The Peugeot RC is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

built by French automaker

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

and introduced at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show.

Design

The RC was a mid-engined, rear-wheel drive sports car shown in two versions. The "Spade" was painted black and featured a 2.0 L naturally aspirated

inline-four A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the e ...

petrol engine. Power was quoted at 181

bhp BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

(133.2 kW). The red "Diamond" was powered by a 2.2L diesel engine that was capable of the same performance but with different driving and ride characteristics. Both variants were equipped with a six-speed sequential gearbox, featured a

carbon-fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

body, ceramic disc brakes, and a 0-60 mph (0–97 km/h) time of 6.0 seconds.

Reception

The bodywork, designed by Peugeot Style Centre, was praised as graceful and imaginative, and has influenced subsequent Peugeot cars. The diesel Diamond was quoted as capable of a fuel economy of 57 mpg (4.1 L/100 km), a very impressive figure for any car with sporting ambitions. The television show BBC Top Gear, not known for its love of diesels, reviewed the Peugeot RC Diamond in 2002 and presenter Richard Hammond remarked that it was "possibly the first proper diesel sports car."

Hybrid electric

Peugeot has presented in the

Paris Motor Show The Paris Motor Show (french: Mondial de l'Automobile) is a biennial auto show in Paris. Held during October, it is one of the most important auto shows, often with many new production automobile and concept car debuts. The show presently take ...

a new concept

hybrid electric A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle that combines a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) system with an electric propulsion system (hybrid vehicle drivetrain). The presence of the electric powertrain is intended ...

sports sedan. Similar to the drivetrain model used in the

Chevy Volt The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid manufactured by General Motors, also marketed in rebadged variants as the Holden Volt in Australia and New Zealand and the Buick Velite 5 in China, and with a different fascia as the Vauxhall Ampera in th ...

, the 2009 Peugeot RC concept promises the ability to run solely off electric power for extended periods, with a hybrid electric powertrain filling in the gaps when extra range is needed The Peugeot RC HYmotion4 includes a electric motor at the front wheels .

References

External links

Specifications and imagesTop Gear episode archive
{{Peugeot RC Sports cars Concept cars Plug-in hybrid vehicles