Good coupes should be as light as possible or at least have the best power to weight ratio that their designers can muster. Peugeot's problem with their 307CC was that by the time you've welded on an elaborate folding hardtop roof and crammed in the mechanism to facilitate its folding, even the most skeletal of sportscars is going to be tipping the scales at a sub-optimal level. Still, if a coupe can't be light, more power will usually mask a multitude of sins and Peugeot's 307CC 180 has that extra oomph. The question is, can it turn an open-topped poser with a paunch into a lean, mean driving machine? It might be asking a lot.

The £21,575 307CC 180 weighs in at 1,870kg, 168kg more than a conventional 3-door 307 with the 2.0-litre 140bhp engine. Look to the performance figures and you can see how the CC's additional mass makes itself felt. The 307 3-door will reach 60mph from standstill in 8.9s and the 307CC 180 which, remember, has an extra 40bhp in its locker, does the 60mph sprint in 9.4 seconds. The extra power makes for a 140mph top speed, significantly better that the 127mph available in the fixed roof car but at low speeds where it matters, the CC 180 feels significantly less flexible. Indeed, the 307CC 180 is only 0.7 of a second faster to 60mph that the mid-Range 140bhp 2.0-litre CC, even if the extra grunt does produce a more relaxed drive overall. It all makes slightly grim reading for anyone expecting a hot hatchback-style driving experience from a 180 but in over-analysing matters of performance, are we missing the point?

It might not be about to steal the silverware from the market's top sports hatches but the 307CC 180 is a fun car to drive. The engine revs freely with the extra power in this 180 version reducing the need for cog swapping and making for pleasantly untroubled cruising. The handling is direct and responsive enough, although there's inevitably more flex in the chassis that you'd experience in a 307 with a proper roof. It's a car with style, something designed to help its driver look good and if it can't give a Civic Type-R a run for its money, well, who cares? The 307CC 180 is a different kind of proposition altogether.

The one thing that does most to put the mockers on the 307CC 180 as a performance car is also its greatest strength - that roof. Hold the switch mounted next to the handbrake in the down position and the hydraulics flow effortlessly, and surprisingly quietly, into action. A flap opens in the tail and the roof smoothly contorts itself inside. It's all done in the small matter of 25 seconds and you're left sitting behind the wheel of a sleek, cohesively styled open topped car. You can make the transition to open air motoring at speeds up to 6mph, thus maximising the number of passers by you can astonish on each occasion. The sensible thing would be to park up before folding your roof down but since when has owning a convertible been anything to do with being sensible?

"It might not be about the steal the silverware from the market's top sports hatches but the 307CC 180 is a fun car to drive"

'Roof down' is definitely the 307CC's best look. With the hood up, the aesthetics of the car are interrupted by the sudden flat shelf of the boot jutting rearwards - a feature that most folding hard top cars seem to share. Once everything's stowed out of the way though, the wedge-shaped profile is very easy on the eye. The 17" alloy wheels on this 180 version are definitely a step on from the 16" rolling stock on the standard CCs. The other way to tell a 180 from its underling is the red '180' that's added to the boot badge. Today's 307 CC shares the distinctive front end that we first saw pop-up on the 407 and the 1007. The gaping air-intake in the front bumper, huge headlamps and shortened bonnet with pronounced side ridges all mark the car out.

The interior is another big 307CC strong point. There's a quality about the construction, fit and finish that it's hard not to like. The 180 model comes as standard with 'Titanium' black and grey trim, leather seating and a metallic strip set into each seat back. Standard equipment on the 180 also includes a dash-mounted 5-CD multichanger as well as the air-conditioning, temperature controlled glovebox, electric windows, central locking and trip computer that feature on all 307CCs.

Once the 307CC 180 gets up to speed, there's a whole raft of electronic gizmos to help you keep it on track and ultimately, stop it. ABS with EBA is fitted as standard, then there's ASR anti-slip regulation to cut back on wheelspin and ESP stability control to help you out through the corners. Should the worst come to the worst, the rear bulkhead contains a telescopic roll-over bar that's deployed by an electronic rollover protection system when it detects trouble. There are head and chest airbags in the front, 3-point seatbelts all-round (even for the highly snug rear seats) and reinforced body structure for better general rigidity.

The 307CC 180's 'coupe cabriolet' billing seems something of a misnomer. The car plays the cabriolet part convincingly by looking good, featuring that wow-factor roof and having a decent slug of power but people expecting real coupe performance and handling might be disappointed. It's definitely the car to have in the 307CC Range, unless you fancy the economical 136bhp HDi diesel model for the similar money.