We have just finished overhauling and upgrading a turbocharger from the legendary Peugeot 405 T16 Pikes Peak car for our longstanding technical partners, Geoff Page Racing. Red Bull have described this model, which has won the notorious ‘Race to the Clouds’ Pikes Peak twice, as one of the top five ‘iconic’ Pikes Peak International Hillclimb vehicles to have ever entered the Colorado Folklore event.
Geoff Page Racing are experienced, industry leading engine builders based in Essex. Founder and Managing Director, Geoff Page, has been personally responsible for numerous race winning motors at the highest level of motorsport worldwide. Over the years we have worked closely with the team at Geoff Page Racing providing technical turbo assistance. We have upgraded a number of retro-fit turbos to bespoke specifications including a MR-1500T 4 cylinder Power Plant which was launched at Autosport and recently retro-fitting a 1970’s F1 turbocharger to Duncan Cowper’s Dax Rush.
This latest project has been particularly exciting because the 405 T16 has a rich history and was driven to victory not once but twice at Pikes Peak by the 1981 World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, securing two consecutive wins (1988 & 1989) over longstanding event dominators Audi with their fearsome Audi Quattro.
The 405 T16 was loosely based on the highly successful 205 T16 model, which RedBull have coined the ‘great-grandfather’ of Peugeot’s Pikes Peak racing history. Vatanen competed in the 205 model in 1987and finished in a close second to the Audi Quattro – It was this accomplishment by Peugeot which shook up the competition as it was known and paved the way for the 405.
The Peugeot team rigorously set to work designing the 405 specifically for the ever popular hillclimb course. The finished result completely pushed the boundaries of racing at that time, featuring cutting-edge technology including four-wheel steering and a huge power output of 600 bhp.
Vatanen went on to record a world-record winning time of 10:47:77 in the 1989 Pikes Peak in the 405 T16, a feat which was not beaten until 1994. The success led to the notorious film ‘Climb Dance’, which was based on Vatanen and Peugeot’s achievement. Climb Dance is renowned today as being one of the most important examples of motorsport cinematography ever to have been made – please see short video posted below.
Here at Turbo Dynamics we are very experienced with dealing with these historic, almost irreplaceable, turbochargers. Our knowledgeable and experienced staff can not only fully overhaul these turbochargers but also carry out cutting edge upgrades to further enhance the already electrifying performance.
It gives us great pleasure to reveal that this historic and celebrated piece of automotive machinery, running one of our bespoke performance turbochargers, will be showcased at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, taking place between the 25th – 28th June at Goodwood House, West Sussex