Never raced, rallied or hillclimbed, sadly

Dave Partridge bought his Peugeot 106 1.3 Rallye to compete in motorsport events - and then the rules were changed.

- JOHN EVANS

“I bought it 14 years ago for £450 with the aim of going sprinting and hillclimbing in the up-to-1300cc category,” he says. “I renovated it and fitted Bilstein Group N Tarmac suspension to it - everything I could do in the regulations to hillclimb it. Then they changed the regs and increased the class to 1.6, so I never took it racing.”

Perhaps that’s a good thing.

The 106 Rallye is a genuine modern classic, sought after by enthusiasts and collectors. Dave's is a 1995-reg car with 160,000 miles on the clock. “When I bought it, it had blacked-out windows, LEDs in the windscreen washers and a giant spoiler at the back. It was a boy racer’s special. None of that bothered me. I was more interested in the fact that it still had its original engine and gearbox. They're the things you can’t buy,” he says.

It may have had the engine and gearbox it was born with but its body was close to death. “The thing with these cars is that they're just painted steel underneath,” says Dave. “I knew it was rusty and the chap I sent it to, to be rebuilt, said I should scrap it. Fortunately, he stuck with it and sorted it all out. It’s now like a new car underneath.”

Two's company, but then there's the luggage issue...