√Video: The Peugeot 205 city car turns 40

Celebrate the landmark birthday of ‘the Hatchback of Notre Dame’ with a reminder of how they advertised it.

Modern-day car ads have nothing on this.

Part stunt show, part Bond film, these two advertisements (desert and snow) were used to promote the launch of the legendary Peugeot 205 GTi hot hatch, in 1984 and 1986. It was so successful, Peugeot even recreated it for the launch of the 208 GTi three decades later.

But as cool as this clip is, the Peugeot 205 – the city car that competed in today’s Toyota Yaris and MG 3 hatchback class – was much more than just the performance variant.

Born from an idea seeded by Peugeot board member Jean Boillot, who in the late 1970s felt that the brand needed an affordable car that could work as well in the city as it would on the open road, the 205 would prove to be somewhat of a saviour for the French brand.

Designed in-house by Gerard Welter, the little 205 pioneered many elements that would define generations of future Peugeots, plus the design was considered so perfect that even a mid-life refresh in 1990 barely changed anything.

Buyers could choose from three and five-door hatchbacks, a cabriolet, and even a three-door ‘van’ that was simply the hatch with blanked-out rear side windows and no back seats.

Engines were a mix of petrol and diesel and ranged in size from 954cc to 1905cc, which even included the homologated 1.8-litre (1775cc) turbocharged four-cylinder in the T16 mid-engine super-hatch, built to allow the 205 to go rallying in the infamous Group B series of the mid 1980s.

And rally it did, securing some 16 World Rally Championship round victories, a pair of constructors and driver’s championships (1985 and 1986) and even two wins in the Paris-Dakar long-distance off-road race (1987 and 1988).

Peugeot 205s were built in France, Spain, Chile, Taiwan and even Iran.

The Peugeot 205 was officially launched to the world on February 25, 1983. Over a 16-year production run (1983-1999), a total of 5,278,050 205s were built.