Me and My Resto
Peugeot fan Stuart Farrimond restored this rare 309 GTI Goodwood special edition
Stuart Farrimond’s epic Peugeot 309 GTI Goodwood revival.
I’ve always been into older, sporty Peugeots and I’ve got a couple of 205s – a 1993 1.9 GTI and a 1987 1.6 CTI. This 309 GTI Goodwood special edition is one of only a hundred left. The Goodwood was made to mark the run-out of the 309 in 1991, though my car sat unsold with a dealer and wasn’t registered until 1993. Only 398 Goodwoods were made and all were finished in Pinewood metallic green paint, with a black leather sports interior and diamond cut alloy wheels with anthracite centres. They were delivered with wooden rim steering wheels and wood gear knobs in the boot for dealers to fit, as the sports steering wheel wasn’t type-approved.
Snapping up a snapped belt
When this car turned up in 2013 just a few miles from home in Chorley, I snapped it up. It was really daunting because it was a non-runner and needed a lot of work.
With 104,000 miles on the clock, the rear suspension beam had collapsed, the top half of the engine was removed after a cam belt failure and the lacquer was peeling off the paint. But although the body was very dirty, it was pretty much free from rust.
I’m not really mechanically minded and hadn’t restored a car before. The first job after getting the car home was to clean away all the mould from sitting outside for five years, and deep clean the interior. The wooden steering wheel and gear knob were missing, but I got replacements online. When I started the restoration, parts were pretty easy to find as the 309 GTI wasn’t getting much attention. Now it’s catching the 205 up in popularity, parts are getting rarer and more expensive.
I had hoped to simply tittivate the Goodwood and get it back on the road, but it soon it turned into a full nut-and-bolt, near-concours rebuild. The worst job was spending ages underneath the car, cleaning off oily dirt with plastic pan scourers and petrol. I painted and rebuilt the rear suspension beam with help from a friend. I’ve also been through the braking system and front suspension. It’s got new brake pads, discs and calipers all round.
The engine had more damage than just the cambelt – a piston was cracked and the head couldn’t be skimmed flat. The easiest route was to get another engine; I soon found one and, with my friend Mark Dixon giving technical advice, we stripped it down. Everything looked good, so we simply put it back together with new gaskets and oil seals. After fitting a new cam belt, tensioner and water pump, it was ready to go back into the cleaned engine bay.
At its best for the fest
The paintwork was done professionally – rather than in the open air at my sister’s house (I can’t get it into my garage). ebay supplied new headlights and front indicators cheaply, plus many more finishing trim pieces. Final reassembly was really high pressure because Peugeot UK wanted to exhibit my car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, to mark the launch of the new 308 GTI.
The car was only ready to fill with fresh fluids less than two weeks before the Festival of Speed. A leak from the fuel pump banjo was cured by fitting new sealing washers. Start-up was further delayed by immobiliser and starter motor problems. On fire-up, we found we needed to refit the exhaust manifold and cure a small coolant leak. After that, the last bits of trim were replaced and I gave the car a good polish.
The final touch was getting the original Warwick Wright dealership sticker remade for the rear screen, exactly as when it was new. Myself and another friend, Mike Bracken, finished the final stages of the resto just in time. My Goodwood looked stunning on the official Peugeot stand; people thought it belonged to Peugeot!
I’ve been the club chairman of the Peugeot Sport Club UK for five years, but I never realised how much this restoration would take over my life, and I’m very grateful to everyone who helped along the way.