Peugeot RD

I have been asked bunch of times about this, and tried to dodge the question every time! But I can no longer put this aside, the time has come to talk about yet another IranKhodo's engineering masterpieces, the Peugeot RD!

You are looking at a Rear-wheel Drive (RD) Peugeot 405! And as you can see, the power train is coming from no other than Paykan! The engine is the Rootes 1.6 Hillman Avenger (which were used on Paykans since late 70s) and was mated to the Hunter gearbox and rear axle.

They started selling them in late 90s with the original carburetor set up, and then with the fuel injection upgrade (which were used on late model Paykans also). OMG! I just looked up http://www.ikco.com/ and guess what?! The RD is still available!!! Now they are calling it Peugeot Roa (have no idea what that means). Now you might ask, was it mainly a Peugeot body, or was it the Paykan underbody underneath? Well, on my last trip to Iran few years ago, I spotted one on jacks and took the some snaps, take a look above maybe you can figure out what is going on with this mess! The car was a handling disaster, and would suffer constant engine-mount and cross member failure (as it is evident in the photos). Hope this clears some of the confusion regarding this monstrosity of a car! ;@