The Peugeot RCZ is a stunning looking sports coupe with performance to match
Peugeot has given its head-turning RCZ coupe a facelift, an equipment upgrade and, purely from a selfish point of view, the opportunity for us to take this delightful little car for a drive on both the open road and the racetrack.
Adopting the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy, changes to the styling of the 2013 RCZ are minor. The grille, while retaining the distinctive Peugeot wide mouth look, has been toned down a little with a wide lower intake that extends to the edges of the car and finishes with an upward kink fringed by daytime running lights that gives it a smile-like look. And why shouldn’t the car smile … its drivers surely will.
While the RCZ looks great from any angle it really comes into its own when seen in profile and from the rear. The roof slopes back to the rear almost from the time it leaves the top of the windscreen giving it a shape like no other coupe on the road especially with its distinctive ‘double bubble’ that runs from the back of roof through the rear window is an outstanding feature.
The unusual shape of the Peugeot coupe does mean that there’s more front headroom than we’ve come to expect from sporting coupes. The back seat in the RCZ is an occasional seat that can be used by children, or very tolerant adults for short distances.
The Peugeot RCZ is a wide car, and looks even wider thanks to the lowset rear styling. There’s a two-stage rear spoiler that raises automatically at pre-set speeds to provide added downforce. It can also be operated manually.
The extra width of the RCZ also assists in providing 384 litres of boot space which can be expanded to 760 litres with the rear seats folded flat.
The new RCZ now gets xenon headlights with titanium surrounds and 19-inch alloy wheels which were previously optional.
Talking of options – there aren’t any. In a move that will appeal to those potential buyers who would otherwise have to bring a calculator to the showroom to try and work out what they did and didn’t want the Peugeot RCZ comes with one specification level and one price.
Unusually, that price of $58,990 is the same regardless of which of the three powertrain alternatives you choose: 1.6-litre turbo petrol, six-speed manual; 1.6-litre turbo petrol, six-speed automatic; or 2.0-litre turbo diesel, six-speed manual.
The engines are unchanged from before with the petrol automatic having peak power and torque of 115 kW and 240 Nm and the petrol manual 147 kW and 275 Nm. The diesel version wasn’t available at the time of the RCZ’s Australian launch but we’ll report on it when we carry out our extended road test in the coming months.
The Peugeot’s launch was based at Melbourne’s Sandown Park racetrack, with a 120-kilometre morning drive around the Dandenong Ranges in the automatic and then two hours of track driving with the manual in the afternoon.
We have to admit returning from the road section of the drive program a little disappointed with the performance from the lower-powered engine and its automatic partner. As regular readers will know we are biased in favour of doing our own gear changing in sporty cars and while there is a tiptronic manual override with the auto RCZ it doesn’t come with the paddle shifts that we’ve come to expect in cars of this type.
On the positive side this is a beautifully balanced car and there is plenty of grip and very little body roll even when pushing hard through corners. Although relatively firm the ride is still quiet and relaxing enough for long trips albeit with the usual problem of tyre/road noise on the typical coarse chip surfaces found on many Australian rural roads.
Any lingering doubts about our preference for the manual RCZ were quickly dispelled when we hit the racetrack. As any driving enthusiast will confirm there’s a real buzz in getting the maximum from a small engine and doing so by working the gears to their optimum level. The sharp turns combined with the long straights at Sandown allowed us to let the little Pug show what it was capable of doing.
There’s enough torque to go through the tight Sandown bends in third gear and we were able to hit 175 km/h in the long straights. The buzzy engine note adds to the enjoyment.
With the high value of the Australian dollar we’re becoming used to the prices of imported cars remaining the same or even dropping so it’s a bit of a surprise to see the price of the RCZ increasing by $4000 to $58,990. However Peugeot has valued the additional, previously optional, equipment now standard at $5800. In addition to the xenon lights and 19-inch alloy wheels this includes satellite navigation which is displayed on a pop-up screen from within the dashboard.
Note: The price of $58,990 does not include government or dealer delivery charges. Contact your local Peugeot dealer for the drive-away price.
