First look: Peugeot shows a coupe in 308's future

A SLEEK concept car bound for September's Frankfurt motor show confirms Peugeot is considering a sporty coupe version of the 308. The French car-maker will unveil the 308 RC Z concept in Germany next month, just weeks after the regular hatch goes on sale in Europe.

While some of the design cues are likely to point to the upcoming 308CC convertible, the RC Z is definitely a fixed-roof coupe with sharply raking C-pillars that would not be conducive to a folding metal hard-top system. If approved, a sporty 308 coupe would give the brand a much-needed emphasis on performance.

The RC-Z concept features a heavily-boosted version of the 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine jointly developed by PSA Peugeot Citroen and BMW.

Revisions to engine management software enable the direct-injection engine to produce an impressive 160kW, up from 128kW in standard form.

Peak torque comes in at 280Nm, but an overboost function momentarily frees up another 20Nm of pulling power.

The potent powerplant, linked to a six-speed manual gearbox, enables the concept car to dash from 0-100km/h in seven seconds.

That sort of sprint time is not about to scare any supercars, but is respectable for a car with an engine of this size.

Peugeot has also utlised lightweight materials including aluminium, carbon-fibre and plastic for many of its unique panels to keep the weight down to just 1200kg.

Even so, the 308 RC Z still uses a large amount of common parts with the 308 hatch.

It is the same length (4276mm) as the hatch, slightly wider (1840mm) and sits lower (1320mm) than its hatch sibling. Both front and rear tracks are 59mm wider than the hatchback, but the suspension set-up is the same as the regular car, including the torsion beam rear set-up.

The 308 RC Z is a 2+2 seater and designers have made an attempt to provide a reasonable amount of headroom for the rear passenger, by using an M-shaped roof section.

While the spine that runs down the middle of the roof sits low, the two arches on either side free-up some headroom.

Designers have given the concept car a more aggressive nose with bulging front wheel-arches and lower bumper adding to the muscular look.

The dramatically raked roofline, which will be compared to both the Audi TT and Nissan 350Z, flows down into a long boot that may well hint to the rear treatment for the upcoming 308CC.

Long, flowing LED tail-lights dominate the rear view, which is also punctuated by pumped-out wheel-arches that house 19-inch alloy rims.

The rear bumper also features two centrally mounted exhaust outlets to cap off the sporty theme.