Inti’s fascination with cars obviously started at an extremely young age, he tells me he used to have many toy cars that he would drop into a pot of paint so that it would change colour (and promptly ruin it at the same time!) so obviously when his love of cars went from the carpet to the road, his childhood obsession would soon materialize into reality.

His weapon of choice was a Peugeot 206, a popular selection by the modifying community, but with choosing such a car there lies a significant problem, there is thousands of them on the road. However, judging by the pictures you see his 206 is a treasured example of one of the best 206’s in the country. I caught up with Inti and he explained to me why he chose the 206 in the first place.

“I had a list of 'dream cars' as i grew up which didn't include so much your super cars, but rather the hot hatches, R5 GTt and 205 GTI in particular. In fact, until recently, I owned a 205 GTI, just so that i could live the dream i had as a kid.

When it came to owning a real car for the first time, many people were in little doubt what i was going to do to it... take it to pieces and re-model it! For this reason it was important to pick a car that, (A) Had original lines I could work with and (B) would have many aftermarket parts that I could chose from. I'm not one that is overly keen on creating a bodykit completely from scratch; I find you get a better quality finish when working with a well-made product that already exists.

For these reasons, i went with a 206. Originally I went with a diesel model, but wrote that off inside 3 months. Right car, wrong engine! I then bought an XSi model (1.6 16v) that had sufficient performance... for the time being.”

After discussing the reason’s behind his decision to choose a 206, he told me all about his journey to make his car stand out from the crowd, and appeal to the judges.

The first significant purchase i made was the Toxic 2 bodykit made by CP tuning in Switzerland. This kit was very much what i was looking for. It worked with the existing lines of the 206, yet the addition of the flared arches seemed to work a treat.

Unfortunately i couldn't afford to throw limitless money at the project so i had to work in stages. Originally the kit was fitting to match the original colour of the car (platinum grey) and some graphite detailing along with coilovers, set of 18" alba chromes and the not-so-typical lexus lights of the day. Was quite the stealth looking car, and, once the interior was fully smoothed and painted in matching colours, sporting the very first set of Cobra Misano's in carbon fibre, it attracted many admirers... all except the judges it seemed.

After an unfortunate incident involving a lorry tearing off my rear bumper, the car went back to ecosse and this time a no holes bared attitude was taken. Still restricted my money flow, again the work was done in stages.

1. Exterior. All the bodywork was smoothed together seamlessly, The grey was replaced with HOK tangelow pearl, the graphite with HOK paint too, and a more daring bonnet design was adopted to add aggression. The wheels were replaced with 19" Budnik sweepers from the states and the car was dropped on a 4-way, hi speed air-bag system. This system was checked before hand in another 206 to ensure handling capabilities as at this stage engine ideas were already being discussed. Other exterior alterations included relocation of the side repeater to the Esquiss TypeR rear spoiler and Porsche 996 mirrors

2. Interior. This, in my eyes, was the biggest indulgence. It's possibly the most 'original' aspect of the car. It was designed to try and recreate/reinterpret the concept by Peugeot of the interior. "if they had no restrictions, how would they have designed it?" and what I’ve come up with is one possibility. The dash is symmetrical (moulded from a fused right and left hand side dash) with a custom-made centre console. The doors contain 3-way speakers, tv's and spare nos bottle. The misano front seats were trimmed in reverse, giving a more dominant orange effect, and the rear seats were exchanged for the more bucket type from the CC. In fact, due to there being more space in the rear of the hatch, the seats work far better than in the CC. 4 people can comfortable ride in the car. Another extravagance was the roof lining, which is a single-skin fiberglass construction (created from numerous mould developments) that houses a Stack dash, providing me with all the necessary information. Small, essential details include the indicator 'tell-tell' signs being located in the screw fixings of the tweeters and all heater controls being moved to more discreet, yet practical, places.

3. Engine. Many ideas were toyed with (2lt 8v turbo conversion, T16 conversion etc.etc.) But in the end the car required something original, so the first Gti180 supercharged engine was developed, generating 298bhp without nos (R-R tested) All internals were strengthened and a stand-alone management system was installed to control it. I'd be lying if i said you could throw this car around a track and it would eat up the corners, it was never built for this purpose. It's a cruiser, and a fast one at that!

You could say no stone was left unturned in creating this car; I like to think so anyway. I have no other plans for this car other than to keep and treasure it. It has always been my dream to build a car such as this so I have no intentions of selling it. The car has been completed (and untouched) now for 3 years (Donny 2006) yet it is still picking up best car trophies at this years shows, which I take as a big compliment. I'm proud to say that the car has never been trailered and so far this year I’m driving it more frequently than ever, which is a great joy. Long may it continue.

CAR SPEC

OWNER:
Inti Van Ritchie

BASE CAR:
206 Toxic II

ENGINE:
Transplanted EW10J4S 206 180 Engine. Forged Low compression pistons, steel conrods, fast road camshafts, custom Breather system, Opcon Supercharger system, Laminove Chargecooler system, Custom inlet manifold, ITG Maxogen Induction System, Omex 600 management system, electric power steering, Full 4" straight through exhaust system with custom tailpipes, progressive Nos wet system.

BHP:
298 (without nos)

TRANSMISSION:
206 180 Gear Ratios, strengthened internals, Plate LSD, uprated clutch

SUSPENSION:
Ecosse Fast Airbag Suspension (front, back & side to side movement)

WHEELS & TYRES:
19" Budnik Sweeper wheels with 215/35/19 Toyo T1S Tyres

BRAKES:
(Front) Tarox 370mm groved discs with Tarox 12pot calipers
(rear) Tarox 330mm groved discs with conversion kit for rear calipers.

EXTERIOR:
Full Toxic II kit (front bumper, rear bumper,sideskirts, front and rear wide arches) Rear bumper modified to suit number plate, smoothed in bodywork, smoothed bonnet, Cayman spoiler, Porsche 996 mirrors, de-locked and de-handled doors, smoothed tailgate, LED phase 2 rear lights, Black twin-Halo headlights with HID conversion kit, Ultra clear brake light. Full respray in House of Kolor Tangelow pearl paint with House of Kolor Graphite pearl detailing

INTERIOR:
Cobra Misano retrimmed in orange / black leather, 206cc Rear seat conversion retrimmed in orange / black leather, custome build rear seat trims to house Audiobahn speakers, smoothed symetrical dashboard modified using passanger sides of a left-hand drive and right-hand drive dash, custom made centre console, with boost, air/fuel and Nos guages, TV headunit mounted vertically with custom panel to centre console, switchgear relocated to handbrake console, Stack ST8130 Dash system mounted in custom fibreglass roof lining, controlled through stearing column stalk. Esquiss doorcards modified to suit Kenwood TV and spare 2.5lb Nos bottles, Esquiss hatchback boom box, modofied to suit 2.5lb Nos Bottle, Esquiss A pillar pods. All sprayed in House of Kolor Tangelow and Graphite pearl.

ICE:
Kenwood KVT-920DVD headunit, 3 x Kenwood LZ-701W screens (1 x in boot panels and 2 x in door door builds), Audiobahn ACIS-63 3-way components in door builds (tweeter mounted in A-pillar pod), Audiobahn ACIS-52 2-way components in rear seat trim (tweeter mounted in Fibreglass roof lining), 2 x Audiobahn Alum-12Q 12" subs, Audiobahn A18001DT amp, Alpine F403 amp, 2 x Audiobahn ACAP4P 1 farad capacitor, Ipod adaptor.

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