“The sum of its parts represents something that simply doesn’t exist in the modern world anymore, and I had no clue what that was when I got it.”
David Steca didn’t need a project car he needed a daily driver. To the lot of us, that means something sensible and reliable, a car that you can use without thinking about it. To David it meant something steeped in function and style, that could be stuffed with camera gear, and handle complex filming rigs. A workhorse that would help him document stories, not only here for Petrolicious but for his own wrenching and exploration based automotive Youtube channel: Only a Roadtrip Away.
It could have been a simple choice of a simple car. There were plenty of options, cars with air conditioning, modern safety features, dead on reliability, and zero surprises. But David isn’t wired that way. Instead of a practical choice like Volkswagen Golf he bought a Peugeot 205 GTI, a 40 year old hot hatch. An odd choice for a daily, perhaps, but a valiant one. And if you roll the clock all the way back to the 80’s, it was as obvious then as it is now.
The 205 GTI was a working-class hero of 1980’s France, a true product of its era. It took what the Volkswagen GTI started and pushed things a bit farther. Where the GTI was predictable and planted, the 205 GTI was nervous and eager, rewarding drivers who knew how to handle its infamous lift-off oversteer.
When it launched in 1984, it was designed to be a workhorse with a wild streak, a car that could handle the daily grind and still make a grocery run feel like a rally stage. For the French, it was practical but never boring, a commuter car with a backbone, something that could slip through tight Parisian streets during the week and carve up back roads on the weekend. It found a home with young professionals, tradesmen; collars but no ties. It wasn’t precious. It was just good. In a way, David is exactly who Peugeot had in mind when they built it. He was just 40 years too late to snag one off the assembly line.
This Peugeot, however, wasn’t a hero, not yet. The brakes were seized, the engine was a nightmare of misrouted hoses and mismatched parts, and nothing worked the way it should. “In the state that I bought it in, it wasn’t drivable at all. The brakes were sticking. Everything was just old and cruddy,” David says. He doesn’t sound annoyed or frustrated, he sounds interested, like the car’s condition was, and would be just another part of its story, and his. Sourcing original parts became a treasure hunt, each find bringing the car one step closer to its former glory.
Late nights in the garage, poring over manuals and tinkering with the engine, became routine. The goal was clear: transform the Peugeot into a dependable daily driver, something he could trust. It wasn’t about chasing perfection, itwas about striking the right balance between preserving what was there and replacing what was beyond saving. “There’s no shortcut. You have to go through everything,” he says.
The 205 GTI rewards that kind of attention. It’s not a fast car by today’s standards, but it feels quick within it’s context. It asks you to be present, to engage. “Every bit of control that this vehicle has is analog,” David says. “You brake way later or you don’t brake at all and you turn way sharper than you would normally do.” There’s nothing digital to filter the experience. It demands a certain kind of dedication, or loyalty, and if you don’t give those, it won’t give anything back.
David’s approach to getting the Peugeot going wasn’t about achieving perfection. It was about understanding the car for what it was and bringing out the best in it. There’s a humility in that, and an honesty in giving the car its purpose back. When he talks about the car, it’s clear he discovered more than he expected. Now, the humble hatchback is not only David’s daily driver, but his on set workhorse, a humble partner in his film creations here in Petrolicious, on his own Youtube channel, and elsewhere.
This 205 GTI isn’t only a tool for getting from A to B, despite David’s original intent. It’s a shade of his life philosophy. David isn’t interested in rushing or forcing things into place. He lets stories, whether on film or on the road, unfold naturally. He works through what’s in front of him, trusts the process, and knows that if he does it right, the end result will speak for itself.
