We’ve seen a few twin-engine cars over the years, but they’re always a novelty when they pop up on the internet. Something about the total homebrew nature of jamming a second engine into a car’s trunk is fundamentally appealing to almost anyone with a passing interest in speed and racing. This twin-engine Peugeot 205 GTI fits the bill nicely, and now it’s up for sale.
The seller, Martin Thompson, has thoroughly documented his build progress over the years on his YouTube channel. Though he’s calling the setup a 6.0-liter V12, the 205 is actually powered by two V6 engines, one in the front and one in the rear. He sourced the power plants from a Peugeot 406 Coupe and rebuilt them with a fully sequential engine management system. Both engines are cable operated and use the same shifter, as the system can be connected in various configurations to run both engines or one at a time.
Together, the system makes 478 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque, both of which easily dwarf the Peugeot’s stock output numbers, which landed somewhere around 130 horsepower when the cars were new. As we saw with the twin-engine VW Golf and the twin-engine Mazda MX-3, this 205 has grown an extra set of drive wheels, thanks to its second engine and drive system.
The list of other mods is too long to list here, but we can safely say that nearly every part of the car has been upgraded or completely replaced. It’s even safer to say that the car is not road legal, so any buyer will need to be ok with the fact that their badass French hatchback is for the track only.
Thompson says the car’s front splitter is hand-made, as is the rear spoiler, both of which lend a Pikes Peak Hill Climb flavor to the Peugeot. He notes that all of the work was done on a low-income budget with help from a friend he’s calling “Johnny.” The project started in 2005, and took “thousands of hours” to complete, but cost less than $13,000 overall.
The car’s current “as-is” selling price of $10,000 has been adjusted to account for the fact that the Peugeot’s front engine has been blown and because the rear portion of the cabin needs some work. A fully rebuilt engine with forged rods and pistons, ported heads, and a supercharger can be included in the sale for an extra charge.
As for what’s next, Thompson’s already got that covered. He started a rear-wheel-drive turbo 205 project last year, which he’s calling “Meggy.” Silly names aside, it looks to be every bit the bonkers machine that the twin-engine car has become.
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