207 Tuning

"Turning the 207 into everything the 205 GTI stood for"

As a car gets older and starts appearing in numbers in the used car market there is a lot more interest in tuning and aftermarket parts.

The 207 is no different. My first experience of the 207 was a diesel powered hire car in France.

The build quality and styling was better than I had seen on most previous models .

However I was distinctly unimpressed with the vague handling and saggy suspension, hopefully it was just a one off.

Fuel economy was superb and the diesel engine, while not lively did give good performance and had plenty of torque.

207 Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many 306 owners uprate the handling of their cars with coilover suspension parts as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you 306 dramatically improving your drive.

Drop the car by as much as 26mm - 39 mm and fit sports stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Handling on the Sport and GTi models is a lot better than the diesel but there is still plenty of scope for improvement.

Get a decent set of lowered and fully adjustable shocks. Lower the car a little, about 40 mm should suffice. A rear anti roll bar will help tighten up the car in the corners.

Many 207 owners uprate the handling of their cars as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car. Drop the car by as much as 35mm and fit stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Our aim in 207 engine tuning should be to increase peak power and Torque at the top end. The 1.6 VTi is the best base engine to tune up but the THP 175 direct injection engine is a star performer. Although the cars are setup for economy you can remap the turbo engines and really transform the car into a track day monster.

207 Power mods.

Typically these performance modifications are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to go before you start.

Getting the right modified mods for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road and will make the car undrivable.

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Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Alloy wheels, Remap, Sports exhaust.

Stage 2 mods: fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injector, Ported and polished head, Power/Sport clutch.

Stage 3 mods: Engine balancing, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Sports gearbox, Competition cam, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

Peak power is all well and good but for a daily driven car you need a wide torque band and perhaps extending the rev range.

In this article we shall give a little insight into the world to the best performance parts for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance mod.A fast road camshaft will be one of the best NASP power modifications you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.

The exhaust & intake flow play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car impossible to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a remap to fully release the power gain.

When pushing up the power you will need to pay attention to to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Frequently power losses, and erratic idling after sports upgrades are done can usually be traced to fuel delivery or timing issues.Uprated injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

If have increased your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Peugeot 207 Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. You need to unrestrict the airflow into the engine as much as possible and a cotton panel air filter will help this. A lot of 207 owners go for a full induction kit as the engines sound great with an induction roar but TorqueCars recommend a high flow sports panel air filter as the performance mod.

Sports exhausts will certainly help air flow through the engine but do not go too large or you will reduce the flow rate and upset the cars torque. Stick to 1.5 to 2.0 inch exhaust bore for best results. We have already seen some 207 fitted with drainpipe exhausts and while these sound great, little if any performance benefit is derived.

Gas flowing the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools In nearly all cases of 207 tuning your clutch will start to slip and this needs to be uprated - read our article on clutches for more information.

If you have a NASP engine then you will usually consider adding forced induction but this can be more problematic than a simple engine swap. Generally turbos are harder to add than supercharger although a few Peugeot specialists are offering turbo and supercharger conversion kits.

The nice steady boost to rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.

Peugeot 207 Wheel modifications.

The benefits of alloy wheels include a lower unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling. It also looks great and helps the wheel fill the arches better. Please note though that large 207 alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio and this will affect your acceleration.

For this reason we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 16 inches with low profile tyres, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no problems.

For more information on Tuning your 207 please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss your tuning options in more detail with our enthusiastic 207 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Peugeot tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Peugeot. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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