 306 & 207 models were produced. The 206 at standard 3822mm was a short car, packaging and serviceability was a major problem for rally car engineering. Its short wheelbase didn't help either, the car was not easy on rough and fast stages and without the rear spoiler it would have been extremely nervous. That all is why as the replacement to the 206 WRC the 307 WRC was the obvious choice. Next it seems extraordinary that Peugeot Sport choose the 307 CC version as the WRCar base. The consideration here was that the 307 hatchback (length 4202mm) was in its design going a bit into an SUV with the disadvantage of a comparatively high centre of gravity. The 307 Coupé-Cabriolet (4344mm) addressed that, but in turn for its automatic steel roof had a much longer boot and rear overhang.
The basic chassis engineering of the new Peugeot 307 model was stunning and got the FIA into trouble. On all versions 307 the windscreen is very flat and mounts straight on the front suspension tops. It acts like a top anti roll bar. Ahead of the windscreen already the road car builts on a front spaceframe surrounded by a bonnet made of alloy and bumper and front wings made of plastic. This is an extremely rigid, yet at the same time light design. For the FIA this was trouble, because WRCars are based as a kit on A8 cars. GroupA dictates the shell should be as the road car, WRCar rules say for safety the cars should be steel. The Peugeot 307 was the first car where this is a contradiction and for the first time since groupB the FIA had no option but allow plastic body parts into the WRC. Curiously the FIA then allowed this for all WRCars, such one big advantage the 307 road car had over its opposition did not apply to the rally car.
This layout also was probably part of the problem some drivers had with this car. The 307 is rigid and light at front, but its CC - Coupé Cabriolet layout means it has a big rear overhang and some weight behind the rear axle. The layout also meant that the 307 WRC had some kind of a Porsche 911 effect, the rear having a tendency of swinging out all the time. In the days WRCars drive clean lines and look like on rails Peugeot could never stop this car to be an oversteerer, they only could make sure these reactions did not come too suddenly. Further the 307 WRC is a nice change to the norm as it is the first cabriolet based rally car since the Fiat 124 Spider and the still-born Mercedes 500SL (all these cars had the roof welded to the shell for rallying).
Strangely this put Peugeot in problems with their choice of works drivers. Marcus Grönholm never liked the handling of the 307 WRC. Yet claims that this was why Grönholm crashed so often are debatable, as also in the 206 and the Focus Grönholm had more crashes than his main opposition. Freddy Loix was simply disappointing in the car and Harry Rovanperä long past his best days and only a substitute. For the car's 2nd season Peugeot choose Markko Märtin, who is another driver to like clean racing lines. Testing proved if Markko tried left foot braking his times improved severely, but Markko was simply no left foot braker, never felt comfortable with this. It is big irony because at the same time Citroën signed a new #2 driver in Francois Duval. Francois is a left foot braker par excellence, but the Xsara always was one of the most neutral cars around, and Francois always overcooked the Xsara's brakes and for not being able to let the car oversteer and let G-force help him, Francois had a myriad of nasty crashes in the Xsara. It's crazy and certainly no complaint about the driver's talents, just very clearly Citroën would have been much better off with Märtin and Peugeot would have been much better off with Duval! If you read on through the 307 WRC results, you will find that many private and lesser known drivers got on much better with the 307 WRC than Peugeot's own works drivers did!
The other and lesser known part of the 307 WRC story is that Peugeot spoiled this car's results for a dilemma with a sensational new, innovative transmission. Yes, the car was always publicly criticised for its gearbox, but not many know the truth behind this. Peugeot purchased the license to a Porsche double clutch system. This system is today available and working well in Peugeot and Audi road cars. It ensures that when driving in one gear the second clutch preselects the next gear and gear changes are extremely fast and smooth. Further even on Peugeot's road cars a software can change the gearshift, and such the whole car characteristics between economy, comfort & sport by the tip of a button. However before selling this system on road cars, Peugeot took British specialists Hewland on board and wanted to test and develop this in competition, where it should also save a few tenths of a second with every gear change.
However the development of the double clutch transmission (in the following named PDK for Porsche Doppel Kupplung = English Porsche Double Clutch. With Porsche the patent holder, PDK is the general term for this transmission technology, even though Peugeot's refined road car version is called EGS6.) was delayed and bugged with bursting crown wheels. This is why Peugeot Sport changed to the 4-speed gearbox that Grönholm liked to criticise so often: apart from their engine's sensational torque range should have been able to cope with that, a 4-speed allowed thicker crown wheels. However when the 307 WRC was scheduled to debut in Monte 2004, the PDK transmission was far from ready! Peugeot had no option but to substitute again as the entire drive train was made for this PDK. And they did so in starting the first events with viscous differentials that were adopted from the road going Peugeot 405 T16. This is crazy but also shows some of their road qualities. Indeed in its first 4 events the Peugeot 307 WRC had only slightly altered early 1990s road car technology, it was the only WRCar of the lot that did not feature active differentials! And like that the car lead Monte Carlo until Grönholm crashed, it led Sweden until power steering problems and a spin, and in NZ it came within 5.9s of victory despite Grönholm rolling the car! Under the cirumstances, an absolutely sensational debut!
On the first event where the 307 WRC featured active differentials, in Cyprus 2004, Grönholm indeed won but was disqualified. It was a somewhat questionable disqualification. Yes, the waterpump wheel was not according to the homologation papers, but it was 100% identical with the 405 T16 road car waterpump and such within the spirit of the rules! By now 5 rounds were wasted and the 307 had to wait until its 9th rally, when it won Finland 2004 despite further gearbox problems. Then the next irony happened in the 307 WRC's truly ironic career. Event after event Marcus Grönholm begged Peugeot to give him a 5-speed gearbox. Since the whole transmission design was however only an emergency solution when the PDK never worked, this was not a thing that could be changed over night. Especially since for some time Peugeot still hoped they could launch the PDK. In round10, Rallye Deutschland, Marcus got his wish, but he crashed out not even 400metres into the first stage. I still remember being in the service tent and Corrado Provera next to me punching the table and shouting: "Now we bloody give him 5 gears and he crashes before he can select 5th!"
2005 was even worse. It was already clear for an argument between PSA and FIA it was the last season of the 307 WRC as a works car. And somehow Peugeot saw their fate of the 206 WRC's last season repeated, an incident that simply made the championship unimportant. When in the last 206 season Peugeot lost titles when Richard Burns sadly fell fataly ill, in Rally GB 2005 the team was involved in the saddest accident in the WRCar era, when Märtin's navigator and long time Peugeot friend Michael "Beef" Park lost his life. Please allow me as the RI-author Chris B to show some emotions at this point. We are talking here of friends of myself. When I was competing in the UK Peugeot Challenge in the early-mid 1990s, I was like a team mate to an early Richard Burns, his dad Alex servicing for me. In return I serviced for Beef Park on his personal WRC debut, when he was navigating David Higgins in the works Peugeot 106 Rallye 1.3 on the RAC 1994. Richard & Beef, you are both dearly missed and still deep inside my heart!
The 307 WRC gearbox saga meanwhile took another twist, too. When Peugeot was basically down to a 1-car team and the title all but lost, Peugeot decided they needed a miracle to win the title and became daring. On the 3rd from last rally as a works car, the Tour de Corse 2005, Marcus Grönholm's 307 eventually was equipped with the PDK gearbox! And he retired for exactly that gearbox in the first loop of that event! What a shame. I believe in engine development we have seen a lot, but there is masses of potential to make cars more powerful, economic and efficient through transmission technology. Incredible how long this innovation is in the doing. Until today there have been only 2 WRC events in which a car with PDK transmission started. Grönholm/Peugeot 307 on the Tour de Corse 2005, the other being Walter Röhrl/Audi Quattro, RAC all the years back in 1985!!!! Today - too late for the 307 WRC - the PDK system runs relaible in a selection of Audi and Peugeot road cars and even sometimes in private or FRC 307 WRC Evo3!
There were other situations to weaken the Peugeot 307 career story. For a start the sensationally successful Peugeot 206 WRC did not have to compete the Citroën Xsara for a full season until 2003, the 206's last season. The 307 as a new, innovative car had to compete a very well developped Xsara throughout its career. No shame really, as on the road the Citroën Xsara/C4 is the sister car to the Peugeot 306/307, in fact these days C4 & 307/308 are even running off the same conveyor belt in Peugeot's mother factory Sochaux.
Less excusable is Peugeot's change from Michelin to Pirelli tyres for the 2005 season. Looking at several performances during that time, it is crystal clear that Pirelli equipped teams were at a larger disadvantage, clearly this was a very bad decission by Peugeot Sport. Still, until the nasty Märtin/Park accident Peugeot was challenging Citroën tooth and nail in the manufacturer title with nearly twice as many points as Ford and Subaru! After round10 Peugeot was even leading the manufacturer WRC! All that despite the change to Pirelli, despite the failed transmission development, despite the works drivers not being too happy with the handling...!
As a final note, there seem a lot of excuses listed above why this Peugeot 307 WRC could not dominate its category as previous Peugeots did, like Safari 404/504, gB 205 T16, Dakar/Pikes Peak 405 T16, F2 306 Maxi, 206 WRC.... But indeed the car was not as bad as some liked to make out. Maybe for the 307 WRC's explained charactersitics Peugeot just had an unlucky choice of drivers. In 2004 Basti Lindholm was leading Rally Finland in a 307 WRC, ahead of cousin Marcus Grönholm, it is the only WRC event in Basti's entire, long and illustrous career that he ever lead! When in 2006 Manfred Stohl started a private 307 WRC program, he was a podium finisher in Mexico, Australia, NZ, he even was 2nd in Rally GB, regularly beating drivers as Daniel Sordo, Xavier Pons and even Petter Solberg. Stohl also finished 4th in the drivers WRC, beaten only by Loeb, Grönholm & Hirvonen. Stohl is the magic example here. Stohl likes oversteering cars and he was a joy to watch sliding around in that 307, yet in 2 seasons with the all conquering Xsara he wasn't even a shadow of these results. But not only Stohl, Gigi Galli enjoyed good results including a podium in the 307 in 2006, Henning Solberg managed a podium in Turkey 06. Alex Bengué was fighting for a podium on Corsica and claimed the 307 was clearly superior to the 206 in about every single aspect. Toni Gardemeister had a one-off 307 drive in Monte Carlo 06 and managed a podium finish first time out in this supposedly so difficult car. Gardemeister therafter had 4 starts in the apparently unbeatable Citroën Xsara, he never managed to repeat this podium and repeatedly claimed publically the 307 was the better car than the all conquering Xsara: "At least in traction the 307 WRC is the far superior car to the Xsara and there is no single aspect in which the 307 lacks behind the Xsara!"
|
Model & Evo. (Activity) |
BHP@ RPM |
Torque (Nm)@ RPM |
Length Width Height |
Weight (Kg/BPM Ratio) |
Trans. (W'base) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 307 WRC Evo1 (04-04) |
300/5250 | 580/3500+ | 4344.1770.1242 | 1230 (4.1) | 4x4 (2608) |
|
307 WRC Evo2 (05-22) |
300/5250 | 580/3500+ | 4344.1800.1424 | 1230 (4.1) | 4x4 (2608) |
|
307 WRC Evo3 (06-22) |
300/5250 | 580/3500+ | 4344.1800.1424 | 1230 (4.1) | 4x4 (2608) |
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