THE LONG WAY UP
A dramatic climb through the Lakes, scooting over back roads to Edinburgh... the petrol 208 takes it all in its stride
Amazing what a great meal, a solid night’s sleep and spectacular views can do for your energy. That, and just getting away from kids and chores. I’ve overnighted at Another Place, Ullswater and woken feeling fresher than in months.
Our 208 looks noticeably perkier too. The Allure Premium-spec BlueHDi has been swapped for a stunning 130 PureTech in GT trim, its rich Faro Yellow metallic paint perfectly set off by gloss-black wheel arch extensions.
Since we arrived in darkness this is also my first glimpse of the epic 950m hulk of Helvellyn. It stirs memories of traversing the famous Striding Edge with my dad as a kid – though I recall base camp was a mouldy static caravan, not a luxury hotel with bathrobes softer than a blow-dried Bichon Frise.
Time doesn’t allow a crack at Helvellyn today, but we do take a detour into the heart of Lakeland, along Kirkstone Pass and down The Struggle, a road as intimidating as its name suggests, particularly with a dusting of snow. Fortunately the run from Another Place to the beginning of the climb up Kirkstone is clear and dry, and since holiday season is some way off, it’s almost completely trac-free, so we’ve got it all to ourselves.
As we track Ullswater’s northern shore, the 208’s little three-cylinder 1.2 thrums away happily, its cheeky bob-bob-bob burble just seeping through the bulkhead insulation. All three petrol engines in the 208 line up share a 1.2-litre capacity, but while the entry-level 74bhp version breathes unaided, the next step up the ladder gets a turbo, and a useful boost to 100bhp.
Not as useful as the 127bhp our petrol range topper makes, mind. Driving the front wheels exclusively through an eight-speed paddle-shift auto, this is the most powerful petrol engine you can get in Peugeot’s new supermini, and as a package, it’s the most obviously sporting of the 208s.
It’s not the fastest outright, though. While the petrol 208 can sprint from 0-62mph in a nippy 8.7sec, the fractionally more powerful (134bhp plays 127bhp), and substantially torquier (192lb ft versus 170lb ft), e-208 takes 8.1sec to reach the same yardstick.
But this 208’s strength is its cohesion. Undercutting the e-208 by almost 300kg, it feels animated through Kirkstone’s undulating left-right sequences, with less heave over sudden crests. But it takes the M6 motorway in its stride too when we re-join it near
Penrith: the three-cylinder burble fades to the background and we set off for Edinburgh confident we’ll get there without having to stop.
On top of the 3D i-Cockpit and Visio Park 1 reversing camera yesterday’s Allure Premium car offered over well-equipped lower trims, GT adds lime-green stitching on its sports seats and perforated leather wheel, eight-colour cabin lighting, wider 10-inch touchscreen and an upgraded collision-avoidance system that can spot cyclists and has a night function.
Options on our car include an adaptive ⊲
This petrol 208 feels animated through Kirkstone Pass’s undulating sequences
cruise-control system (see right) that soothes away those M6 miles. Lane-keeping assistance is standard right across the 208 range, with visual/aural warnings, and ultimately steering correction, if it thinks you’re about to leave your lane unintentionally above 40mph.
But the adaptive cruise system (optional here but standard on GT Premium cars) actually places the car in the centre of the lane and maintains a safe distance between you and the car in front, right down to a stop.
Trac is sparse so we can’t test that out, but as light falls and we leave the motorway, there’s plenty of chance to appreciate the LED headlamps with automated dipped beam.
The M74 might be Britain’s most scenic motorway, but it makes no sense to take it all the way to Glasgow before spearing hard east to Edinburgh. The radio crackles with warnings of more snow, but we chance it, and head north-east on more interesting terrain.
Get a nice, clear run, and the A702 from Abington is fabulous. The kind of road where you find a rhythm, and jam with the car for the next 60 minutes, occasionally slowing to a cruise through a village when you can grab a drink from the cup holder and gather your thoughts, before picking up the pace again.
But we skip the 702 because the gnarlier A701 is even more fun, and almost always quieter. It’s too dark to see much of the spectacular scenery I remember from previous trips, but with the 208 switched to Sport mode to sharpen the throttle map, and the ‘M’ button on the gear selector depressed to engage the automatic transmission’s manual mode, we’ve got more than enough sensory stuff going on to keep us highly entertained.
Despite some pretty awful weather we’ve made good progress, and arrive at Hendersons vegan restaurant on Thistle Street just in time for our dinner reservation. There’s a real buzz about vegetarian, and particularly vegan, cuisine lately, but Hendersons has been serving up locally-sourced meat-free food for years across its two venues.
The informal atmosphere instantly puts you at ease and if the herby-smashed purple tatties don’t have quite the flavour hit I was hoping for, the vegan haggis and its red wine gravy is so good it belies the meagre £13.50 bill.
At the table I tot up the PureTech’s fuel costs and decide it’s almost as big on value. Unsurprisingly the petrol can’t match the cost-per-mile numbers of the diesel and electric 208s. But it’s averaged well over 45mpg, and topped 50mpg on the motorway. With a bigger tank than the diesel, that means a huge range in excess of 400 miles if driven sensibly.
Tomorrow though, sensible gets the day off. We’re meeting Monday’s e-208 and Tuesday’s HDi diesel at Knockhill race circuit for a showdown against the clock. ⊲
We’ve got more than enough sensory stuff going on to keep us highly entertained