The little Peugeot 206 first arrived on the scene in 1n 1998 after approval from Peugeot to re-enter the WRC. After a number of years away from top level rallying in which the French marque dominanted with the 205 and 205T16 Group B cars, the manufacturer had a lot to live up to. The 206 was not to disappoint either.

This particular edition from the 2002 Propecia Rally New Zealand was piloted by Marcus Gronholm, Richard Burns, and Giles Panizzi. It’s short wheelbase and 300BHP power output meant that on the tight twisty roads of New Zealand it excelled and ensured the other manufacturers spent the remainder of the year chasing it.

Chassis & Suspension

Tamiya has kept detail high, while making the suspension on this kit very rigid and simplistic. The car sits perfectly flat on all 4 wheels right out of the box. The chassis is a flat style chassis and contains good detail, smaller things such as footbays/fire extinguishers and shifters are not moulded to the chassis thus painting is super simple and detailing is made easy for those wanting to increase the finer points of the model.

With the heightened suspension for the gravel rallies, Tamiya ensured there was no skimping on details. The underneath of this car has been kitted out with the full sumpguards as the real car ran with in the WRC.

Tamiya spray numbers match the silver used by Peugeot so authentic colours are no an issue throughout the chassis and body painting process.

It’s not often Tamiya makes a modern gravel rally car, therefore this kit is a must have for any true rally fanatic.

Sumpgards are realistically reproduced for the kitset also.

Cockpit

The cockpit is kept simple yet nicely detailed throughout in this kit. The steering wheel ‘ring shift’ is included, as well as a bright blue set of full harnesses in the decal sheet. An accurately reproduced rollcage fits together like a dream and joins up with the top of the dashboard seamlessly to make this cockpit super snug. Despite close quarters inside, there is room for additional detailing in the form of wiring, and a photoetch harness. It can easily be connected up to the rear of the rollcage.

Harnesses attached to the back of the cage.

Finished chassis and cockpit section.

Body and decals

The body requires very little prep work before paint. A couple of minor join lines needed sanding although right out of the box the lines and proportions are perfect.

The first stage of the decal process is applying the red base decals. With decal solution these mould nicely to the model. Patience, care, and time is certainly required. The finished product does look good though.

Once you add the remaining decals it really starts to look like a proper WRC car. Decal quality is excellent, Cartograf’s white decals go over the red with no colour overlapping. The white stays very crisp and clear despite sitting over the blood red.

Finished product

Once the kit is finished it maintains the agressive appearance the real 206WRC had. High quality moulded tyres, big red mudflaps, and a high ride height are all well executed by Tamiya. The car is finished off with well replicated OZ racing mags.

The overall quality is very high in all aspects of the kit. Moulding and fitment is flawless, decals are durable, crisp and bright and the tyres are a proper scale width which really keeps the proportions of the kit in good form.

Overall impression out of 10 points. This easily makes for an 8/10. As well as the works livery there are countless aftermarket decal sets for other versions of the Peugeot 206 so the hardest decision to make is choosing a livery that you like!



