306 Sedan T16

Sedan Insane

It’s the most unlikely base for an iconic worldwide award winning, multi cover car, but yet this humble Peugeot 306 four door sedan was the choice of Matt Collins to not just modify but create a version of his dream Peugeot that the factory never put into existence.  It was a new model of car that confused the Peugeot fans,  car enthusiasts in general and even Peugeot themselves when it visited the factory.

For creating this trailbrazing car the ‘b’ posts were removed and the unwanted 4 doors efforts were waved farewell and were replaced by a 3 door rear hatch quarter sections and the 3 doors were installed to complete the transformation.  There was a fair bit of welding involved but the end result looked factory.  It had started life in a sorry state, all the disadvantages a car could have, but it was stripped back and given a heavily modified Esquiss front bumper to house the massive intercooler, Esquiss Scandal bonnet vent, Esquiss Mygale side skirts and arches.  This was topped off with a BMW E36 Evo Boot spoiler.  There was modifications made to the rear bumper but there was nothing in the market for them to buy so we did what we could.  The car obviously has a tricked up T16 engine push out a respectable 350 bhp that was fitted with traction control along with all sort of lovely extras too many to mention so have a look on the Max Power magazine feature spec list. 

At the time, Jap style hadn’t really started and we were very aware big power, lairy spoilers and stripped out looking race interiors were not being embraced by the Peugeot scene. More to the point owners weren’t used to getting the options to have an incredible choice.  The only options were either Gutmann or Dimma but although the sedan was an odd ball car we wanted to demonstrate that modifying was about doing the right things to strangest car.

This car launched into scene adorning the front cover of Max Power July 1998.  Its maiden voyage was driving to Max Power Live, arriving there at 6am to headline the show as being our latest offering.  It was put on the stage and it wowed the crowd. This was the start of its legendary journey to touring Europe and of course lots of other major car shows, especially French car shows that the car would be especially appreciated at.  It was even used as pace car for the British Touring Series. Along with Ali G the movie, Sony records for music videos and so much more. We’re still having flash backs with everything its done!

This car also won the Magny Cours top 20 along with its stable mate Diane’s Minty Green Peugeot 306 V6 in the same year. Proud moment we repeated with many other cars.

Finally after many years of happy motoring Matt got into racing which left his sedan not being used as much and it passed onto John Owen who loved our Ecosse creations, then again it was passed onto Julian Montague who only this year sold it to Ciaran Lawson.  Ciaran is now the newest custodian of this living legend and started the restoration reset for the car to enjoy many more years our in the show circuit.  This isn’t Ciaran’s only Ecosse Car but he is a dedicated enthusiast that is wholly sympathetic to the heritage that proceeded his ownership. He doesn’t want to shut it away for others to speculate if it exists or not, but take it to places and share it as a loved part of our history.