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" It&amp;#039;s the stuff of childhood dreams and auto-magazine clich\u00E9s: hammering a bespoke sporting coupe around a famous Formula 1 track. You know what&amp;#039;s coming next, right? Tales of high-speed derring-do and superb recoveries from outrageous slip angles, a heavy thud as the names of famous corners are dropped, and the inevitable verdict that this is the must-have fast car of the year.  There are only two problems. The first is that, although I am on a famous Formula 1 track, it&amp;#039;s the Singapore Formula 1 track, which is just a bunch of roads put together. The gee-whiz daylight-at-night illumination is turned off, because it&amp;#039;s two o&amp;#039;clock in the afternoon. And there are a lot of trucks clogging the fast lane, too, which is a problem never faced by, for example, Fernando Alonso.  The second problem is that my sleek turbocharged two-plus-two is a Peugeot RCZ, which in the top-spec version we&amp;#039;re driving has just 200 hp to push slightly over 3000 pounds. If there were any Camry V6s around Singapore, I&amp;#039;d have to decline any invitation to race heads-up. Here in Southeast Asia, it&amp;#039;s also supplied with a mandatory six-speed torque-converter automatic, which calms the proceedings even further.   Not to worry. You don&amp;#039;t buy an RCZ to blur the scenery; you buy one to upstage the scenery. This is one of the most striking-looking cars in production, regardless of cost. The bones beneath the car come from the unexceptional Peugeot 308 hatchback, but you&amp;#039;d never know it. This isn&amp;#039;t an Audi TT, where short overhangs and chopped pillars barely disguise humble platform origins; this is an outrageously wide and thoroughly re-proportioned automobile. The windshield soars back above the steering wheel and flows into a double-bubble roof straight out of the Sixties Le Mans playbook. The RCZ looks more mid-engined than a Cayman does, but instead of an engine behind the driver, there&amp;#039;s a reasonable back seat and a spacious cargo area.  The interior doesn&amp;#039;t quite match up to the exterior\u2014how could it, at a price roughly equivalent to what you&amp;#039;d pay for a Ford Focus ST?\u2014 but it&amp;#039;s chock full of piano-black panels and metallic appointments. The seats are a joy, as you&amp;#039;d expect from the company that used to spoil American drivers with padded thrones in the 505 Turbo. The stereo is clear and strong, and the instrument panel exudes sporting intent. It&amp;#039;s a nice place to be.  On the move, the RCZ isn&amp;#039;t any faster than the numbers suggest, but it&amp;#039;s very easy to use all of the available speed. Visibility is much better than what you get in a TT or even a Mustang. It&amp;#039;s easy to place all four corners of the car with precision, and that&amp;#039;s far more important in downtown Singapore than it would be even in, say, Manhattan.   Ride and handling? Yes to both, although the steamroller 19-inch wheels occasionally crash a bit over expansion joints. It easily rides as well as the current GTI and would likely match it for ultimate grip on a track. Road noise is primarily noticeable by its absence. Driven back-to-back with a Renault M\u00E9gane RS 265, the stylish Peugeot seemed almost luxurious, like a miniature Mercedes CL.  In Southeast Asia, the RCZ is an unqualified success, both as a sales proposition in its own right and as a means to draw attention to the brand&amp;#039;s recently revitalized showroom networks in the area. The relatively pedestrian pace on offer doesn&amp;#039;t bother buyers who have a relatively limited selection of hot hatches and small sports cars from which to choose anyway. When the new-for-2013 Euro-market facelift, which features a smaller grille and a few other cues designed to further distance the RCZ from the rest of the Peugeot line, reaches Singapore, look for sales to rise further. There&amp;#039;s simply nothing with this level of visual impact available below a Porsche Cayman, which costs more to purchase, service, and fuel.  Back on this side of the Pacific, however, we suspect the RCZ would have a tough time in the marketplace. American buyers flirted with the Audi TT briefly when it debuted, but since then, sales have been flat. Volkswagen hasn&amp;#039;t bothered to bring over the Scirocco, which is the Peugeot&amp;#039;s natural enemy in the wild. The V6 editions of the Mustang and Camaro cost less and offer far more firepower. The RCZ might be the best of the hatch-derived-sportster breed, but that might not be enough to cause Stateside customers to overlook the French lion&amp;#039;s iffy reputation for quality here.  Still, on those brief moments when Esplanade Drive clears and there&amp;#039;s room to let the turbo spool, the Peugeot can be quite engaging. Just for a moment, it&amp;#039;s possible to imagine that I&amp;#039;m behind the wheel of a diesel-powered Pug prototype, blasting along beneath the high-powered lights and fighting for position. And then reality returns and I realize that it&amp;#039;s taken eight seconds to get to 60 mph, and I&amp;#039;m in danger of being overtaken by a scooter. Just as that happens, two pretty young women in schoolgirl uniforms point at us and smile. Who needs speed when you can have style? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/road-tests/reviews/a5096/performance-tests-road-tests-peugeot-rcz/>