PR-Developments

PR-Developments PR-Developments is an established (2003) Peugeot 205 & 309 GTI specialist in the Northwest

Build  #50, finally back on her front wheels with no supports after a good 4 years!It’s been far too long, but it’s been...
09/09/2026

Build #50, finally back on her front wheels with no supports after a good 4 years!

It’s been far too long, but it’s been great getting stuck back into some proper engineering again. White finger from the vibration and a couple of decent burns to show for it too.

Quite a few different processes have gone into the last 3 days. It started sat at the desk doing CAD, then out came the ArcDroid for some CNC plasma cutting, followed by the laser welder to join the fabricated sections together.

The mounting brackets were then MIG welded directly to the frame because, quite frankly, I couldn’t be arsed setting the laser up on the other side of the workshop for about 5 minutes of welding!

We’re not completely finished yet. Although the parts now look dressed and polished, they still need to go through the final finishing process before powder coating. There are a few little details left to address and some bolts to replace with shorter, more appropriate ones.

If you’re wondering why these are separate units bolted to the frame rather than permanently welded in, there are a few reasons.

Firstly, they need to be removable so we can install and remove the fuel tank.

Secondly, they act as a brace between the suspension mounting points and help strengthen the structure.

And finally, the whole system has been designed to be adjustable, allowing us to alter ride height and the suspension motion ratio, changing how much damper movement we get for a given amount of wheel travel.

That’s the front finally standing on its own wheels.

Now we can properly move onto the rear and finally get Build #50 turned into a rolling shell, while the customer makes the slightly important decision about what’s going behind him...

500bhp supercharged V6 or 2.0 turbo?

Decisions, decisions.

Build  #67 – Stage One: The Teardown Time to start pulling Build  #67 apart and see what horrors are hiding underneath.K...
07/09/2026

Build #67 – Stage One: The Teardown

Time to start pulling Build #67 apart and see what horrors are hiding underneath.

Knowing my luck, probably every modification ever suggested on a Peugeot forum between 1995 and 2003.

We all learned by taking things apart. That bit is easy.

Putting it back together again is where things apparently got optional.

This one is a proper old-school enthusiast-built 205. Built from internet knowledge back when getting online involved a screaming modem, three hours on a forum and somebody called Mi16Dave87 telling you exactly what to do.

Instagram only allows 20 photos.

Twenty wasn't enough.

My personal favourite has to be the lengthened lower engine mount. never gets old, may the bearings be the evidence, don't do it

Then came the household electrical connectors.

Lovely.

And then the injection loom with simply the injectors cut off and then bind to the end of the mi16 loom which meant it was more than double the length needed.

Did it work?

Yes.

So does tying your exhaust up with fencing wire, but I'm not putting it on the invoice as an engineering solution.

Thankfully the customer was switched on and brought the car over at exactly the right time. The big-end bearings were right on the edge of spinning and letting go, so another few enthusiastic drives could have turned this rebuild into an archaeological dig for pieces of connecting rod.

The block actually looks saveable. There's corrosion around the cylinder walls, but I think we can repair it with some careful welding.

The cylinder head wasn't quite so lucky.

That's rotten right up to the edges of the combustion chambers, so unfortunately that's gone beyond the point where I'd be happy using it again.

So Build #67 is officially heading for an engine rebuild and full engine-bay refresh.

Engine out.

Bay stripped.

Preparing for paint.

And absolutely no household wiring connectors will be harmed during the rebuild...

Because they're going straight in the bin!

Thats 3 very unhappy mi16s in the shop atm

A quick peek at the first boot-up of our new digital dash in a Peugeot 205 GTi, all the way over in Australia! 🇦🇺It’s st...
30/08/2026

A quick peek at the first boot-up of our new digital dash in a Peugeot 205 GTi, all the way over in Australia! 🇦🇺

It’s still in the early development stages, but the plan is to create a proper 205 GTi-inspired display while bringing in all the extra benefits of modern technology, CAN data and data logging.

And this is where it gets interesting...

Wouldn’t it be cool to keep the classic 205 look, but replace the oil temp gauge with boost, have a 9,000rpm rev counter and a 170mph speedo?

We could even have the oil temp and boost gauge switch at the press of a button, or automatically swap between the two every few seconds.

The possibilities are pretty much endless.

I’m especially excited for the Knight Rider-style stuff. That’s the 80s child in me coming straight back out. 😎

Classic Peugeot styling, modern technology underneath.

Plenty more development to come on this one.

Build  #64 UpdateSome of you may remember this one arriving at the workshop a while back, described as a bit of a rusty ...
29/08/2026

Build #64 Update

Some of you may remember this one arriving at the workshop a while back, described as a bit of a rusty sea ship. 😂

Once we actually got stuck into it, things were nowhere near as bad as expected. Underneath all that surface rust was a really solid 65k-mile shell, with no rot and thankfully no welding required. Result!

This is also the same 205 that arrived with a rather impressive hole in the engine block, so we're currently sourcing a replacement block before the engine rebuild can continue.

Meanwhile, the shell has had the underside treated in Raptor with a body-colour tint, tying it in nicely with the freshly painted engine bay.

Reassembly finally started this week, and it's beginning to look like a 205 again rather than a collection of freshly restored parts.

Plenty more to come from Build #64.

Yet another 205 Mi16 Dimma has entered the workshop… and no, you’re not reading a duplicated post. 😂It really is a very ...
29/08/2026

Yet another 205 Mi16 Dimma has entered the workshop… and no, you’re not reading a duplicated post. 😂

It really is a very small world at the minute, because I’ve got another two Dimmas waiting to come in next as well. Stranger things have happened!

This one is in for an engine bay refresh. The engine is currently misfiring and, from the first look over it, definitely seems like it could do with some PRD love and care.

We’re just finalising the engine specification with the customer, then it’s full steam ahead.

This one will officially become Build #67.

Another Dimma added to the PRD rescue centre… 😅

27/08/2026

Designing a thermally efficient inlet manifold with – Graham Martin Racing.

This one is a little different. It’s a full-blown race head with 43mm inlet ports, so rather than spending hours designing and machining the inlet manifold to perfectly match the existing head ports, we’re doing the opposite.

We’ve opened the manifold up, found the ideal position for the inlet, then we’ll port the cylinder head to match the manifold. Much easier, far more precise, and it means we can position everything exactly where we want it rather than being dictated by the existing port location.

We ended up raising the inlet by around 1mm, which helps straighten the long side of the port and should give us a cleaner path into the head.

Mega impressed with the Bambu printer too. 33 minutes later, prototype done and ready to test fit.

After speaking to the customer about the 2.0 Mi16, we’ve decided the only sensible option is to pull the engine out and ...
26/08/2026

After speaking to the customer about the 2.0 Mi16, we’ve decided the only sensible option is to pull the engine out and completely rebuild it.

Whenever I find workmanship this poor, I immediately start questioning everything else that’s been done. After the recent 8v with missing flywheel bolts and a hole in the block, today’s findings were just the icing on the cake.

With the engine on the stand, I dropped the sump and checked the big-end bearings…

Shot.

Heavy contamination, badly marked bearings and, once again, what appears to be another polished undersized crank. The bearings pretty much speak for themselves.

Then it got worse.

I removed the water pump and found large shards of what look like pieces from an old water-pump impeller. The replacement pump, apparently fitted last year, was already leaking and had more of these pieces trapped behind the impeller.

Then I found the coolant pipe feeding the heater matrix completely blocked.

Normally there’s also a bypass pipe alongside it to maintain coolant circulation while the thermostat is closed. Except that pipe had been removed and welded shut.

So until the thermostat opened, there was effectively no proper coolant circulation through the engine.

Add that to the damaged bores, leaking cylinders, rotten head gasket, debris holding a valve open, worn-out valve guides and now destroyed bottom-end bearings, and you begin to understand why we’ve decided to start again from the ground up.

I’m genuinely running out of words for some of the things I’m finding inside these poor Mi16s at the moment.

Apparently this engine had been “fully rebuilt” and had only covered a few thousand miles.

PR-Developments Mi16 Rescue Centre seems to be becoming a full-time operation. 😳

Another Dimma in with a suspected head gasket failure… unfortunately, that turned out to be only the beginning.A compres...
24/08/2026

Another Dimma in with a suspected head gasket failure… unfortunately, that turned out to be only the beginning.

A compression test showed cylinder 3 at roughly half the compression of the others, and to be fair, the others weren’t exactly brilliant either.

Out came the borescope and things quickly went downhill. I found what looks like a shard of aluminium trapped on the inlet valve seat, physically holding the valve open. Further inspection showed damage to the cylinder bore from coolant getting past, along with additional scoring that looks like contamination or debris has been dragged up and down the bore.

Both cylinders 2 and 3 are now showing leakage.

Then I found the centre head bolt on the exhaust side was basically finger tight. The head gasket itself was rotten and had deteriorated badly enough to start blocking coolant passages.

Once the head was off, there was another surprise. All the valve guides are shot and, despite this engine apparently having had a full rebuild, they clearly haven’t been replaced.

All in a day’s work for a Peugeot 205 specialist. 😂

I’m starting to think PRD is slowly becoming a rescue centre for poorly Mi16s.

The worrying part? Apparently this engine had been fully rebuilt and has only covered a few thousand miles since.

Plenty of videos and photos have been sent over to the customer, but unfortunately this one isn’t bringing good news.

A bit more work on Meggy now her new charge cooler has finally arrived from Australia 🇦🇺I’ve decided to move the cooler ...
22/08/2026

A bit more work on Meggy now her new charge cooler has finally arrived from Australia 🇦🇺

I’ve decided to move the cooler from above the engine and hang it directly from the spaceframe instead. No more bracket soaking up heat from the engine, and it now sits in a much cooler area where it can actually get on with its job.

Temporary brackets and a few G-clamps are holding everything in place while the new hoses, bends and fittings arrive, then I can fabricate the final mounts and finish the installation properly.

After that, it’s back to the dyno.

New G30-770 turbo, better charge cooling and hopefully much lower inlet temperatures.

Last time Meggy made 557 bhp, so can we finally break the 600 bhp mark?

Another 43 bhp...

Sounds easy enough. 😂

Build  #60 update.Probably the longest-standing project I’ve had for some time, and for good reason.What came in as a re...
22/08/2026

Build #60 update.

Probably the longest-standing project I’ve had for some time, and for good reason.

What came in as a restoration quickly became a resurrection, and one of the toughest projects I’ve taken on in years.

The car arrived as a freshly painted Dimma shell, four boxes of random parts, a pile of dash plastics and a handful of sorry-looking bolts.

Neither the customer nor myself were prepared for what followed. Out of respect for him I won’t divulge everything, and none of this is his fault, but this Dimma has fought us every step of the way.

Broken and missing parts, painted-over fixings, missing studs, cracked plastics, seized components... almost every job I started had to stop while more parts were sourced. At one point I had eight or more jobs half finished at once.

Thankfully, this week it’s finally starting to come together and we’re on the home straight.

One job I’m still not looking forward to is the bonnet. Two snapped bolts, one for the stay and another in the linkage where drill access is almost impossible, plus a completely seized bonnet pin, missing its spring and covered in paint.

I’ve also been keeping Joe at Border Peugeot Spares busy. Over the last couple of months he’s supplied interior lights, switches, rear quarter screws, headlights, brackets, grommets, plastics, fog lights and loads more, usually next-day and at a great price.

Those little parts are what make a resurrection like this possible.

Thanks Joe, this one would have been a nightmare without you!

Build #60 is finally starting to look like a car again. 👌

Address

Station Road
Sandycroft
CH52PT

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Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm
Friday 9am - 6pm
Saturday 9am - 6pm

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+44160679206

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