MODERN CLASSICS 61
ONLY
82
LEFT
y the 1990s, the ‘race on
Sunday, sell on Monday’
mantra had evolved. Not
only did racing success
allow carmakers to sell
cars off the back of a competition link
- however tenuous – but it had evolved
into an excuse to boost sales figures
with celebratory special editions.
Step forward the Peugeot 309 GTI
Goodwood, released to celebrate the
model’s triumph in the 1991 Esso
Superlube Saloon Car Championship.
Genuine though the link between
Patrick Watts winning Pug and the
showroom version may have been, the
production-based championship didn’t
include the then-defunct West Sussex
circuit in its calendar.Despite the Gallic badge on the GTI’s
nose, the 309 celebrated its inherent
Britishness* by revisiting the golden
era of wood-rim wheels and rich green
paintwork; questionable build quality
was a coincidental carry-forward.
With no searing GTI16 variant
offered in the UK, the Goodwood was
the ultimate version of the car that won
numerous hot hatch awards on these
shores. So why have so few been saved?