The French over at Peugeot have removed the covers from a interesting little concept car. Well at first glance it looks interesting, and by that I mean it looks absolutely gorgeous. The engineering under the curvaceous skin however is in my opinion not only asking for trouble but just plain stupid. Regardless the SR1 is set to debut in full at the Geneva Motor Show during March of this year.

So what is my gripe with the SR1 you might be wondering, well for starters it is a hybrid and hybrids just don’t work as well as the ecomania marketing would have you believe. Nevertheless the hybrid power-train will produce a combined 313bhp/230kW, which sounds like quite a bit for a car that is small and built on a lightweight platform. The power figure is combined because the the 1.6L turbocharged petrol motor produces 218bhp/160kW and the remaining 95bhp/70kW comes of course from the electric motor.

The story about all the hi-tech engineering under the skin starts to unravel somewhat from there however. To begin with is how the 313bhp is delivered. The SR1 is all-wheel drive with the bulk of power being fed through the front wheels, which is a mistake in my opinion. In fact the 1.6L petrol sends all of its grunt to the front, surely the more powerful element of the power-train should be going to the back? Yes there are arguments for both sides of the coin but it really seems that Peugeot have simply selected the cheaper option of completely separating power as opposed to a dynamic system such as Audi’s Quattro. The electric unit sends power to the back wheels, but there is an all electric mode if you’ve lost the will to live.

Besides my issues with power ratios between front and back, consider this as well. An electric motor delivers its energy in a very different manner to the internal combustion engine. All the torque is available immediately and continuously. That’s fine that the rear wheels will always be receiving its full quota of power but the power in the front wheels will fluctuate with revs. So the SR1 will have a system where sometimes it will understeer wildly from too much power in the front and then that power will disappear but the rear will maintain full power. In a French car, recipe for disaster I tell you.

The SR1 will also boast all wheel steering, which has always been a promising prospect but has serious shortfalls. All wheel steering improves low speed maneuverability and is beneficial for high speed stability as well. All sounds good but the simple reason why virtually no cars employ all wheel steering is the mechanical complexity of these systems is difficult and expensive to produce and maintain. Which is why I’m not happy about this Peugeot, it is a French car with complex mechanics and a flawed power-train. It does look utterly beautiful though and I suspect anyone driving something that looks that good couldn’t care less what’s under the bonnet. Add to that the SR1 is a convertible and you have one of the sexiest cars in the world no matter how many hedges you’re likely to understeer into.

Last but not least the SR1 will debut a new version of the lion badge of Peugeot. Lexus did a similar thing with their hybrids, and Range Rover changed their badge just because so I guess that piece of information isn’t actually that newsworthy.

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