The new face of the performance car

Hot hybrid saloons and SUVs are elbowing aside the usual suspects. By Jake Groves

As if we needed it, Peugeot and Ford have both reminded us once again that the car world has gone a bit funny. Hot hatches are being outsold by hot SUVs and, to keep on the right side of stringent emissions regulations, many larger performance cars are employing various forms of electrification.

That’s why Ford’s Puma crossover is the latest to get the ST treatment, and the French Lion has made its first performance car under the new Peugeot Sport sub-brand a plug-in hybrid – so much so that it’s claiming the 508 Peugeot Sport Engineered will kick off a new era of ‘neo-performance.’

Ford’s brief to its Performance division was clearly a simple one: transfer the Fiesta ST’s innards into the Puma. So there’s a 197bhp turbocharged three-cylinder engine driving the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox, Ford’s trick forcevectoring springs for the torsion-beam rear, and a bodykit with a front splitter that Ford insists isn’t simply cosmetic but also increases downforce.

Ford also boasts the Puma ST is the first B-segment SUV available with a limited-slip differential; just like the Fiesta ST, it’ll be part of an optional ST Performance Pack when customers come to order one.

In its efforts to make the Puma ST as lively as the Fiesta, the steering rack responds 25 per cent faster than the already lightning-fast regular Puma, and that trick rear suspension is 40 per cent torsionally stiffer than on the Fiesta ST.

We’re calling it now: this will sell better than the hot Fiesta. Want to help us win that bet? Order one from October for £28,495, with another £950 on top for the Performance Pack, which adds the limited-slip diff.

As Peugeot bids farewell to the GTI, its new approach to everyday performance arrives in the form of the 508 Peugeot Sport Engineered, on sale in the first half of 2021. Teased in almost-ready concept form in 2019, the production version will be offered as both a Fastback saloon and SW estate. It uses the same Hybrid4 tech as the 3008, but with much more go: Peugeot says total system output is rated at 355bhp and 384lb ft in Sport mode. Power is sent to all four wheels with an e-motor on each axle, with Peugeot Sport engineers tweaking the steering and adaptive suspension for a sharper drive. And when you’re just nipping to the shops, you’ll have up to 26 miles of e-range.

Going green seems to be in for both brands, too. Along with the 49g/km PHEV powertrain, Peugeot Sport cars will be adorned in ‘Kryptonite’ detailing on both the exterior and interior trim, while Ford’s new Mean Green makes a debut on the Puma ST.

This is just the beginning for this approach. Ford’s expected to bring the Explorer SUV back to Europe complete with an ST version and, as we predicted back in June, Peugeot is mulling a hot, Peugeot Sport-branded e-208.

We’re calling it now: the Puma ST will sell better than the hot Fiesta