Davy Rae's awesome Dimma Peugeot, powered by a meaty Mi16 motor is King of the 309s.....for now

"Hello, is Malcolm Wilson there? Ah Malcolm, how you doin'? Graham Steed here, from MAX POWER Magazine, the weird one. Recovered from your Rush with Bill Thomas yet? Yeah, he does go on a bit, doesn't he? Anyway, I was wondering if we could borrow you and your mildly modified Escort Cosworth for a photo shoot we're doing up in Scotland? Really, you're up there anyway? Great - we'll meet you on the Edinburgh ring road at 10am. Bring a friend if you want........."

Sometimes life can be a beautiful thing. The pieces in the trillion part puzzle that is destiny can click together with unnerving precision. If life is but a sideshow in the carnival of the universe, then we're all probably buggered. But if life is, as I suspect, pretty much as it appears - i.e. about seventy years if you're lucky - then you have to enjoy the few pleasures it throws at you. And one such pleasure is the feeling that someone up there likes you. Yes, despite the overdraft, Home and Away and milk cartons which are in fact sealed and made impossible to open by jealous cattle, occasionally a benefactor can pull the strings of Fate.

 A quick blat around the twisty Scottish circuit revealed a beautifully sorted chassis, though the acceleration times we recorded, weren't all the owner had hoped they'd be. Still, my feelings were such that I vowed I would return......

Davy's emotions for his 309 are equally strong. This isn't his first Peugeot though; sordid flings with a number of 205s meant the Scottish stonemason was well familiar with the breed before this green machine came along. And incidentally, being a stonemason doesn't mean Davy spends his time carving initials on tombstones in fog-filled bone yards. In fact, most of his work is carried out in swish banks (that's swish, not Swiss) and swank office blocks (that's swank, not.......)

This 309 was special even before Davy got his hands on it. It's a limited Goodwood edition, with a distinctive colour scheme, leather interior and wooden steering wheel and gear knob. Is it good wood? Probably. Despite its illusions of grandeur, the 309 Goodwood retained the standard 1.9 GTi engine. O.K., so it's a great performer, but with the bodywork mods Davy had planned something far butcher was required. Peer pressure - most of Davy's mates drive Mi16 powered 205s and 309s - meant there was only one way he could go; and so an Mi16 motor was sourced and installed.

A wrecked 405 Mi16, which obviously belonged to someone undeserving of such a fine performance tool, donated the engine and a pint of precious oil. Peter McCanna at Motor tune, a Porsche/BMW specialist, performed the transplant, adding a K&N air filter to help the patient's respiratory difficulties. The surgery was apparently straightforward; the only problem being matching up of the wiring loom. In fact, look at any engine transplant and you'll find this is always the tricky part. Why can't motor manufacturers bear this in mind when they design new cars? Surely they know we'll want to bugger about with them at a later date? How completely inconsiderate - I'm going to talk to my Euro-MP about this....... Anyway, back to the real world. For now the twin cam motor is as modified as it's likely to get, although the notion of junking the fuel injection and fitting Dellorto carbies hasn't escaped Davy's attention. Besides releasing some extra horses, this mod would also endow the Pug with some excellent induction noises, which are really essential. No really, they are.

Equally essential are the braided horses which adorn the engine bay. You've got to be proud when you lift the bonnet of your car, and this is a great way to do it. Davy hand painted the rocker cover himself, which he admits is about as much as he's done to the car. A busy work schedule means he barely gets time to drive the thing, let alone work on it.

The exhaust system is something of a mongrel. It starts with a 405 manifold and then runs through most of Peugeot's model line up, before culminating in a Sebring tail box. It seems to do the trick though, giving a raspy note as pollutants are delivered into an unsuspecting atmosphere. Bless the trees and the fluffy bunnies, we love 'em all.

In standard form, the Mi16 motor gives about 150bhp. That's not a frightening amount of power, but Davy reckons his car will still outstrip a 405 Mi16 from the lights. Personally I think that's because the driver of said 405 will be too busy staring at Davy's car to nail the throttle at the critical moment, but there you go. As a replacement for the original 1.9 litre unit Davy reckons it's no contest, although the Mi16 apparently requires a lot more revving to get the best out of it. Of course, we don't endorse such behaviour. Not.

Even it a 405 were to catch Davy up, his Pug's handling would put it through a gruelling test. The 309 has one of the best sorted standard chassis about anyway, and with a few simple mods it's been made even better, a set of specially cut-down springs for the front, while the rear tosion bar was adjusted to match. That dropped the car by around 1.5in, and Blistein gas-adjustable shock absorbers were also added. An OMP strut brace was employed to keep things tight at the front; and judging by our laps of Knockhill it's succeeded.

Being a sensible stonemason, Davy's also invested some cash in the brakes. Up front are Brembo drilled discs with Mintex pads, which he reckons have made a massive difference. The rear discs are standard, but again Mintex pads are used.

As with the engine, Davy's approach to the styling of his car was similarly single-minded. Only one body kit was going to be grafted on, and that was Dimma's wide arch conversion. It's more commonly seen on the 205s, but I reckon the kit has far better impact on the 309. It's not such a pretty car to start with, but Dimma's wider arches and excellent detail touches soon make you forget that. Even in a relatively dark green the car gets heads turning - our friend Malcolm Wilson was certainly impressed; or maybe he was just admiring the length of Fly's lens.......

Dimma took three weeks to complete the transformation, and even when the car was built Davy had to wait another week before he could collect it. This, Davy says, did his head in - but the week in the padded cell was used constructively as he sussed out what ICE equipment to install. And if you think that was a contrived link, congratulations - you were right.

Having scoured various catalogues and ICE-stores, Davy settled on an Alpine three-disc in-dash CD to drive the system, which would also include a Kenwood graphic equalizer, three amps and a 10in Alpine sub.