Going Topless

Boy Toys By Ding

Three things to remember.

1. It rains a lot in Sri Lanka
2. It doesn't rain much in the South of France
3. Having no roof isn’t fun when it's raining.

With those three things in mind, let's hit the newest BoyToy I could get my hands on. The Peugeot 307cc. And it's the "cc" part in its name which makes this car interesting. "cc" stands for Coupe-Cabriolet. And that's what it is. For a cool 8 mil, you get a four cylinder 2 liter engine turning out 140bhp, Dual Zone Climate Control, Traction Control, a hot sound system, and a tank full of gas.

Before we get into details of the car, let me clear a couple of misconceptions about this car.

1.It is not a sports car
2.It is not a four-seater (unless the people in the back seats are dwarfs)
3.It's not as fast as it sounds

But, all is not lost. It can change from a two door coupe to a drop top sun bathing (in those rare occasions where you get the sun, don't get smoke, and is in a place cool enough not to be roasted alive) convertible at the touch of a button. When the roof is up, and when you're looking at it from the outside, it looks pretty good. All the curves meet properly, the wheels fill the wheel-arches, and the LED break lights manage to bring a smile when you look at it from behind.

It's obviously a huge gadget. You get a small button between the driver and passenger seats, and that's where the magic lies. You pull that, and it's a sight to behold. The roof of the car comes off, folds and then shuts itself up in the boot of the car. This is probably more suited to the southern highways of France than the pothole ridden roadways of Sri Lanka. And only two people will be able to enjoy the drive. Because when you adjust the front seats properly, there is almost no leg space in the back whatsoever.

And when the roof is down, you can start enjoying the toys. The in-dash stereo on board can swallow five CDs in one go. And then you can crank up the volume, and watch the people around you either gawk at you, or swear at you under their breath. And trust me – you get a lot of both.

All this is good. But it's when you start to drive it that things start to change. And go wrong. It's pretty quick in a straight line, granted. And the engine sounds like a fast revving big bike engine. The sound of the engine managed to bring a smile to my face every time I closed in on the 8000rpm redline of the car. And when you shift gears around 7500rpm you get a blow off sound you expect from a turbo engine. Don't know what the technicalities behind this are, but you won't hear me complaining about it.

So what's bad about it you ask? The thing is, one cannot drive forever in a straight line. When one runs out of straight road to drive on, one has to take corners. And THEN, things get messy. The 307cc doesn't squeal its tyre when you take corners fast.
The stability control programme on board breaks one or more wheels to make sure that you don't lose grip.

So technically, you won't go sliding sideways into the closest tree if you try to take corners too fast. But the body roll and the under steer the car goes through in corners, is a different story. Have you seen big 4X4s taking corners fast and the wheels sinking into the wheel arches? This is almost similar to that. The tilt feels around 10o - 20o. And you actually come out shaken, if not stirred out of the corners. It actually feels like the Mazda Pickup I tested just before I drove it.

So where does this leave us in terms of this new Boy Toy? When we started we were looking at a sexy French piece of engineering. We are still looking at the same car, but now we know what it feels like. It's a Boy Toy all right, but not a technically perfect one. Could do better.

BoyToy Rating – 2/5
Drool Facor – 4/5