Peugeot Spain accidentally shows off the hot hatch ahead of its debut.
The Peugeot 308 facelift, which will go down in history as one of the most unremarkable stylistic revisions ever undertaken to a car (along with the ‘new’ BMW 1- and 2-Series), left out its GTI hot-hatch sibling when it was announced earlier this month. And while some of us have been wondering what became of the 308 GTi, an accidental tweet sent out by Peugeot’s Spanish office has revealed that the 308 GTi facelift should be coming along soon.
The tweet was sent out from their @PeugeotES Twitter account, and was subsequently taken down. However, the sole image that was shared has revealed… nothing surprising, really. The styling changes to the 308 GTi mirror those of the vanilla 308, which sees a more upright grille and proudly-placed Griffith logo placed in the middle. A new bonnet was required as a result of that new grille, and Peugeot was proud to highlight it in the press release for the 308. The GTi also sees a prominent lower fascia with larger intakes,
Other GTi-specific details gleaned includes the retention of the two-tone paint job (which does polarise opinion), as well as large alloys (though the design remains a mystery). The image that was leaked doesn’t give us any indication of revisions to the rear, though the darker LED taillights and sleeker bumper from the 308 should come through here.
The 308 gained an updated range of engines when it was revealed, so it wouldn’t be too speculative to expect some mechanical changes beneath the 308 GTi. The max-200kW/330Nm 1.6-litre petrol engine could gain a bump, though power will likely continue to be channelled to the front wheels via a six-speed manual and a limited-slip differential.
For more information on Peugeot, check out our Showroom.
