The drive of your life?

So Peugeot has revived the GTI badge after a six-year absence and put it on an EV, of course. We all know how this goes, right? Enthusiasts refuse to believe that this new GTI can have anything more than a badge in common with its most famous forebear when it weighs two-thirds as much again and lacks a raucous petrol engine and a gearbox. We drive it, it’s kind of okay but they’re basically right, and mild disappointment ensues.

Actually, that’s not how it went. I have now driven the new E-208 GTI. I am that enthusiast, having owned a 1989 205 GTI 1.9 for years. And I wasn’t disappointed. But before I explain why, I probably need to make the case for us all to stop obsessing over the two-oh-bloody-five GTI.

It was and remains a sensational car to drive. But benchmark, turning-point cars like that are both a blessing and a curse for their makers. You can trade on their legacy seemingly forever, but you’re doomed to mostly disappoint with their successors. And Peugeot GTIs have been disappointing us for decades now, since long before forced electrification.