Peugeot Talbot Sport built the 405 T16 in 1988 as a successor to the championship-winning 205 Turbo 16, carrying forward the same fundamental philosophy of a four-wheel-drive mid-engine coupé designed to tackle both desert raid and hillclimb terrain. Despite borrowing its name and overall silhouette from the road-going 405 saloon, the competition car shared little with the production vehicle beyond its bodywork styling cues. The car was backed by a budget exceeding one million dollars from Peugeot, reflecting the manufacturer's serious ambition to dominate the premier off-road events of the period.
The technical package was advanced for its time. The engine sat very low in front of the right rear wheel, with the turbocharger mounted on the opposite side to optimise weight distribution. The car produced more than 600 horsepower while weighing barely 900 kilograms, giving it an exceptional power-to-weight ratio. One of its most distinctive engineering features was four-wheel steering, a capability never before fitted to a rally or hillclimb car. The combination of all-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, and electronically adjustable centre differential — technology inherited from the 205 Turbo 16 — gave drivers a level of control that was unprecedented in extreme off-road competition.
The 405 T16 made its debut appearance at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in 1988, driven by Finnish rally star Ari Vatanen. Vatanen set a course record with a time of 10 minutes and 47 seconds, shattering the previous benchmark and demonstrating the car's extraordinary capability on the loose, high-altitude switchbacks of Pikes Peak. The performance was so dramatic that film director Jean Louis Mourey documented it in a short film titled Climb Dance, which became one of the most celebrated pieces of motorsport cinema, capturing both the car's ferocious speed and Vatanen's commitment through the mountain's exposed corners and drops.
After the Pikes Peak triumph, the 405 T16 was adapted for the demands of the Paris-Dakar Rally, the gruelling trans-African endurance event that tested cars and drivers across thousands of kilometres of desert, rock, and sand. The car delivered three consecutive successes in the Dakar:
In 1988, the crew of Kankkunen and Piironen won the Paris-Dakar Rally in the 405 T16 GR, marking the car's first major raid victory. The following year, 1989, Ari Vatanen partnered with Jacky Ickx to take another Dakar victory in the same car. In 1990, Vatanen returned alongside Berglund to claim a third successive Dakar triumph.
This run of three Dakar victories in three consecutive years — combined with the Pikes Peak record — gave the 405 T16 a competition record matched by very few off-road cars in history.
At least four examples of the 405 T16 Grand Raid were produced. The cars were hand-built by Peugeot Talbot Sport specifically for competition use, and their specification differed substantially from any road-going Peugeot product of the period. Following the conclusion of the factory campaign, three cars passed into the official Peugeot museum collection, where they remain as part of the manufacturer's heritage display. A fourth example is held in a private collection.
The 405 T16 Grand Raid sits alongside the 205 Turbo 16 as one of the defining competition cars of Peugeot's most ambitious motorsport era. The Pikes Peak record and the Climb Dance film gave the car a cultural presence that extended well beyond specialist motorsport audiences, introducing millions of viewers to the spectacle of all-wheel-drive competition machinery. Vatanen's association with the car became one of the most iconic driver-car pairings of late-1980s motorsport. The car's engineering innovations — particularly its four-wheel steering — were years ahead of what would become mainstream in performance vehicles. The 405 T16 effectively closed the chapter on Peugeot's 1980s Group B-derived rally raid programme, leaving a legacy that later Peugeot Dakar efforts, including the 405 T16's spiritual successors in the 2000s and 2010s, were measured against.