I'm spinning on my fifteenth birthday.
The age of carelessness and the first emotions.
Like most teenagers my age, I dream of seducing to new wave tunes.
In À nos amours, actress Sandrine Bonnaire took action.
She drives the boys crazy.
Our existence is torn between David Bowie and Michael Jackson.
Let's Dance, Ashes to Ashes, Billie Jean, Beat It: the hits are looping on the radio but also in Walkman headphones.
In front of the mirror, we learn how to moonwalk.
Hermetic to the surrounding world, I pretend not to see the planet falling apart under the disorders.
Funny era that blows hot and cold.
We advocate optimism to exorcise the ever-increasing problems of the world.
Since the second oil shock of 1979, inequalities have widened between the developed countries and the Third World.
We discover, without yet daring to admit it, that we will have to learn to live with mass unemployment.
The world is still governed by the war of intimidation in which the two blocs, east and west, are engaged.
Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States, rekindles tensions with the USSR by announcing the launch of an armament and space shield program intended to protect his country against a possible nuclear attack.
This project looks like star wars.
At the same time, France was managing another crisis.
Political and social.
Pierre Mauroy's government is at an impasse.
All financial indicators are in the red.
The country accumulates deficits: budgetary, commercial and payments.
France must reduce its lifestyle and improve the competitiveness of companies.
Jacques Delors, the Minister of the Economy, convinces the third Mauroy government to negotiate the turn of rigor.
The French discover that they will have to tighten their belts.
The bitter potion of austerity takes the form of devaluation.
The third since the arrival of the left in power.
Taxes rise sharply, exchange controls are introduced to limit capital flight, wages are no longer indexed to prices.
The opposition howls.
On TF1, the “Bébête Show”,
the ancestor of the "Guignols", makes fun of these disorders.
The drain on the economy of these various measures amounts to 2% of GDP.
France has just realized that it has lost its economic sovereignty.
Are these measures sufficient to restore a little oxygen to a French automotive industry which is bearing the brunt of the erosion of demand?
Renault is practically bankrupt and owes its survival to the shareholder state which is injecting billions without counting.
At Peugeot too, losses are piling up.
The Franche-Comté group suffered a series of severe trials from which it struggled to recover.
It ran out of steam absorbing Citroën in 1974 and then the European activities of Chrysler in 1978. The PSA Peugeot Citroën group lost 1.5 billion francs in 1979, more than 2 billion in 1980. However, a good product would suffice to get back on the path to growth.
The miracle will happen.
Since 1977,
the engineers are working on the M24 program intended to replace both the 104 and the 204 while giving a facelift to the Sochaux brand embedded in a serious image.
According to a tradition well established by the manufacturer, the design is the result of healthy competition between the La Garenne style office and the Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina.
Finally, the staff gives preference to the house style.
Peugeot returns to rallying through the front door
On January 21, "Peugeot pulls out its claws", according to the signature of the new communication campaign.
We don't know it yet but a "sacred number" has just popped up on the screen.
With its soft and elegant shapes due to Gérard Welter and breaking with the codes in force at the manufacturer, the 205 was immediately adopted.
Led by Paul Bracq, a former Mercedes and BMW, the interior styling department creates a sleek dashboard.
Jean-Paul Parayre and Jean Boillot, his fathers, can breathe.
When the model was presented to the network in January, some dealers had tears in their eyes.
Perfectly positioned at the crossroads of two segments, the rapidly expanding low and medium ranges, this original 3.70 m city car speaks to everyone.
Peugeot 205 Turbo 16. Peugeot
In its typed press kit, Peugeot admits having invested 1.2 billion francs in the development of the vehicle, half of which to modernize the industrial tool of Mulhouse.
Ambitions are high.
After the 5-door, many variants are planned: coupe, convertible, diesel engines and even a racing car.
With the blessing of the general staff, Jean Todt, director of competition for PeugeotTalbot for fourteen months, launched the most ambitious sports program in the history of the firm.
This 205 Turbo 16, unveiled on February 23, has the mission of defending the colors of the French brand in the World Rally Championship from 1984. In the meantime, France has no shortage of talent to play in the big leagues .
In Formula 1,
the Renault team with Alain Prost and the French Ferrari drivers, René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay, are in contention until the end of the year for the drivers' and constructors' titles.
But we will still have to wait.
The Marseillaise has more luck on the clay courts of Roland-Garros.
Yannick Noah won the Paris tournament in June.
A feat immortalized by the first compact camcorder in history, developed by Sony.
A growing success
Peugeot
When the summer holidays take the French on the roads, the daily rate of orders for 205 exceeds 1,200 vehicles.
Insufficient to meet demand.
Delivery times are getting longer.
Many customers have to give up going on vacation at the wheel of the new “sacred number”.
This enthusiasm does not prevent the group of the avenue de la Grande-Armée from announcing the dismissal of 7,371 employees of the Talbot factory in Poissy.
Murderous Summer, the title of Jean Becker's latest film, is premonitory.
While Israel and Lebanon offer themselves a short respite by signing a peace agreement, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi defies the West by arming Chadian rebels.
France launches Operation “Manta”;
war is narrowly averted.
On September 1, the back-to-school bell had not yet rung when the USSR shot down a Korean Airlines Boeing 747 that had made the mistake of entering Soviet airspace.
It was carrying 261 passengers including 61 American citizens.
Who to hang on to?
The actor Louis de Funès and the cartoonist Reiser left;
Coluche has lost his joie de vivre;
he can't stomach the disappearance of his friend Patrick Dewaere in July 1982. In Tchao Pantin, the comedian portrays a touching character.
At Peugeot, the smile returns.
The wave of autophobia that had swept over Europe for a good ten years has passed.
We are witnessing a firework of high-performance models.
The 205 will soon have its GTI.
We have not finished hearing about the “sacred number”.
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