The 217mph Peugeot Nobody Was Allowed to Buy

In 1988, Peugeot built a 670hp, four-wheel-drive, four-wheel-steering supercar that recorded 217mph at Nardò faster than the Ferrari F40, faster than the Porsche 959, faster than anything on sale. They built two. They sold none. The Peugeot Oxia was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in October 1988, designed in-house at La Garenne under Gérard Welter the head of design who, four months earlier, had watched his own privateer WM P88 hit 405 km/h down the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans, still the fastest speed ever recorded there. The Oxia ran a twin-turbocharged 2.8 litre PRV V6 making 670 horsepower at 8,200 rpm, wrapped in carbon fibre and Kevlar over an aluminium honeycomb chassis weighing 82kg. It had four-wheel steering two decades before the industry accepted it, tyre pressure monitoring, an onboard computer, a car phone and gold-tinted glass. Peugeot expected 187mph. It did 217. So why did a company at the peak of its motorsport powers back-to-back World Rally Championships with the 205 Turbo 16, Dakar, Pikes Peak put its fastest car in a museum instead of a showroom? The answer is the Peugeot 905, and it's the reason this story is worth fifteen minutes. CHAPTERS: 01:33 What Peugeot was in 1988 02:56 The three cars before it 03:54 What is actually underneath it 05:27 Nardò 06:22 The inside of 1988's idea of the future 07:11 Why it was never sold 08:45 The number that explains the whole company 09:45 Where they are now 10:23 What if? ABOUT ENGINEETICS Engineetics makes long-form documentaries about the supercars that never made it out of the prototype shop cancelled hypercars, shelved prototypes, and the engineering that manufacturers built, proved, and then walked away from. Peugeot Oxia, Ford GT90, Yamaha OX99-11, Mercedes-Benz C112, BMW Nazca M12, Vector Avtech WX-3, TVR Cerbera Speed 12, Lamborghini Calà, Alfa Romeo Scighera. New video every week. ON SOURCING Every figure in this video was checked before it was written. The 217mph is a recorded Nardò run with a Michelin test driver, not a manufacturer estimate. The 405 km/h story is attributed as French motoring accounts tell it, because it is not a documented company decision. If I get something wrong, tell me in the comments and I'll pin the correction. #PeugeotOxia #Supercar #Peugeot #ConceptCar #LeMans #AutomotiveHistory